Trenelle Doyle, founder of Black-owned rideshare Go Girl Ride, is seeking to make the transportation industry safer. The forthcoming Portland-based service is set to launch by Juneteenth, and will first start off as a traditional taxi service.
Doyle is looking to expand the Black-owned rideshare brand across the Pacific Northwest then hopefully, globally.
She planned this long-term goal for her transportation company because she knows the importance of Go Girl Ride becoming successful. The phone-in service that will eventually transform into a digital application is going to be an essential platform for the many women, sex workers, and LGBTQ+ individuals who are harassed or feel endangered during their rideshare route.
“I was a driver for Uber for a few years. Women, femmes, and non-binary folks, but women in particular, really inspired me because most would come to my car and say ‘thank the Lord that you are a woman!,'” Trenelle Doyle told Travel Noire. “Ninety-five percent of women who got in my car would say that.”
Following the birth of this business idea in 2017, Doyle knew she had to bring this transportation service to life. The insatiable need for women passengers to feel the security men passengers experience stepping into an Uber or Lyft, was her driving force. From 2017 to 2019, Uber received over 6,000 sexual assault claims and Doyle was included in that population.
“I wasn’t happy at all with the way that Uber responded or handled the situation,” said Doyle. “There really was no follow up or anything like that. It wasn’t very professional and even as a driver, I feel like there are things that should be done right.”
Go Girl Ride founders sell safety kits equipped with non-lethal weapons for femmes, sex workers, and nonbinary folks to use for protection. These safety kits help fund the Go Girl Ride platform, overall.
The realization that let Doyle know she had to jumpstart Go Girl Ride in 2021, was after she attended Ladies Night PDX two years ago. The community-based event series is meant to connect women with other influential and entrepreneurial women, and this is where Doyle received a tremendous response for her Go Girl Ride business model.
During her panel, Doyle discussed how a company started and founded by Black women will lead the way for women and queer passengers to get premium rideshare experiences. The launch of the Black-owned rideshare in June is expected to be busy as the company already has many sign-ups for future passengers who want to take advantage.
“Go Girl Ride is going to have different phases that the company will be launching in,” the Portland-based founder says. “A lot of organizations have been reaching out to us to see if they could contract with us to service their participants and their customers. We have upcoming meetings with domestic violence shelters because they work with a lot of survivors who simply don’t feel safe using other transportation services.”
Long Beach native, Trenelle Doyle wants to aim for a phone-in service at the beginning stages of Go Girl Ride so that the platform is accessible for all people, and so riders feel more at ease with a tenacious customer support team always online. She has experience working as the head of human resources for many years and exemplifies the significance of human communication through her service.
“Our slogan is… We Meet You Where You Are,” Doyle excitedly stated. “I just want our customers to be able to get in the car and just relax and not have to worry. Our drivers’ customer service is on point, the snacks, and each car will come with a charging station. We want our riders to know they don’t have to be on edge. We meet you where we are, and we take you where you need to go.”
Recently, American Express selected Trenelle Doyle as one of their #100for100 Founders of Change. This program selected 100 Black women business founders and Go Girl Ride received a $25,000 grant and 100 days of resources.
The soon-to-be launched rideshare service, will be paying their drivers a static hourly wage and there will be a comprehensive interview process for each onboarded employee— that way the company knows they are hiring the best drivers. The first stages of Go Girl Ride will be similar to a traditional taxi service but over the next few years, the platform will be set to expand to other states with a digital application that will benefit all riders.
To learn more about Go Girl Ride, visit the website: www.gogirlride.com.