Problem
Current ride-hailing businesses exploit their workers, do not promote the safety of both drivers and riders, and are not held accountable for their unethical business practices.
Solution
A community-owned and governed ride-hailing platform.
Reasoning
- Drivers for privately-owned companies (Uber/Lyft) are underpaid, subsidize private companies with their own cars and insurance, have no employment securities such as paid-time-off and health insurance, and have nowhere to direct their concerns around harassment, abuse, and sexual assault.
- Female-identifying and PoC Drivers make less per hour and are on average rated lower.
- Passengers experience unsafe environments where Drivers can take full control of a situation, leading to similar cases of harassment, abuse and assault.
- Ride-hailing experiences are not considerate of people with mobility needs, often rides are not equipped with the necessary infrastructure to assist such passengers.
- Some people require more specialized door-to-door assistance and same-driver pick-up for their comfort.
Our Contributions
The working group included two representatives from Vancity Credit Union and Modo Co-operative, two co-op developers, and our co-operative. Our contributions were:
Technology Consulting
We identified necessary features and the ideal platform design. We then researched potential software providers, assessing the quality of the features offered for the platform.
Branding and Design
We created promotional materials such as pamphlets and photography, and the design of the website.
Community Assessment
We found that these ride-hailing services thrived when supported by a community. We brought out representatives from 14 organizations to find out how to best serve their needs.
Common themes found were safety, psychological and physiological accessibility, local community resilience, and critical conversations around the gig economy.
We identified an opportunity area in the ride-hailing service that focuses on worker-ownership, accessibility and safety for both driver and passenger. Such as providing wheelchair-ready vehicles, senior support staff, and a living-wage compensation.
Partners
