A $45 airport ride, and the $14 the driver saw.
I drive for two of the big ride apps while I build Buraq in Riverside. Last week I put the rider’s screen next to mine.
A driver’s night runs on two numbers. One is on the screen: what the trip pays. The other is in your head: gas, tires, the hour it takes and the drive home. Last week I found a third number, and I keep coming back to it.
The Ontario trip
A request came in from a corner in Riverside: 18.7 miles to Ontario International Airport, about 26 minutes of driving. My offer said $14.09, and under it, “$30.19/hr est. rate for this ride.” That hourly figure looks fine until you remember the 19 miles back to Riverside with nobody in the seat. Nobody pays for those.
At the same minute, from the same street, I opened the rider app. The same trip cost $44.97.
You only see that gap if you open both apps yourself. The driver screen shows your pay and an hourly estimate. The rider screen shows the price. Nothing puts them side by side.
Then the Perris trip
A 12.5-mile ride from Perris to Riverside cost the rider $40.96 before a promo. My offer was $13.50. Traffic held us up for more than five minutes, and the app raised my pay to $16.33, which I appreciated. With the raise, I kept about 40 cents of each dollar the rider paid.
Two rides from my own phone make a sample, not a study. Prices change by the hour and by the street, and I can’t tell you what either app pays on average. I can tell you what I saw, and I kept the screenshots.
The person in the back seat pays almost $45. The person driving sees $14. Neither one sees the other’s number.
What $14 has to cover
Ontario airport sits 19 miles from Riverside, so an airport run is close to 38 miles of gas, with half of them empty. Insurance, tires, oil changes, car washes and the value the car loses with every mile come out of the same $14.09. The apps pay for software, support, payments and insurance, and they should make money. My question is how much of the price should reach the person who drives.
What Buraq does differently
Buraq is a ride service for Riverside, built around trips you book ahead, most of them to the airport. These are the rules we run on today.
- 01
You see the price before you book.
The quote is the most you pay. If the trip runs shorter, the price goes down. It never goes up after you confirm.
- 02
Most of the price goes to the driver.
We keep a smaller part for the app, the insurance and the card fees. Drivers see their pay and an hourly rate before they accept, the way the big apps show it, and that pay is most of the fare.
- 03
Your airline, your terminal.
You pick your airline when you book, and we drop you at that terminal: LAX, Ontario, John Wayne, Burbank, Long Beach, Palm Springs and San Bernardino.
- 04
You know who is picking you up.
Every ride has a code your driver shows you before you get in. You can share the trip with family and message your driver from the app.