State of Rideshare

by Melissa Berry on November 3, 2017 7 Comments

How Many Uber Drivers Are There?

Have you ever wondered how many Uber and Lyft drivers are out there? Since both companies are privately held, they don’t have to release any figures about their independent contractors, but we decided to do some research ourselves. Today, RSG contributor Melissa Berry answers the question of “how many Uber and Lyft drivers are there in the United States?”

Also, if we’re off – let us know (and your source) in the comments! Can’t share your source? Click here to contact us.

It seems like there are more rideshare drivers than ever on the roads these days, so it’s a question many of us wonder – how many Uber and Lyft drivers are out there? Whether you want to avoid the competition or use this info to hustle harder and beat that competition, today I’ll take the news that is out there about drivers and attempt to answer that question.

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by Harry Campbell on June 20, 2016 16 Comments

Would Uber and Lyft Really Pull Out of Chicago?

Update (6/20/16): Looks like Uber and Lyft may be safe for now. Ald. Beale has agreed to ‘study’ the fingerprinting issue for 6 months and will not require rideshare services to fingerprint their drivers – for now.

This Wednesday, the Chicago City Council will vote on an ordinance that could force Uber and Lyft to pull out of the city indefinitely. If this story sounds familiar, it should. Over the past year, Uber and Lyft have waged regulatory battles in several high profile locales (New York, Broward County, etc), and neither company is currently operating in Austin due to a recent fingerprinting requirement imposed by the city council.

We actually traveled to Austin a couple weeks ago to see the situation first-hand, and now it looks like Chicago might be next. Many municipalities have tried to impose stricter taxi-like regulations over the past year, and it’s been a huge sticking point for the TNCs. In fact, anything that involves fingerprinting of drivers or impediments to on-boarding is likely to elicit pull-out threats from Uber and Lyft since these companies rely on being able to churn and burn through their workforce. By Uber’s own admission, they lose half of all drivers after just 12 months and, when you factor in their growth, they need to hire at least 60,000 new drivers every single month (according to my calculations) just to run efficiently.

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by Harry Campbell on June 10, 2016 44 Comments

7 Things I Learned From Our Week In Austin

When Uber and Lyft pulled out of Austin last month, they made it seem like the world was going to end without them. And while there was tumult in the few weeks after their departure, no less than ~~seven~~ ~~eight~~ nine rideshare start-ups have since moved in to Austin to try and fill that void.

Last week, Christian and I headed to the capital of Texas to talk with local politicians, meet with some of the start-ups looking to take Uber/Lyft’s place and, of course, hear from drivers. We learned a lot about the situation on the ground, and today I’m going to summarize it all.

Christian and I meeting with Austin Councilman Don Zimmerman (photo cred: RSG Reader Anthony N)

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by Harry Campbell on March 28, 2016 12 Comments

55 Rideshare Industry Experts Predict The Biggest Issues of 2016

Last year, I rounded up 43 industry experts and asked them about their outlooks for rideshare in 2015. The responses we got were pretty impressive, and that post ended up being one of our top shared posts of all 2015. It also turned out that a lot of those predictions came true.

It’s always fun to predict the future, and for this year’s round up I managed to get 55 rideshare industry experts that range from venture capitalists, CEOs, reporters, academics, start-up founders and bloggers to even a few drivers themselves.

My goal with these posts is to learn what others think are the most pertinent issues in the industry and expose their thinking to a whole new audience. It’s a pretty good bet that the co-founder of a rideshare start-up is going to have a different outlook than an academic studying the industry. But both parties have devoted a huge amount of time researching their respective fields and there’s a lot of knowledge that can be shared there.

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by Harry Campbell on February 15, 2016 46 Comments

2016 Survey Results: How Satisfied Are Uber Drivers Really?

Every year I send out a survey to all of my drivers here on RSG. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of filling out surveys myself, but it is a great way to get feedback from my readers and confirm trends that I’ve been seeing in the on-demand economy.

So to everyone who filled out a 2016 survey, thank you! We sent the survey out on 12/30/15 to 10,234 e-mail subscribers and got 453 responses, which is awesome, and I’ll be sending out some RSG swag to 10 lucky winners. Scroll down to the bottom to see if you were randomly selected. I’ll also be contacting you by e-mail.

This year’s survey had some really interesting results and I’m also getting better at asking interesting questions. So if you’re a company or start-up interested in going over the results with me or one of my staff members, please e-mail me.

For everyone else, hope you enjoy! [Read more…]