For nearly two decades, RideShark has powered the way millions of people get to work, school, and home again, often without its name on the product.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Ottawa, RideShark is a white-labelled commuter management platform that helps employers reduce congestion, cut emissions and give people better access to sustainable transportation options. The company’s footprint stretches across Canada and beyond, but its brand has long operated under the radar.

“We can’t just keep building roads and having people sit in traffic. We need to better enable people to find and use sustainable options,” said Sharon Lewinson, RideShark President, CEO and co-founder. 

In Toronto alone, commuters lost 77 hours to traffic in 2024.  The Toronto Congestion Task Force, a City of Toronto group, estimated that annual productivity losses due to congestion in the city exceeded $11 billion that year.

“We need public transit, carpooling and cycling accessible for everyone,” said Lewinson. “We need to get people back into sustainable travel modes.”

You’ve probably used RideShark without realizing it

RideShark’s platform is a one-stop solution for all things commuting. Users can plan trips, match with carpool or transit buddies, track emissions and vehicle kilometres saved, earn rewards for green commuting, and even participate in challenges to reduce solo driving.

“Everything’s in the one platform,” said Lewinson. “We offer branded desktop, mobile, web, iOS and Android apps. So very simply, users can find in one click all their transportation options.”

RideShark’s system has evolved to include multimodal trip planning, dynamic carpooling, trip logging, incentive programs, emergency rides home, challenges, parking integration and carpool verification using GPS and Bluetooth. This lets organizations verify carpool parking and issue rewards or even put money directly on users’ paycheques for not driving alone through payroll integration.

“We have some forward-thinking companies that pay employees a certain amount every day not to drive,” Lewinson said. “We can automatically link with HR systems to load money onto employees' paycheques for days they use sustainable commuting options.”

Why businesses turn to RideShark

Hybrid work is on the rise in Canada. In early 2023, just one in five new job postings were hybrid, and now it’s closer to one in three. Remote jobs still exist, but they’re less common. Only about 12 per cent of postings were fully remote in early 2025. Employers want to help their employees get to work.

In Ontario, for example, RideShark powers the Smart Commute program across Toronto, York, Durham, Hamilton, Halton Municipalities, London, Bruce County and Sudbury, and the Ottawa Ridematch program. It also supports mobility programs at major universities, corporate campuses, and hospitals throughout Canada and the United States.

One of RideShark’s most significant use cases has been offering access to transportation options, both in areas where transit service is limited or where organizations simply want to encourage and support transit, carpooling or active transportation. It can also help companies save on parking costs. A single underground spot in Toronto can cost employers anywhere from $140 to over $450 a month, depending on the location.

“For organizations, it comes down to employee accessibility,” Lewinson said. “They may be located in an area without transit access, or the site may not have enough parking. People come from all income groups and abilities, so car ownership may not be an option.  In many cases, the only option people have is carpooling, or they’ll lose employment.” 

Lewinson says, similarly, all cities have official plans or transportation master plans that point to a future that requires increased transit, carpooling or active transportation. To achieve this sustainable future, a platform like RideShark is needed to provide users with the tools and resources to choose and use sustainable commuting options.

The platform’s data also helps partners monitor environmental impact. Transportation makes up about 23 to 28 per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions, depending on the year. For employers, a big chunk of emissions comes from Scope 3 sources, such as employee commutes and business travel. These are indirect emissions that aren’t easy to track or control, but they often make up the biggest part of a company’s carbon footprint.

“The system helps track their emissions and vehicle kilometres saved,” said Lewinson. “Then the organization buying the system can roll up that data for Scope 3 emission reduction reporting.”

The future of urban mobility

RideShark’s mobility solution is available to over 30 million people worldwide and is designed for enterprise-level customization and data privacy, something Lewinson says is especially important to Canadian organizations.  

“All of our data is hosted in Canada,” she said. “For many organizations, keeping data within Canadian borders helps ensure it’s governed by local privacy protections, and that builds trust with users.”

With a growing focus on sustainability, hybrid work, and urban densification, Lewinson says commute management is more important than ever.

“Cars are very expensive. You want to have people live in a community where they don’t need a car or a second car,” she said. “That can only happen when they have transportation accessibility.”

RideShark is already enabling that change, and it’s not stopping there.

“Our Unified Mobility™ platform keeps expanding and new features are continually being added to the system,” said Lewinson.

In a country where transportation emissions account for a significant share of climate impact, RideShark’s vision offers a made-in-Canada solution that’s scalable and measurable.

“Organizations need to know there’s a solution like this.”