{"id":3635,"date":"2015-11-10T07:58:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T12:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/?p=3635"},"modified":"2015-11-06T09:59:36","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T14:59:36","slug":"is-it-rideshare-ride-hail-or-something-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/2015\/11\/10\/is-it-rideshare-ride-hail-or-something-else\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Rideshare, Ride-Hail or Something Else?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the things I\u2019ve struggled with over the past year while covering this industry, is what to call it. \u00a0I\u2019m a little biased, seeing as I run a blog for drivers called The Rideshare Guy<\/a>, but I still stick by that term since I haven\u2019t found anything else that is a better qualifier. \u00a0I could have used a more accurate depiction and called myself, \u2018The Glorified Taxi App Guy\u2019, but that just didn\u2019t have the same cache.<\/p>\n

I often read comments at the bottom of my articles or on Twitter that\u00a0chastise people for referring to companies like Uber and Lyft as \u2018rideshare companies\u2019. \u00a0But when I ask them what we should call them instead, my request is often met with silence. \u00a0Rideshare probably isn\u2019t\u00a0the best term to describe what Uber and Lyft do, but\u00a0there may not be anything better.<\/p>\n

The Argument Against Rideshare?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The term rideshare is used most often to describe companies like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar that connect drivers with passengers. \u00a0They aren\u2019t true rideshare in the sense that people are actually sharing rides but it is a holdover\u00a0from the term,\u00a0sharing economy.<\/p>\n

We still hear\u00a0the term \u2018sharing economy\u2019 thrown around somewhat cavalierly these days, but most of the apps we know and love (Uber, Postmates, Instacart, etc)\u00a0are anything but sharing. \u00a0They often involve a customer in need of a service and an app that can connect them with a person willing to provide that service. \u00a0Not much sharing going on there.<\/p>\n

But true ridesharing\u00a0is something you may have done inadvertently in the past in order to take the carpool lane or save some money. \u00a0There are companies like CoRide and Carma that are using tech solutions to enable true ridesharing but most people have never heard of those two.<\/p>\n

Is It Really Ride-Hail?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January<\/a>, The AP Stylebook actually banned the term rideshare and asked reporters and the public to refer to companies like Uber and Lyft as ride-hail or ride-booking services from then on. \u00a0Maybe they weren\u2019t aware of Uberpool at the time, but to me, ride-hail might be even more inaccurate than rideshare.<\/p>\n

The reason why the word \u2018hail\u2019 doesn\u2019t work is because that it is actually the one thing you still can\u2019t do with Uber and Lyft. \u00a0The meaning of hail is \u2018to call or yell out in order to catch the attention of.\u2019 \u00a0You may have heard it used in this manner: \u2018to hail a cabdriver.\u2019<\/p>\n

But\u00a0in fact, Uber and Lyft drivers actually aren\u2019t allowed to accept street-hails and many have been severely prosecuted<\/a> for doing so. \u00a0The only way passengers\u00a0can book a ride with Uber is if it\u2019s through the app, meaning taxis are the only ones allowed to accept street hails.<\/p>\n

Americans might not know it either but hail is actually used much more commonly in Europe and there is already an app called Hailo that does \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 lets you electronically hail a ride from a\u00a0taxi. \u00a0So while hail may be appropriate for describing taxis, it is most definitely not the term that should be used to describe Uber and Lyft. \u00a0If you\u2019ve ever taken a ride, you know that the service Uber and Lyft provide is very different from the taxi experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Uberpool to the Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n

UberPool may not be as big of a household name as UberX but it is on the same upward trajectory. \u00a0Uber\u2019s CEO Travis Kalanick has hinted that UberPool is the company\u2019s future and early Uber investor Bill Gurley\u00a0has basically told us<\/a> the same thing.<\/p>\n

UberPool works by finding two different\u00a0passengers headed in the same direction and allows them to share a ride. \u00a0So two riders and two drivers turns into two riders and only one driver. \u00a0We know that most cars on the road are nowhere near full capacity and innovations like UberPool are meant to solve this problem. \u00a0But it\u2019s not just people that you could soon be sharing a ride with.<\/p>\n

Deliver Me That<\/strong><\/p>\n

The final nail in the coffin for the term ride-hailing is the emergence of popular delivery services like Postmates, Instacart and Washio. \u00a0These companies are delivering food, groceries and dry-cleaning respectively. \u00a0All are rising stars in the on demand economy and many\u00a0Uber drivers (including myself<\/a>) also deliver for Postmates or Washio and vice versa.<\/p>\n

So calling someone like myself a ride-hail driver may not be a broad enough term considering that I am delivering people, food and even goods. \u00a0Today, a lot of these companies exist and operate independently, but we\u2019re already starting to see companies like Sidecar partner up with Instacart to deliver groceries in Chicago and Uber experimenting with packages and food in LA.<\/p>\n

The industry is clearly headed in the direction of efficiency and it\u2019s only\u00a0a matter of time before I have a bag of dry-cleaning in my trunk, a passenger in the back seat and a Chipotle burrito on the floor. \u00a0And at that point, I\u2019ll no longer be a ride-hail or a rideshare driver, I\u2019ll be something else.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"About Harry Campbell, The RideShare Guy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello TFF Readers, my name is Harry Campbell and I run a blog for rideshare <\/em>drivers called The Rideshare Guy<\/a> and I also write about the on demand economy for Forbes<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be <\/em>sharing articles from time to time on what\u2019s going on in the world of rideshare and what you need to know as a passenger whether you enjoy taxis, rideshare or all of the above!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I\u2019ve struggled with over the past year while covering this industry, is what to call it. \u00a0I\u2019m a little biased, seeing as I run a blog for drivers called The Rideshare Guy, but I still stick by that term since I haven\u2019t found anything else that is a better qualifier. \u00a0I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[116],"tags":[382,13,395,396,394,11,333,269,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3635"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3640,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions\/3640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}