From Siberia to the Outer Boroughs: Delivering Choice to both Riders and Drivers
Ever try to travel from the outer boroughs to Manhattan?
It might as well be Siberia.
Yet, over 4 million people commute into Manhattan everyday — many who live in boroughs that are underserved by other ride-hailing services. Additionally, 80% of the 8.6 million New York City residents live in boroughs other than Manhattan. It shouldn’t be so difficult for a majority of the city’s residents to get where they need to go.
Passengers need to be able to travel from the outer boroughs for a fair price, and drivers need to make a fair wage to take them. However, prices continue to go up for passengers, while drivers’ wages continue to decline.
I have seen the same issue across the globe — it’s caused by big ride hailing companies who overcharge passengers and take too high of a commission from drivers — removing choice from both their employees and customers.
On New Year’s Day 2012, I was in actual Siberia, where the residents of my town of Yakutsk faced a similar situation. It was one of the coldest days of the year, and the temperature dropped below -45C. As a result, local taxi drivers doubled the cost of rides, making them unaffordable for passengers.
In response, the residents of Yakutsk created an “Independent Drivers” group on social media, where they posted ride requests and negotiated prices directly with drivers — inDriver and its Real Time Deals (RTD) model were born. In just six months, the group had grown to 60,000 users. Today, inDriver is used by 14 million people in 160 cities across 11 countries. And this past year, we’ve grown 300% and continue to increase our global footprint as we launch in a new city every two days.
The RTD model is all about providing choice to both passengers and drivers. It allows the driver and the passenger to independently negotiate all travel terms, including cost, without an intermediary.
The passenger enters their price, and it is sent to nearby drivers, who can choose to either accept the offer or bargain for more. Then the passenger is presented with multiple offers from drivers and can choose the best fit based on the categories most important to them — from price and driver rating, to the type of car — allowing for safe, reliable and affordable options for passengers. RTD protects passengers from the price manipulations associated with big ride-hailing services, especially during times of increased demand.
Drivers are barely getting by in New York City. In a July report, professors at The New School and Cal Berkeley found that hourly pay for full-time drivers dropped by 30% between 2014 and 2017. inDriver believes that drivers should be compensated fairly for their work, which is why we charge a significantly lower commission fee compared to other services. Our fee ranges from 5%-8%, and we are waving it for New York City drivers for the first 6 months. Comparatively, Uber’s average commission fee is 25% and has steadily increased.
Ride hailing drivers deserve better — this is why New York City is the perfect market for us to expand. And we have already seen positive results. In mere weeks we have already signed up over 5,000 drivers across the city, demonstrating just how broken the big ride hailing model is.
The outer boroughs shouldn’t feel like Siberia — and with inDriver they no longer have to. Passengers will be able to get where want to go for a fair price, while drivers will be paid a fair wage — putting choice back in both of their hands.
