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Ride-sharing + driver-sharing?

Old 05-29-19, 09:07 AM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
Right, but a share-system is not for profit, nor is it even a non-profit company designed to pay out revenues without declaring profit. It is a method for sharing property among multiple users so that the downtime and other waste of appliance ownership can be turned into cost-savings for users.

Why would you pay for someone else to profit from you sharing a vehicle with other users unless you have to? And if you do have to pay out some profit in order to do so, why would you want to pay more than necessary?


Well, it's really just a question of taking the monthly costs of vehicle ownership and dividing by 30 to see how much you need to make per day to break even. It you pay out $600/month, you have to make $20/day to cover your expenses. That's ten rides per day at $2/ride, assuming you just want to partake in the share system and not make profit.

Now, once you start factoring in things like who has to take the vehicle for service and repairs, fuel it, etc. things get trickier. Such things are unpaid labor that vehicle owners do for themselves without paying anyone else to do them, so they don't get factored into the cost of car ownership, but of course they are part of it.

Still, if you look at ride-share prices, they are more than necessary to cover the expenses of vehicle ownership. In fact, they are so high that drivers are treating ride-sharing like a job, and the corporate people also seem to be doing pretty well. So there is definitely room for profit, and there is room for more profit if you incorporate ride-drive sharing into the system, because then people will drive for a discount instead of expecting pay, i.e. because they are getting a ride as they drive.

So let's say a ride-share driver gives 10 rides per day at an average of $10/ride and makes $100. If that $100/day goes to the vehicle instead of its driver, that's $3000/month. If you think provide a 50% discount on rides for passengers when they drive, that amount may go down some, but then you don't have to pay a driver, and so if you're an independent contractor, that frees your time up to go do something else for money besides driving.


It just depends on how much people use ride/drive-sharing. If they use it for every trip, the same as if they were driving, then it wouldn't make the world any more car-free. If, however, they use it as part of a broader 'transportation diet' that includes transit, biking, walking, etc. then they could cut their car usage way down.

One problem with personal car ownership is that once you are paying to buy, maintain, and insure a vehicle, you can't redirect that money for other things like biking, transit, ride-sharing, or whatever. However, if you could essentially rent out your car when you're not using it, you get money back for driving less, which free up your money for other things, like biking, transit, ride-sharing, or whatever.
Plus several thousand for commercial vehicle insurance.

Plus the cost of having the vehicle professionally repaired and maintained.

When was the last time you owned a vehicle?
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Old 05-29-19, 09:20 AM
  #52  
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Originally Posted by Machka
Plus several thousand for commercial vehicle insurance.

Plus the cost of having the vehicle professionally repaired and maintained.
Many people have their private vehicles professionally repaired and maintained.

The insurance is another story. If insurers block people from participating in ride-sharing networks by making the insurance costs of doing so cost-prohibitive, then they will have effectively colluded with other interests to push people into individual car ownership.

At that point, the question will be why the insurance companies give such low rates to individuals who own and operate their own cars without ride-sharing.

It shouldn't matter whether the same car changes hands and carries multiple passengers or just one, or rather it should be more affordable to use a single vehicle for multiple passengers than for each passenger to own, maintain, and insure their own vehicle.

If individual/unshared ownership/driving would be more affordable than vehicle/ride-sharing, there's something fishy going on.
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Old 05-29-19, 10:54 AM
  #53  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
Many people have their private vehicles professionally repaired and maintained.

The insurance is another story. If insurers block people from participating in ride-sharing networks by making the insurance costs of doing so cost-prohibitive, then they will have effectively colluded with other interests to push people into individual car ownership.

At that point, the question will be why the insurance companies give such low rates to individuals who own and operate their own cars without ride-sharing.

It shouldn't matter whether the same car changes hands and carries multiple passengers or just one, or rather it should be more affordable to use a single vehicle for multiple passengers than for each passenger to own, maintain, and insure their own vehicle.

If individual/unshared ownership/driving would be more affordable than vehicle/ride-sharing, there's something fishy going on.
Everything you have been discussing has already been done. The only problem here is your issue with being jedi mind screwed by the phrase "ride sharing".
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Old 05-29-19, 11:23 AM
  #54  
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Originally Posted by pedex
Everything you have been discussing has already been done. The only problem here is your issue with being jedi mind screwed by the phrase "ride sharing".
I assume you're trying to bring up the issue of whether ride-sharing and taxi businesses are the same thing, yet again. If taxis were ride-sharing, then anyone could call up a taxi service and give someone a ride. Taxi services don't do that because they are in the business of providing managed service using vehicles they own and people they keep on staff.

If a taxi company sold its fleet to its drivers and allowed them to independently contract their own rides and only offered dispatch services, they'd be a ride-share app.

Likewise, if the drivers of a ride-share app were able to allow their privately-owned vehicles to be used for ride/drive-sharing while they were at work or home or wherever, then they would only be independent contractor/drivers for the ride-share when they were behind the wheel, and when they weren't, they would be independent contractor vehicle-lenders.

In fact, using this model, you could drive your own car to a bar, have a few drinks, and then someone sober could show up and drive you and your vehicle to your home, and then continue their walking journey.

It's interesting because there's sort of a mixed set of benefits between the ride price, getting to ride, having to drive, and how far you go out of your way to participate in a ride.

E.g. let's say you were out walking and your ride-share app buzzes you that you can earn free ride credit by walking three blocks to pick up someone at a bar in their car and drive it three miles to their house. You might think it's not worth it because you don't feel like walking back from their house, or you might think it would be a nice walk back from their house and you might as well do it for free ride credit later on when you need a ride.

Last edited by tandempower; 05-29-19 at 11:27 AM.
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Old 05-29-19, 11:27 AM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
I assume you're trying to bring up the issue of whether ride-sharing and taxi businesses are the same thing, yet again. If taxis were ride-sharing, then anyone could call up a taxi service and give someone a ride. Taxi services don't do that because they are in the business of providing managed service using vehicles they own and people they keep on staff.

If a taxi company sold its fleet to its drivers and allowed them to independently contract their own rides and only offered dispatch services, they'd be a ride-share app.

Likewise, if the drivers of a ride-share app were able to allow their privately-owned vehicles to be used for ride/drive-sharing while they were at work or home or wherever, then they would only be independent contractor/drivers for the ride-share when they were behind the wheel, and when they weren't, they would be independent contractor vehicle-lenders.

In fact, using this model, you could drive your own car to a bar, have a few drinks, and then someone sober could show up and drive you and your vehicle to your home, and then continue their walking journey.

It's interesting because there's sort of a mixed set of benefits between the ride price, getting to ride, having to drive, and how far you go out of your way to participate in a ride.
All these things you are claiming are wrong and it has been shown to you already. They have been done. Taxi companies are run with owner operated cars, leased cars, company owned leased cars. All ways have been done and are in use these days. Yes you call a taxi service and give someone a ride, even group rides. Nothing you are talking about is new or novel.

Last edited by pedex; 05-29-19 at 11:35 AM.
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Old 05-29-19, 11:41 AM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by pedex
Everything you have been discussing has already been done. The only problem here is your issue with being jedi mind screwed by the phrase "ride sharing".
It seems as if ride sharing equals either communal ownership or car pooling. It would have to be predicated on all members of the club or commune wanting to go somewhere at the same time. For the plan to work each member would need to be heading in the same general direction about the same time.

It sounds more like this is an attempt to get as close to free rides as it is a plan for better transportation options.

It reminds me of my college days when a group of young people got together to get an apartment that one cannot afford. Things work ok till someone doesn’t pay their share of the rent or causes damage the others have to absorb. Then the group has to kick the offending member out.
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Old 05-29-19, 11:41 AM
  #57  
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Originally Posted by pedex
All these things you are claiming are wrong and it has been shown to you already. They have been done. Taxi companies are run with owner operated cars, leased cars, company owned leased cars. All ways have been done and are in use these days. Yes you call a taxi service and give someone a ride, even group rides. Nothing you are talking about is new or novel.
Then why isn't someone running a taxi service when they pick up their mother-in-law and bring her to the dentist?

Why isn't it a taxi service to drive your children to school?

Why isn't it a taxi service if you coordinate with your colleagues to carpool to work?

Why isn't hitch-hiking use of a taxi service?

Why isn't it a taxi service if you offer to give someone who's been drinking a ride home and they give you 'a few bucks for gas?'

Why isn't it a taxi service when you drive a vehicle you own to give yourself a ride?

In other words, what exempts any and every driving trip from being defined as 'taxi service?'

Maybe defining and regulating 'taxi services' was and is just a subtle means of pushing everyone into buying and driving their own car because that's what makes the most money for dealers, mechanics, insurers, and everyone else who wants to use you for more money.
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Old 05-29-19, 12:03 PM
  #58  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
Then why isn't someone running a taxi service when they pick up their mother-in-law and bring her to the dentist?

Why isn't it a taxi service to drive your children to school?

Why isn't it a taxi service if you coordinate with your colleagues to carpool to work?

Why isn't hitch-hiking use of a taxi service?

Why isn't it a taxi service if you offer to give someone who's been drinking a ride home and they give you 'a few bucks for gas?'

Why isn't it a taxi service when you drive a vehicle you own to give yourself a ride?

In other words, what exempts any and every driving trip from being defined as 'taxi service?'

Maybe defining and regulating 'taxi services' was and is just a subtle means of pushing everyone into buying and driving their own car because that's what makes the most money for dealers, mechanics, insurers, and everyone else who wants to use you for more money.
Transporting people via wheeled vehicle for money. Taxi service, ride sharing. Same.

It is that simple. Stop over thinking everything.

It has NOTHING to do with some conspiracy to encourage car ownership.
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Old 05-29-19, 12:18 PM
  #59  
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Originally Posted by pedex
Transporting people via wheeled vehicle for money. Taxi service, ride sharing. Same.

It is that simple. Stop over thinking everything.
So if you give someone a ride home and they give you 'a few bucks for gas,' you're operating a taxi service?

If you drive your kids to school to avoid paying a taxi, you are effectively making the money you would have paid out, so does that make you a taxi service?

It has NOTHING to do with some conspiracy to encourage car ownership.
Of course it does. Anyone could lend out any appliance(s) they own to others and share the costs of ownership if doing so wasn't regulated and taxed. You could charge your neighbors to use your washing machine, for example. Or you could lend out tools to friends for a fee. If someone comes along as says you have to pay for permits and license fees and inspections and hire the people who run the appliance at designated wage-rates, etc. that inhibits you from lending out your appliances in this way. Then the appliance makers/distributors sell more appliances so everyone can own one for themselves. Isn't that obvious business/marketing strategy?
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Old 05-29-19, 12:36 PM
  #60  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
So if you give someone a ride home and they give you 'a few bucks for gas,' you're operating a taxi service?

If you drive your kids to school to avoid paying a taxi, you are effectively making the money you would have paid out, so does that make you a taxi service?


Of course it does. Anyone could lend out any appliance(s) they own to others and share the costs of ownership if doing so wasn't regulated and taxed. You could charge your neighbors to use your washing machine, for example. Or you could lend out tools to friends for a fee. If someone comes along as says you have to pay for permits and license fees and inspections and hire the people who run the appliance at designated wage-rates, etc. that inhibits you from lending out your appliances in this way. Then the appliance makers/distributors sell more appliances so everyone can own one for themselves. Isn't that obvious business/marketing strategy?
1 and 2 yep temporarily yes by definition
So?

Anyone can lease out a car now. What's the problem?
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Old 05-29-19, 12:42 PM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by pedex
1 and 2 yep temporarily yes by definition
So?

Anyone can lease out a car now. What's the problem?
The problem is you're arguing to define everything as 'taxi service' because you want to subject everything to rules, regs, and politics of taxi services.

Stop making every thread about ride-sharing into a place to crusade against ride-sharing in favor of defining everything as 'taxi service.'

This thread is about incorporating drive-sharing into ride-sharing. If you want to start a different thread about taxis, go ahead.
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Old 05-29-19, 12:45 PM
  #62  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
The problem is you're arguing to define everything as 'taxi service' because you want to subject everything to rules, regs, and politics of taxi services.

Stop making every thread about ride-sharing into a place to crusade against ride-sharing in favor of defining everything as 'taxi service.'

This thread is about incorporating drive-sharing into ride-sharing. If you want to start a different thread about taxis, go ahead.
Ever heard of a gypsy cab? Guess not. Cars for share leasing?

It's been done all forms of ownership of the vehicle. Way the vehicle is dispatched and by what method.
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Old 05-29-19, 01:09 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
Then why isn't someone running a taxi service when they pick up their mother-in-law and bring her to the dentist
Because when someone does that they are not providing a 'service for hire'. There is no contract, express or implied, to provide a service in return for compensation,

Why isn't it a taxi service to drive your children to school?
Because when someone does that they are not providing a 'service for hire'. There is no contract, express or implied, to provide a service in return for compensation.

Why isn't it a taxi service if you coordinate with your colleagues to carpool to work?
Because when someone does that they are not providing a 'service for hire'. There is no contract, express or implied, to provide a service in return for compensation. "Carpooling" is a voluntary arrangement between individuals, to trade off driving/car usage on alternate days, to the mutual benefit of all involved.

Why isn't hitch-hiking use of a taxi service?
Because when someone picks up a hitchhiker they are not providing a 'service for hire'. There is no contract, express or implied, to provide a service in return for compensation.

Why isn't it a taxi service if you offer to give someone who's been drinking a ride home and they give you 'a few bucks for gas?'
Because when someone does that they are not providing a 'service for hire'. There is no contract, express or implied, to provide a service in return for compensation. An offer to give 'a few bucks for gas' is in the nature of a gratuitous gesture, probably motivated by good will.

Why isn't it a taxi service when you drive a vehicle you own to give yourself a ride?
Don't be silly.

In other words, what exempts any and every driving trip from being defined as 'taxi service?'
See above examples.

Maybe defining and regulating 'taxi services' was and is just a subtle means of pushing everyone into buying and driving their own car because that's what makes the most money for dealers, mechanics, insurers, and everyone else who wants to use you for more money.
Nope; once again, no evidence -- at all -- has been adduced by you anywhere on here at any time to support your 'deep auto' economic theories.
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Old 05-29-19, 01:10 PM
  #64  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
I assume you're trying to bring up the issue of whether ride-sharing and taxi businesses are the same thing, yet again.
Because they are.


Originally Posted by tandempower
If taxis were ride-sharing, <irrelevant details snipped.>
they are the same. You pay a fee, someone drives you somewhere. The specifics of who owns the car, the specific agreement between the company and the driver, and whether you use an app to get a ride are simply the way each specific business chooses to operate.

Consider - you need a haircut. You go to a shop where someone has advertised they cut hair. You get a haircut, pay an agreed on price, and go about the rest of your day. who owns the chair, pays the insurance, sharpened the scissors, etc are beside the point. You needed a service, they provided it, you paid, everyone is happy. The type of business it is doesn't change just because the barber/stylist was paid a salary versus renting a chair.
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Old 05-29-19, 01:14 PM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
In other words, what exempts any and every driving trip from being defined as 'taxi service?'
A taxi is simply a car for hire. If I drive you to your destination and charge a fee, I'm a taxi. If I drive you to your destination for free, I'm not. Simple.
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Old 05-29-19, 02:20 PM
  #66  
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Originally Posted by FiftySix
Tandempower, now that you've discussed it thoroughly, maybe it's time for you to try it yourself. Just on a smaller scale.

Contact your friends and neighbors and try this experiment with a electric bicycle. Something worth about $3 to $5K USD. Basically, a bicycle that no one might buy for themselves, but with everyone pitching in together the bike could be obtained and shared by the group.

Come up with a pay to ride system that you envision. Have the bike maintained and repaired by the local bicycle shop with funds from the share payments.

Let us know how it goes. Short term and long term.
Originally Posted by tandempower
The reason why share companies have value is because they have established a network of participants. Before Uber or Lyft existed, you could post ride ads on Craiglist and I'm sure people got rides sometimes, especially if it was planned well in advance or if it was for something common, like a weekend trip between major cities within a region.


But to coordinate riding and driving in an efficient way so that it is possible to more-or-less spontaneously hitch a ride with someone for a few blocks or miles and not have a plan for later, but then spontaneously get another ride then; you need a working network of active users.


Uber came up with the idea of surge-pricing and variable pricing generally to fill in the gaps for users. It is little solutions like these that make a larger system work. Adding 'drive share' to an existing ride-share system is another such idea; i.e. one that allows users to also be drivers and for vehicles to continue to serve the network after the vehicle owner has left the vehicle.


I agree with many of the posts here that people take better care of their appliances when they own them personally; and that it wouldn't be comforting to get out of your personal vehicle and hand it over to some other driver; but of course this is the challenge for ride-sharing to overcome. I think it is doable by some combination of insurance and compensation. If you can be assured that your car will be fixed or replaced if it is damaged, then many people wouldn't mind letting others drive as ride/drive-share users. Obviously part of the ride-share app's functions is to screen drivers and riders, so you would know that whoever was taking over the wheel when you left your vehicle would follow the rules of the ride-share system.
I can't figure out why you quoted my post when your reply had nothing to do with what I wrote.

I'm starting to think like Mobile155 in that what you are proposing is something you don't want to actually invest your time or money into. You simply want to share borrow someone else's car.

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Old 05-29-19, 02:57 PM
  #67  
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I wish the mods would delete some of these posts arguing that ride-sharing has to be defined as taxi-service. It's a political topic that detracts from the issue of how to use ride-sharing to avoid car ownership.


Obviously a rental car agency is not a taxi service, because drivers rent the cars in the interest of driving themselves primarily (though of course they can drive anyone they want around, even ride-share passengers, for example).


But just because rental car agencies rent out cars to drivers doesn't mean that someone who allows their car to be used by another driver via a ride-share app would be renting out their car. Lending your out and being compensated for the costs is different from renting it out for profit as a business with employees and other overhead costs.


The overall issue with sharing here is that people can share things without doing so for profit the way other businesses do; i.e. because they have the alternative goal of reducing their costs by doing more for themselves.


At the consumer level, reducing your personal costs and liabilities by sharing things makes sense. When you are operating a business, the goal is profit maximization by charging prices the market will bear in a way that brings maximum revenue.


Those are two different objectives, but the consumer objective of reducing cost and liability is no less legitimate than the business objective of increasing revenue by expanding and growing your business.


As a consumer, you don't necessarily want to go into business with everything you do for yourself. E.g. you might be good at fixing spokes and you bought a set of freewheel/cassette tools. You might not want to go into business fixing other people's spokes and wheels, but you could still share your tools and knowledge to help people fix their own wheels. You might not want to open an entire business devoted to renting out tools, but you could still share your tools and people could pay you for borrowing them to compensate you for wear-and-tear and generally share the cost of the tools.


Likewise, you could lend your car out within a ride-sharing network without opening an entire car-rental business. You can also drive for a ride-share app as an independent contractor without that being your primary occupation. If no one was allowed to participate in such sharing networks without being hired by a business with all the expenses and requirements that come with that, then all those things accomplished at a low cost by share-efficiency would be lost to inefficient business models where everyone and their mother is on the payroll so prices are driven sky high and no one's allowed to do anything without someone else's approval.
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Old 05-29-19, 05:04 PM
  #68  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
Many people have their private vehicles professionally repaired and maintained.

The insurance is another story. If insurers block people from participating in ride-sharing networks by making the insurance costs of doing so cost-prohibitive, then they will have effectively colluded with other interests to push people into individual car ownership.

At that point, the question will be why the insurance companies give such low rates to individuals who own and operate their own cars without ride-sharing.

It shouldn't matter whether the same car changes hands and carries multiple passengers or just one, or rather it should be more affordable to use a single vehicle for multiple passengers than for each passenger to own, maintain, and insure their own vehicle.

If individual/unshared ownership/driving would be more affordable than vehicle/ride-sharing, there's something fishy going on.
As soon as you start using your vehicle for business the insurance costs go up.

Also did you factor in fuel?

The average trip around here is about 20 km (and takes about 30-45 min). 10 trips is 200 km. If the vehicle does 600 km between fill-ups you'll be refuelling every 3 days. So say it costs $60 to fill (low estimate ...I think ours is about $80) that's $600 / month.

So you've got $600 / month car payments + $600 / month fuel + probably about $250 / month insurance.

Plus you're putting on 200 km / day or 6000 km per month so your wear and tear is high. Oh and that doesn't include empty trips where you've got to locate the car and move it to a more convenient location.

Not to mention the wear and tear on yourself. If you drive those 10 trips that's at least 5 hours a day every day.


At $2/trip, that's $20/day or $600/month and doesn't even begin to cover the costs.

If we assume that the costs are:
600 + 600 + 250 = $1450 plus maintenance and repairs which might run, say, $50/month (a very low number grabbed out of the air) = $1500.

$1500 in expenses means you'd have to make $50/day just to cover expenses. If you're estimating 10 trips, you'd need to charge at least $5/trip to break even.


For it to be worthwhile as a part-time job (5 hours a day), I'd want to make a minimum of $20/hour take-home or $100 per day. So that means to be worthwhile, I'd have to make $150/day. At 10 trips, that's $15/trip.

But we've got to include tax too ... and the fact that there might not be 10 trips a day ... some days there might not be any ... and the fact that I might want to take a couple days off each week, and all of a sudden $20 or $25/trip doesn't seem unreasonable. Plus if you've got to drive at weird hours of the night or in peak hour or something and your 30 minute trip becomes an hour ... maybe you'd want to charge $30 or $35 to cover the inconvenience.

And voila ... you've got yourself a taxi or Uber service.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you have a Zip Car service in your area? If so ... it sounds a lot like what you're describing. Give it a try and report back!!

https://www.zipcar.com/cities



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The way a ride/drive share thing might be able to work is if it is done on a very small scale ... like a large family or a few neighbours. Where people know each other and don't mind if another member of the group drives one of the cars and throws in some cash for expenses now and then.

My ex-husband's family was a large family with several cars. They did this sort of thing.


So this you can start doing on your own. Talk to your neighbours and see what you can set up!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last edited by Machka; 05-30-19 at 03:33 AM.
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Old 05-29-19, 06:15 PM
  #69  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
I wish the mods would delete some of these posts arguing that ride-sharing has to be defined as taxi-service. It's a political topic that detracts from the issue of how to use ride-sharing to avoid car ownership.


Obviously a rental car agency is not a taxi service, because drivers rent the cars in the interest of driving themselves primarily (though of course they can drive anyone they want around, even ride-share passengers, for example).


But just because rental car agencies rent out cars to drivers doesn't mean that someone who allows their car to be used by another driver via a ride-share app would be renting out their car. Lending your out and being compensated for the costs is different from renting it out for profit as a business with employees and other overhead costs.


The overall issue with sharing here is that people can share things without doing so for profit the way other businesses do; i.e. because they have the alternative goal of reducing their costs by doing more for themselves.


At the consumer level, reducing your personal costs and liabilities by sharing things makes sense. When you are operating a business, the goal is profit maximization by charging prices the market will bear in a way that brings maximum revenue.


Those are two different objectives, but the consumer objective of reducing cost and liability is no less legitimate than the business objective of increasing revenue by expanding and growing your business.


As a consumer, you don't necessarily want to go into business with everything you do for yourself. E.g. you might be good at fixing spokes and you bought a set of freewheel/cassette tools. You might not want to go into business fixing other people's spokes and wheels, but you could still share your tools and knowledge to help people fix their own wheels. You might not want to open an entire business devoted to renting out tools, but you could still share your tools and people could pay you for borrowing them to compensate you for wear-and-tear and generally share the cost of the tools.


Likewise, you could lend your car out within a ride-sharing network without opening an entire car-rental business. You can also drive for a ride-share app as an independent contractor without that being your primary occupation. If no one was allowed to participate in such sharing networks without being hired by a business with all the expenses and requirements that come with that, then all those things accomplished at a low cost by share-efficiency would be lost to inefficient business models where everyone and their mother is on the payroll so prices are driven sky high and no one's allowed to do anything without someone else's approval.
So start sharing all your stuff for free. An inexpensive vehicle costs around 15 to 25 cents per mile to operate minimum.

Oh and since the existing "ride sharing" companies all charge you can drop that phrase too as it no longer applies right?

Here: ridesharing.com but again the drivers charge $$

Be sure to let your insurance company know you are car pooling too 🙄

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Old 06-03-19, 10:58 AM
  #70  
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This article claims Uber will never be profitable for a number of reasons, including competition with other platforms: https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

I think driver/car-sharing could be the thing that helps Uber achieve both brand-loyalty and cost-savings that put it in the lead.

Basically, Uber needs to become a car-share network whose app allows car-sharers to ride and/or give rides as part of the car-sharing package.

Recently, I read that Uber is getting more selective about who gets to ride as a passenger, and that is a good start for preventing abuses that can cut into its profitability.

As long as both drivers' and passengers' identities are known and verified, that should prevent moles from posing as passengers and/or drivers to generate negative publicity for Uber.

As a seamless network of rides/drives in shared vehicles, Uber will basically be able to drive the costs of (shared) car ownership down to extremely competitive levels.

For other ride-share apps to compete, they would have to find a way to facilitate driver/vehicle sharing, which would be quite difficult according to what posters have said in this thread.
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Old 06-03-19, 11:58 AM
  #71  
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TP just so we have a working reference can you point out a place where this business plan is working? Some place any place where there is a capital outlay plus continuing outlay that allows non investors to use this type of service?
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Old 06-03-19, 06:50 PM
  #72  
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Basically, Uber needs to become a car-share network whose app allows car-sharers to ride and/or give rides as part of the car-sharing package
It already does this. You can hail a taxi and ride in it or be one giving rides. Nothing new there.
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Old 06-04-19, 02:52 PM
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Originally Posted by pedex
It already does this. You can hail a taxi and ride in it or be one giving rides. Nothing new there.
But you can't take over the driving. Currently, the driver is always getting paid and not getting a ride. If drive/ride-sharing was introduced, then you as a driver/passenger would just step out at your destination and pass the car on to the next driver/passenger.


That means lowering overall costs, especially during times and routes that would be unpopular for drivers and thus cause surge-pricing. In other words, instead of paying surge-pricing for a driver, you could just drive yourself and/or pick up other passengers on the way to supplement your ride-share cost.


It would basically combine car-sharing with ride-sharing within a single, integrated platform.
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Old 06-04-19, 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by tandempower
But you can't take over the driving. Currently, the driver is always getting paid and not getting a ride. If drive/ride-sharing was introduced, then you as a driver/passenger would just step out at your destination and pass the car on to the next driver/passenger.


That means lowering overall costs, especially during times and routes that would be unpopular for drivers and thus cause surge-pricing. In other words, instead of paying surge-pricing for a driver, you could just drive yourself and/or pick up other passengers on the way to supplement your ride-share cost.


It would basically combine car-sharing with ride-sharing within a single, integrated platform.
no, it doesn't really do anything
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Old 06-04-19, 03:39 PM
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Originally Posted by pedex
no, it doesn't really do anything
I think having the person sponsoring this driving program should buy the car and have to go find it every day after the last driver has dropped it off wherever that might be. After all the car still has to be funded.
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