From an everyday problem to a custom-built service

The idea grew out of my own everyday life as a parent. Every training session brings the same questions: who can drive, which children need a lift and how will everyone get home? I wanted to make it easy to help each other, with a shared place where families can offer lifts, book seats and see how the journeys are arranged.

I built Vem kör? from the ground up – from the initial idea to the design and code. The interface is designed for mobile use, with a clear overview and short flows for offering or booking a lift. Profile pictures show the driver and passengers, and every activity has separate outbound and return journeys. A child can travel there with one family and come home with another.

The service connects to the team's calendar through Svenska Lag or laget.se. Activities, times, locations and meeting details are imported and updated automatically. Changes to times and locations are clearly highlighted, and cancelled activities are marked in the overview. Groups can also add their own activities. Adult groups can create weekly recurring occasions, for example for commuting to and from work.

Drivers specify the available seats and which of their own children will be travelling. Other parents can book one or more of their children into the car, while members of adult groups book for themselves. The service tracks seat availability and prevents double bookings on the same leg. Journeys and bookings can be changed or cancelled, and several cars can serve the same activity.

Each car has its own chat where the driver can share pickup details and participants can ask questions, reply and react with emojis. The conversation sits alongside the relevant journey. Users can choose email notifications for new messages, bookings and when a driver cancels a journey they have booked.

Families, friends and colleagues can create groups, invite people by email and switch between several groups. Multiple adults can belong to the same family and share responsibility for the children's bookings, including parents and grandparents. A shared directory brings together families and members with profile pictures and contact details, making it easy to call, email or open an address on a map.

Parents can also invite children to their own accounts. My journeys shows each child their booked journeys, driver and fellow passengers. Children can contact the driver and take part in the car's chat, while adults remain responsible for journeys and bookings. Group administrators also have an overview of recorded journeys by family or member, divided into past and upcoming occasions.

Although the service began with children's training sessions, I built it for other situations too. Vem kör? is free and open to anyone who wants to coordinate journeys. The web app works on phones and computers, can be added to a phone's home screen and follows the device's light or dark appearance setting.