The Story Behind MyRIDI
A New Ride-Hail App Is Unsettling The Industry By Treating Drivers Like People, MyRIDI
Discover Just How Easy Booking A Ride Can Be Using MyRIDI APP, A Service Where Drivers Operate In A Taxi-Like Fashion.
By Benginmen Jones
A new ride-hailing platform aims to revolutionize an industry that’s long been ruled by Uber and Lyft and using a simple tool that’s often neglected in high-tech-happy Silicon Valley: common decency.
Now operating in Davenport Iowa, MyRIDI is taking on the status quo of ‘ride-sharing’ services by giving its drivers fairer pay, employee status, a much-needed driver-support hotline, and even company shares.
According to founder and CEO Roger Hickman Jr., such provisions make for both happier drivers and better customer experiences, and–despite their absence from other ride-hailing setups are simply what drivers deserve.
“The sharing economy left unchecked is a sure way to slowly squeeze the little guy,” he told customers. “And I don’t claim to be a great socialist. I’m really not. But it’s a great way to take the bottom layer of the middle class and push it lower.”
As FairGamez reports, Roger used his investments from his company Triple AAA Logistics, before turning his attention to the so-called ‘sharing economy,’ which often requires workers to commit time and their own resources to contract work without the kinds of standard protections for providers (and customers) that workers who’ve experienced employee status have come to expect.
After investigating the gig industry’s options for on-demand rides, Roger says he came to a realization: that while drivers often seem satisfied with their gigs when customers are in the car, overall “they really hate ride-sharing companies, which have been abusing them, and treating them like a commodity.”
He points to Uber’s practice of “deactivating” drivers in its system, rather than firing them in a more traditional and open sense, as one example of the withered human element in the company’s management schema. “These are people,” Roger told FAIRGAMEZ MAGAZINE. “You do not deactivate people—you deactivate machines. When you say that you deactivate a person, I think that speaks volumes of the way that you actually think of these people.”
For Roger, denying drivers stability, benefits, and incentives in their work isn’t just unfair; it’s also bad business. The key to a sustainable ride-hailing platform, he suggests, is giving drivers the wages and resources, they need to be happy and committed in their work so that they and satisfied customers–will stick around.
At present, securing brand loyalty from customers is one of the biggest hurdles facing the ride-hail industry (aside from legal ones), as well as the reason for many of its growing pains over the past few years. Uber, for one, has seen scandal and conflict over its customer support and safety, escalating driver wage cuts, and other policies hinting at fierce cost-cutting at ground level for the sake of its global turf war with competitors Lyft and Didi. At the same time, FAIRGAMEZ MAGAZINE reports, MyRIDI is currently charging riders about the same or slightly less than its main ride-hail rivals while also letting drivers keep as much as 10 to 15 percent more of their fares.
“Uber drivers protest the company’s recent fare cuts and go on strike in front of the car service’s New York offices on February 1, 2016 in New York City. The drivers say Uber continues to cut into their earnings without cutting into its own take from each ride.
It’s too soon to tell what the outcome of ride-hail companies’ under-bidding war will be, but its growing customer base still seems inclined to take advantage of multiple companies depending on their availability in a given location. Drivers, meanwhile, frequently patronize multiple ride-hailing platforms in a given shift just to make ends meet and show a tendency to want to quit driving for companies they feel don’t make it worth their while.
According to FAIRGAMEZ MAGAZINE, MyRIDI’s Davenport Iowa operation is going over well with drivers, but many aren’t willing to make the leap to driving solely for the company ’til its customer base can sustain them. For his part, Roger is preparing to offer full employee status and benefits to drivers who’ll work for MyRIDI only.
As FAIRGAMEZ MAGAZINE points out, Uber and Lyft are currently valued at $62.5 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively–strong positions that have had little benefit for drivers to date, Rogers says, and offer them little in the long run. “When and if these companies go public, or get sold, the drivers are going to get nothing,” Roger noted. “So that’s not real partnership.”
Interested in trying out MyRIDI’s new model for ride-sharing, or know someone who does? Iowa riders can now join MyRIDI’s program invitation-free for $4.00 off all rides.