Ask HN: Is there a event seating plan tool but for cars?

4 pointsabdhass2y ago1 comments

I regularly set up weekend retreats for groups.

Part of the logistics planning is to match people with drivers (volunteers who are also part of the retreat).

Currently I'm doing this on Excel but would love to know if anyone has come across any open source or online tool that can help with this?

Main criteria to match passengers with drivers is that drivers should be placed with passengers who are closest to them.

Usually what happens next is I put them all in a WhatsApp group and they can discuss logistics for the day.

1 comments

solardev2y ago

I don't know if there's a readymade tool for this, but maybe you could plot it as a collaborative map so that it's clear which drivers/passengers are close to each other? Something like https://felt.com/ might help. Like if you just plot everyone's neighborhoods, you can then draw shapes around each carpool.

Or there's this that I've used before, but I think it's really just a signup list and not something that automatically tries to geo-optimize your routes or anything: https://www.groupcarpool.com/#video_demo You can DIY something similar in Airtable, which is a bit nicer to use than Excel for something like this.

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