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01-09-2014

“Not just a taxi”? For-profit ridesharing, driver strategies, and VMT

Author: Donald N. Anderson

Published in: Transportation | Issue 5/2014

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The spread of GPS-based location services using smartphone applications has led to the rapid growth of new startups offering smartphone-enabled dispatch service for taxicabs, limousines, and ridesharing vehicles. This change in communicative technology has been accompanied by the creation of new categories of car service, particularly as drivers of limousines and private vehicles use the apps to provide on-demand service of a kind previously reserved for taxicabs. One of the most controversial new models of car service is for-profit ridesharing, which combines the for-profit model of taxi service with the overall traffic reduction goals of ridesharing. A preliminary attempt is here made at understanding how for-profit ridesharing compares to traditional taxicab and ridesharing models. Ethnographic interviews are drawn on to illustrate the range of motivations and strategies used by for-profit ridesharing drivers in San Francisco, California as they make use of the service. A range of driver strategies is identified, ranging from incidental, to part-time, to full-time driving. This makes possible a provisional account of the potential ecological impacts of the spread of this model of car service, based on the concept of taxicab efficiency, conceived as the ratio of shared versus unshared miles driven.

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Underpaying, or not paying the donation, however, can result in a passenger being effectively barred from the service.

London-based Zingo, one of the first taxi e-hailing services, folded in 2004 (Bowers 2004).

In fact, taxicab companies in San Francisco and elsewhere make the same representation, classifying their drivers as independent contractors. For a detailed account, see Healy (2009).

Cf. comments by eRideShare before the Californa Public Utilities Commission, at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M075/K768/75768710.PDF.

cf. King et al. (2012) on taxis.

This is a simplistic, generic model that could describe both owner-operators and leasing or commission drivers. Additional, non-mileage related costs could be considered as part of I. Income is “expected” because there is no guarantee of reaching I, regardless of P. Expected income affects the labor supply of taxi drivers (Crawford and Meng 2011), and low expectations have historically led to labor shortages (Hodges 2007).

Cost-sharing for additional passengers would call for a more complex model if the shared distance Q and deviation V are different for different passengers. See Agatz et al. (2010) for a more general cost-sharing model.

The author has encountered similar responses from taxi and limousine drivers in both San Francisco and Mexico City.

Of the three companies whose drivers were interviewed, one was unresponsive to requests for information; the other two declined to share data on drivers, rides, or passengers.

I.e., taking the liberty of converting my drivers’ diverse responses (e.g., Italian, Nicaraguan) into Hara’s categories (White, Latino). This is of course an imposition by the author but is done solely to enable comparison. Shaller’s study listed only three ethnic categories (White, Asian, and Black/African-American).

Since fieldwork was conducted, at least two additional companies have started providing smartphone-enabled for-profit ridesharing in San Francisco.

For comparison, the San Francisco cabdrivers interviewed by Burgel et al. (2012: 719) reported working between 10 and 84 h per week, with a median of 50 h.

All driver names are pseudonyms. Interview selections are taken from the author’s notes from verbal

interviews or from emails.

cf. Berry (1995), Anderson (2004).

In other words, Salem possesses an “A-card,” required to drive a licensed taxi in San Francisco. The ridesharing companies do not require this license of their drivers.

See appendices to the comments by the San Francisco Cab Drivers’ Association before the California Public Utilities Commission at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M071/K162/71162385.PDF; cf. also Kamzan (2013), Sharrock (2013).

See appendices to the comments by the Taxicab Paratransit Association of California before the California Public Utilities Commission at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M079/K258/79258130.PDF.

The likelihood that a taxi will also serve as a private vehicle for the driver depends on the regulatory context and the taxi supply/demand ratio of the city. Cf. Kemp (1974: 86–7). In San Francisco, where most cabs are leased two full shifts per day, such use is necessarily limited.

cf. http://www.sfmta.com/services/taxi-industry/clean-taxis.

cf. statements by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency before the California Public Utilities Commission at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M071/K162/71162385.PDF.

See the Decision issued by the California Public Utilities Commission on September 23, 2013 at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M077/K192/77192335.PDF.

Even within the same city: in Los Angeles, the mayor voiced public support for for-profit ridesharing, while the LA Department of Transportation has issued cease-and-desist notices to the companies involved (Maddaus 2013).

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Title: “Not just a taxi”? For-profit ridesharing, driver strategies, and VMT
Author: Donald N. Anderson
Publication date: 01-09-2014
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Transportation / Issue 5/2014
Print ISSN: 0049-4488
Electronic ISSN: 1572-9435
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9531-8

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