Icelandic Facebook Groups: Skutlarar

Iceland has a peculiar obsession with Facebook groups. Think about it: with a population of 320,000 it’s not unreasonable for a group like “Vegan Ísland” with 13,000 members, to contain ALL of the vegans in Iceland. Or for “TRAPLORD$$$” to have all the, uh, Icelandic traplords too (3,000).

There is neither Uber or Lyft in Iceland, but the Facebook group “Skutlarar!” (“Drivers!”) proves that the desire for not-officially-taxi-but-taxi-esque transportation is innate regardless of location.
The group contains 33,000 Icelanders and works like this: People with cars post their phone numbers on the page. Then, people who need to get somewhere contact them. Folks can also post their location and where they want to go and vice versa. Simple, right?

The only downside of Skutlarar! is that—since it is a Facebook group—when you post on the page, it alerts all your Facebook friends that are also members. And in small towns like Reykjavík, there are no secrets. Let’s say you are in Kópavogur early on a Sunday morning, stuck after a one-night-stand, and you post a plea to return home on Skutlarar! All your friends will get a notification and subsequently either think you are a total P-I-M-P or make fun of you for sleeping with someone from Kópavogur.

Pro-tip: People also post on Skutlarar! offering alcohol deliveries during the hours the liquor store is closed. If you are planning on having a DOPE afterparty but have no booze, this might be your savior. Disclaimer: This is illegal, but people at afterparties are not known for making good decisions.

Read more ‘Icelandic Facebook Group’ posts here.