The introduction of ride-hailing services was a welcome boon for millions of commuters worldwide. The pain points of manually hailing taxis driven by an increasingly indifferent cab driver community gave way to the ease of hailing a cab at the touch of a mobile button. Innovators like Sidecar opened up a new market of business opportunities that were complemented by commuter satisfaction. The peer-to-peer ridesharing industry evolved, consolidated and matured. And today, it is ruled by industry leaders — the Lyfts and Ubers of the world.

The rise of corporate hegemons

The initial hype and hoopla attracted thousands of people towards these platforms. Anybody with a car was able to join the platform to offer rides to commuters, who were more than happy to ditch traditional taxis in favour of these new-age, mobile-friendly ride-hailing services. Many people, including students and even some professionals, started driving Ubers in their free time to earn an extra buck or two. All was well with the world for the first few months. Then started a period of consolidation and intense market turf wars.

Smaller companies were eaten up or thrown out of business by cash-rich ventures. Others merged to sustain in the fiercely competitive market. Today, every regional market has not more than two or three major players who have created a sort of monopoly (or duopoly, if you will) — Uber (well, Uber is almost everywhere in the world, with different amounts of market penetration) and Lyft in the US, Gett in the UK, MyTaxi across Europe, Grab and GoJek in Malaysia and Indonesia, Ola in India and Didi Chuxing in China. The tentacles of capitalist ideology entered a revolutionary market that had the power to transform how people offer services and how people moved around.

Market exploitation by leaders

After consolidation, the service providers started milking the market. They started with slowly increasing the commissions they took from drivers. Then they introduced a phenomenon called “surge prices,” which, to date, defies common sense, but makes perfect financial sense — charge more from customers when they desperately need your services. A quick look at a decently popular reviews site will tell you that Uber isn’t very popular in the eyes of drivers and customers alike who have shared frustrating accounts of their experiences. There have been reports that Uber has an annual driver turnover rate of as high as 50% and in desperation, it is recruiting drivers with questionable backgrounds and disparagingly low creditworthiness.

All of the above-mentioned problems stem from the typical centralized corporate culture we are accustomed to these days of “Let’s f**k it up” in the name of “disruption” — unnecessary aggression, lower ethical bar and a “win-at-all-costs” attitude of young start-ups; the $120 billion hyper-inflated (self) market capitalization notwithstanding.

It is time for disruption. Again!

While there is no denying the tremendous potential of this business model, the problems are far greater than the solutions. The market, it would seem, is ready for another disruption, for want of a better word. And this is where Drife comes in.

Drife calls itself a “NexGen decentralized ride-hailing platform.” It is powered by blockchain and intends to “empower both, the drivers and commuters.” What does this mean? Let’s break it down.

Understanding Drife

Drife, like any other ride-hailing service, is an app using which you hail a cab, as you would an Uber, or an Ola, if you are in India. It is a platform that connects cab owners and commuters. But this is where the similarities end. Drife’s use of blockchain makes the entire ecosystem completely decentralized in keeping with the underlying democratic connotations of the technology. This affords complete transparency, honesty and a system of “trustlessness” (which interestingly, is not an absence of trust, but a system where nobody requires to trust any entity; the trust is inherently built-in) that ultimately benefits all stakeholders of the system.

Let us take a quick look at the problems that plague the industry and what Drife aims to do in order to address those problems.

Driver commissions — A sharp bone of contention for drivers. What started at 15–18% has now risen to almost 35% in some regions. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute that builds on an MIT study finds that Uber drivers take home less than the minimum wage in the biggest markets in the world. So while rides have become cheaper for commuters, drivers are feeling the brunt. The entire onus of maintaining the car, miscellaneous expenses and their well-being are on the drivers. This clearly shows that driving for ride-hailing services is certainly not economically viable. And because most companies are bleeding and earn less per ride than they spend, eventually, the money will have to come from somewhere. And drivers’ commission seems the best option because they cannot charge more from customers.

Drife, on the other hand, seeks to completely do away with commissions. Surprising as it may seem, drivers will receive the entire fare amount paid by the rider, without the platform charging even a penny. So how does Drife make money? To enter the Drife ecosystem, drivers will pay an annual subscription that will be as low as the monthly commission drivers are currently paying on other platforms. Drife plans to eventually do away with the subscription too, and hand the platform over to the community.

Bad service reputation — With drivers not making enough by driving Olas and Ubers, it is no surprise that they are frustrated. The frustration of the inability to make ends meet can quickly snowball into bad service and eventually physical harm of the drivers and passengers. There have been countless incidents of riders assaulting drivers on account of a ride gone bad. And vice versa.

Drife, with its fair and commission-free distribution of money, is aiming to create a robust system of reviews and ratings where stakeholders will not only earn “reputation points” but will also earn monetary rewards in terms of the platform’s own cryptocurrency, the DRF tokens. It will also seek the active participation of the community in times of distress for a commuter. Any member who intervenes justly and in a timely manner to thwart any untoward incident will be rewarded, leading to a safer ecosystem for both riders and drivers. A “Badge of Honor” will be given to both riders and drivers who proactively participate in making the platform better. Along with this reputation badge, they will also receive DRF tokens as an incentive.

How will Drife attract drivers and riders?

Drife is confident that with its transparent, zero-commission model, it will be able to attract drivers to enter the ecosystem. An incentive scheme wherein drivers can bring in more drivers into their network and get rewarded in terms of a part of their referred driver’s earnings, will also create motivation for the driver community to increase. Riders, on the other hand, will more than welcome an alternative that is fair and transparent and which shows real-time prices and does not charge “surge” or prime” charges.

Parting thoughts

What Drife is aiming at creating is not a money-making platform that exploits drivers and takes commuters on a “ride” but an empowered community that partakes of all the services and also gives back and gets rewarded eventually. It is a truly democratic ecosystem wherein the responsibility of good service lies with every single participant. It is time for an alternative and Drife seems to be ready to fill in the gap.

If you have any inquiries, please contact us through our official DRIFE Telegram Chat

https://t.me/Drife_officialchat

Stay tuned for more news coming soon!

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