On The Road Lending Program Evaluation

On the Road Lending (OTRL) and its sister CDFI, On the Road Sustainability Funds (OTRSF), share a common mission to promote prosperity within America’s working families through transportation and financial innovation. While OTRL and OTRDF measure and report on many environmental, social, and financial outcomes, the most important are economic mobility measures and improvements in quality of life, namely, greater agency, and control of options through more wealth and time (OTRL, 2021).

OTRL clients work with a coach who provides vehicle purchase assistance, financial education, and long-term financial coaching. When the coach believes the client is ready, they recommend them to OTRSF, which actually makes the loan. For ease of reading, this report will use “On the Road Lending” or “OTRL” to refer to both OTRL (the services entity) and OTRSF (the loaning entity).

The Carsey School Center for Impact Finance (CSCIF) at the University of New Hampshire was tasked by OTRL to conduct an evaluation of the efficacy of the vehicle loan program.

The evaluation formally started in January 2022. It initially involved reviewing and revising an evaluation plan prepared by OTRL and another academic institution. This was followed by a review, cleaning and merging of a number of internal OTRL datasets. The evaluation work also involved identifying data gaps and developing a survey plan to gather information on the OTRL clients’ perception of their knowledge, behaviors and conditions related to vehicle ownership and its benefits. This work included meeting with OTRL staff to review and revise an existing survey questionnaire and agree on a survey plan (e.g., dissemination, administration, incentives, analysis). Last but not least, meetings were conducted with a consumer credit reporting agency to plan for the collection of information on financial behaviors and conditions related to vehicle ownership and overall economic wellbeing.