DriverDo, Uber Don't

DriverDo is a young company with a business model that focuses on creating reasonably compensated jobs by bringing structure to otherwise ad hoc driving opportunities in the form of on-demand vehicle relocation. The opportunities revolve around moving vehicles for automobile dealers, rental car companies and vehicle shippers - but the potential extends well beyond these applications.

DriverDo represents a compelling alternative to Uber for people who want to make a living driving. In fact, DriverDo enables that living to be made driving other people’s vehicles, so the driver does not have to contend with the maintenance and miles piling up on their own or a leased vehicle.

At the same time, DriverDo isn’t taking money out of the pockets of existing licensed vehicle transport or public transport organizations – as in the case of Uber disrupting both the rental car and taxi industries with its investor and driver subsidized fares. DriverDo is nothing less than a better mouse trap.

DriverDo currently employs approximately 2,000 driver contractors, well short of the estimated 600,000 contract drivers driving for Uber on any given day. DriverDo provides the back-end logistics for a system designed to optimize the available network of drivers against the available vehicle movement opportunities.

The company has already demonstrated that its service is capable of delivering three times the average monthly per-driver income of an Uber or Lyft. Again, this is without putting wear and tear on a driver-owned or leased vehicle. By delivering a more predictable level of compensation, DriverDo believes it will be able to also deliver superior driver retention performance – a major weakness for Uber and other ride hailing services.

Finding drivers has not been a challenge for DriverDo, which is mainly focused on raising money and expanding its client base. Female drivers are especially interested in driving for DriverDo considering the lower risk associated with DriverDo jobs vs. driving for Lyft or Uber.

The company estimates the size of its target market at about $1B of a much larger overall vehicle transportation market that includes trains, trucks and ships. But the opportunities may be larger than DriverDo’s own estimates if the servicing of car sharing and automotive concierge services are added to the mix.

DriverDo’s driving jobs can be both long or short distance and DriverDo has gone so far as to develop a patent pending digital license plate technology for interstate vehicle movements. DriverDo is also pioneering episodic per-drive insurance and portable insurance – both of which anticipate changes unfolding in the broader automobile insurance industry.

The prospect of digital licensing will have wider disruptive impacts on ride hailing and car sharing services.

DriverDo is still a very young company so its geographic reach is confined primarily to the Northeast and some portions of the Midwest, but the company is poised to up its expansion plans in the coming months. The recent events in Houston associated with Hurricane Harvey have already opened a door to unexpected long distance driving work.

At a time when scientists around the world are striving to eliminate the human driving task altogether with autonomous vehicle technology it’s good to know that it’s still possible to make an honest living as a driver. DriverDo is paving the way with patented technology and a unique business model.

DriverDo is also laying the foundation for autonomous vehicle logistics - so the company anticipates playing a critical role when the end of human driving arrives. But DriverDo anticipates many more years of human driving and expects to provide those drivers a professional home.