Ride-Hailing Service Drivers Try To Start Their Own Driver-Centric Apps

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Ride-hailing services aren’t very asset-heavy businesses. They don’t need to invest in fleets of cars or etxensive real estate: all they need is a functioning app, a critical mass of drivers, and some customers to hail rides. That’s why it was perhaps inevitable that frustrated drivers for Uber and Lyft would band together and create their own services that compete with the big names in the business.

Since most drivers drive for multiple services and switch off according to traffic, incentives like surge pricing, and simply whoever is paying the best at the moment. Drivers wouldn’t be dependent on any one app for all of their income, since dedicated drivers don’t use the apps that way anyway.

The Uber Drivers Network, a group that has organized strikes and other events in New York City, is behind what seems to be the furthest developed app, which is called Swift.

“[T]he goal is that drivers will have an ownership stake in the company,” one of the group’s leaders explained to Fast Company. “There is going to be profit sharing. Everyone will have equity who works for the platform.”

Fed Up With Uber And Lyft, Drivers Plan To Launch Competing App [Fast Company]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist