Looking for Canadian driver feedback on a continuing education platform

[drivingcanada]

Hey everyone,

I'm gathering feedback for a project that aims to help Canadian drivers save money and get free rewards while bridging knowledge gaps.
To fine tune the idea, your help is needed!

By giving your feedback through a 3-5 minute survey at http://driving.cloudapp.net (click "Take Survey"), you'll help bring us closer to making those savings a reality.

Please feel free to share the survey link with other Canadian drivers you know, or provide additional feedback.

Thanks for your support, and thanks to D'z Nutz and the mods for permitting this posting!

[RealJimmyJames]

This doesn't sound like the kind of thing I would like, but I filled out the survey anyway.

[drivingcanada]

Thanks for your feedback, RealJimmyJames! I would be really interested in knowing if there's a way to tweak the idea to become something that you WOULD like, or if there are other pain points that you think we should be addressing.

[Masked Bandit]

The program seems a bit gimmicky (sp?) but I filled out the survey. My guess is it's a program of vendors trying to bring in new clients. Nothing wrong with that.

[drivingcanada]

Great! Certainly, part of the idea would be to facilitate customer discovery for businesses. To help visualize the process a bit more, imagine a theoretical scenario:

You get a series of topics to choose from. Let's say you choose to learn more about distracted driving. The content might be delivered in the form of a 5 question multiple choice quiz covering fatality and collision stats, consequences, and provincial fines.

Upon completion of the quiz, you would earn some points. Those points could be spent toward deals offered by participating businesses. It could be a free car wash from a nearby business, a free branded T-shirt / keychain / mug from a local dealership, 50% off an oil change, donuts at Timmies etc.

Do keep the feedback coming, and feel free to be as brutally honest as possible - truthful opinions are the most helpful at this stage.

[TomcoPDR]

I filled it out.

- Would like a "back" button, so we can review own answers before official submit.

[drivingcanada]

Thanks for the feedback, TomcoPDR - backward navigation has been enabled on the survey, so anyone who takes it going forward will be able to review all answers before submitting.

[austic]

Sounds like a pain, filled out the survey but no incentives are worth having to take any BS training, quizzes etc. :dunno:

[NoPulp]

Feel beyond may not be the best input for this type of thing?
Since most of us are automotive enthusiasts I think the majority of us would be fairly well educated on anything to do with driving or vehicles, or at least able to find (free)resources easily.

I wouldn't personally be interested in training, but I think for the average person it could be very useful. Seems like a thing that should be targeted towards highschool or try to pair it together with the existing drivers ed programs.

[drivingcanada]

Great insights and feedback. Much appreciated!

As NoPulp mentioned, if enthusiasts are less inclined to bother with the platform, then that's something I definitely want to know up front so that we can target the proper demographics.

At the same time, I would love to know if there would still be topics that enthusiasts would be into learning about - eg. preparing your vehicle for a track day, NA vs forced induction setups, ECU tuning, choosing racing lines etc.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Type_S1]

Free donuts for a 5 minute quiz while on the Ctrain? I'd probably do it. If you want an hour of my time for a free donut or car wash there is no chance I'd spend the time.

[RealJimmyJames]

Originally posted by drivingcanada
Thanks for your feedback, RealJimmyJames! I would be really interested in knowing if there's a way to tweak the idea to become something that you WOULD like, or if there are other pain points that you think we should be addressing.
If this is anything like I'm guessing, the reward will be for a) not enough value and b) vendors I wouldn't normally use or c) vendors not near me

I don't care if it's doughnuts, pizza, movie tickets or blowjobs, if you turn it into a huge hassle to redeem, AFTER the hassle of the "earning" portion, it's not going to be something people stick with.

[jacky4566]

What is drivingcanada? Government org or advocacy group?

[ExtraSlow]

Neither, pretty sure it's a business.

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Neither, pretty sure it's a business.

Like a marketing group? (i.e. survey/collect information?)

[drivingcanada]

Thanks for the continued feedback. This is actually really useful. For those wondering, this is a social impact side-project for some BC-based software developers.

The questions we're trying to answer: is there something we can build that will help Canadian drivers
a) save money
b) solve a problem or find some information that they typically have a hard time finding
c) avoid collisions (collision rates and insurance fees have been skyrocketing in BC, for example) and vehicle breakdowns (especially during rush hour)

We've learned so far that
a) few people care about continuing to learn about road rules, so we need to find out what people do care about.
b) People don't want to jump through a lot of hoops to get their discounts or free stuff, so it needs to be trivial
c) rewards that people do get need to be easily accessible - from businesses in their neighborhood, with minimal hassle


Knowing this, I welcome more ideas and feedback about your biggest concerns, pain points, or types of information you think would be really useful

Thanks very much!

[soloracer]

Took the survey and agree with the comments made here. Sounds like someone is trying to set up a automotive "groupon" style application. The problem is that for most of us we require more than a discount to go with an item. What is the vendor/suppliers reputation? How knowledgeable are they about my specific vehicle? For example, I'm not taking my Ferrari or Porsche in for engine work to some no name shop no matter what incentives are thrown at me.

Also there is no indication that the first three line items (save money, solve problem, avoid collisions) are even achievable by a software application. The app could list something at a local vendor for sale but people will search the web and usually find it cheaper so no money savings, as for finding information - most people sign up to discussion boards such as Beyond and ask questions when they are looking for answers to problems and the avoiding collisions thing is just silly. How is an app going to do that? If anything there will be more collisions from people checking their app all the time for deals. LOL

On top of that, I am sure the app owners are looking for a payback somewhere. And usually that means the customer will end up paying in the end. Adding a middle man doesn't usually save you money or make things easier.

[soloracer]

If you really want to save drivers money build an app that ensures we get discounts on fuel at a wide range of vendors and doesn't require us all to sign up to some rewards program. LOL

[TomcoPDR]

Originally posted by RealJimmyJames

I don't care if it's pizza, or blowjobs, if you turn it into a huge hassle to redeem, AFTER the hassle of the "earning" portion, it's not going to be something people stick with.

Well, I wouldn't go that far. We all know we've done way more than filling a survey for the latter and continue paying so to maintain.