{"id":3671,"date":"2015-11-17T10:29:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2015-11-17T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T15:29:12","slug":"will-google-wazes-carpool-app-ever-compete-with-uber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/2015\/11\/17\/will-google-wazes-carpool-app-ever-compete-with-uber\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Google & Waze’s Carpool App Ever Compete With Uber?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Waze made big news the other day when it announced that it would be testing a carpool service<\/a> in Israel that lets commuters share rides for a small fee. \u00a0The service, called RideWith,\u00a0is aimed at connecting drivers on their way to work with passengers traveling\u00a0along the same route.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s obviously major competition in this space, most notably Uber\u2019s carpooling service UberPool, but RideWith appears to initially be focused on\u00a0a different market. \u00a0DriveWith will target\u00a0commuters, on their way to\/from work, taking what are known as incidental trips. \u00a0Incidental trips are rides that would have been taken regardless of whether they were\u00a0shared or not.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Uber currently offers a shared ride feature called UberPool in select cities but it\u2019s unclear what percentage of these shared rides are incidental trips. \u00a0There\u2019s actually a good argument that Uber\u2019s low fares and services like UberPool could be putting more cars on the road by making transportation so accessible. \u00a0Many passengers who may\u00a0have opted for walking, public transportation or even carpooling in the past have now switched to Uber.<\/p>\n

The Problem With Carpooling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carpooling has traditionally struggled because of the\u00a0cost (not always monetary either)\u00a0of finding a suitable match. \u00a0Typing out a flyer for carpoolers, printing it and putting it on a bulletin board at work isn\u2019t exactly the model of efficiency. \u00a0But technology has made that process a lot easier.<\/p>\n

We know that there are millions of\u00a0solo rides every single day with lots of people headed to\/from the same general area so it makes sense to figure out a way to combine a majority of those rides. \u00a0Tech solutions will handle that problem with ease but the real question\u00a0is whether there is enough incentive for these drivers to partake.<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s A Rider<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based off the success of Uber, it should be clear that there is no shortage of people willing to get chauffeured around instead of \u00a0having to drive themselves. \u00a0But I don\u2019t see how\u00a0covering the cost of gas and wear and tear is enough incentive to get busy professionals on their way to work or even worse, on their way home, to carpool.<\/p>\n

Based off a 2013 Brookings study<\/a>, the average commute time for 96 metro areas in the US was just under 8 miles. \u00a0But even for commutes on the right-side of the tail, that is only going to amount to a few dollars per day: a great deal for the passenger but not a whole lot of financial reward\u00a0for\u00a0drivers.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the real incentive here is removing un-needed cars from the road, which benefits society as a whole through less traffic and congestion, quicker commute times and less carbon emission. \u00a0And while that all sounds great, it still requires a driver to go out of their way to achieve all this. \u00a0And when you take into account the time spent going out of your way to pick-up and drop-off additional passenger(s), those few dollars of savings become a whole lot less attractive.<\/p>\n

Nobody Likes To Be The Driver<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re already seeing this play out on UberPool today. \u00a0Uber drivers, used to making normal UberX rates for taking one passenger now make only 10-20% more on an UberPool ride. \u00a0Drivers are paid normal UberX rates from the first pick-up to the last drop-off but there\u2019s a lot more work involved. \u00a0I know from experience<\/a> that picking up and dropping off an extra passenger can\u00a0be a huge hassle.<\/p>\n

When asked about UberPool, Jose Luis, a driver out of Los Angeles, told me, \u201cI dislike UberPool since it feels like a lot more work for the pay. \u201d<\/p>\n

Other drivers have echoed Jose\u2019s statements and although the service has been wildly popular with passengers, most drivers are not big fans of UberPool. \u00a0If Uber drivers are hesitant to carpool and they\u2019re being paid for it, there\u2019s no reason for\u00a0busy commuters\u00a0to take time out of their day to carpool for even less money.<\/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":"

Google\u2019s Waze made big news the other day when it announced that it would be testing a carpool service in Israel that lets commuters share rides for a small fee. \u00a0The service, called RideWith,\u00a0is aimed at connecting drivers on their way to work with passengers traveling\u00a0along the same route. There\u2019s obviously major competition in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[116],"tags":[137,403,402,13,10,12,136,400,401,399],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671"}],"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=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3678,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions\/3678"}],"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=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxifarefinder.com\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}