Research Summary for Riders & Drivers
Research goals
Our stakeholder research focused on the lives of ridesharing drivers and riders of transportation services.
Explore the impact current ridesharing platforms have on drivers and riders
Understand behaviors and motivations of drivers and customers
Investigate who is included and excluded from current ridesharing platforms
Identify points of tension between stakeholders and areas of opportunities
Key findings
Insights
RIDERS / END USERS
Price and convenience are the primary factors for choosing their transportation needs.
Riders of Uber/Lyft tend to be commuters and/or people with more disposable income in their 20-50's. The elderly and differently-abled people rarely use these platforms.
People who use yellow cabs tend to be more specific or niche users like tourists or travelers coming to/from train and bus stations, construction workers in the early morning, or elderly on their way to the hospital.
DRIVERS
Most drivers are immigrants who have lived in NYC for more than 10+ years.
Driving is their full-time job and the main source of income. They work long days, roughly 10-12 hours, 6 days a week.
Most drivers were referred to their service by friends or family. They enjoy the flexibility of driving and feeling like their own boss.
Uber/Lyft drivers pick up their customers anywhere. Yellow cab drivers stay within Manhattan hot spots.
Uber/Lyft drivers own and use their personal cars to drive. Yellow cab drivers lease their cars from a garage, where many will hang around after their shift (pre COVID-19).
Yellow cab drivers are not interested in transitioning to ride-sharing platforms due to the cost and lack of resources (car, car insurance).
TENSIONS
Although riders feel guilty about the ethics of ridesharing companies on drivers like the lack of benefits drivers face and stop using that particular service, their actions have an immediate negative impact on drivers. With less demand, drivers who rely on their ridesharing service as their primary source of income have less business.
For platforms like Uber & Lyft to invest in more accessible cars for differently-abled riders, would require drivers to have the right vehicles. However, if there's low demand, it can lead to drivers driving around, wasting gas, and not making very much money. This would also be a high cost for ride-sharing platform businesses.
Riders can feel uncomfortable or unsafe going into a stranger's car and want to be able to see who the driver is. Businesses want to provide safety and comfort for both riders and drivers, however, showing a picture of the driver prior could lead to discrimination.
For yellow cab drivers, there is tension between working longer hours to make up for the decrease of business and income or to invest in a car and car insurance and transition to growing ride-sharing platforms like Uber and Lyft.
Opportunities
How might we create comfort and safety without leading to cultural and racial discrimination in the ride-sharing industry?
Choosing drivers would lead to discrimination and conflict because drivers could be concerned about their privacy and riders prefer certain drivers who have similar cultural backgrounds more than others who don't.
How could a new ride-sharing platform help or include the taxi industry?
Yellow cab drivers feel overwhelmed by the decrease in business due to COVID-19 and the growth of ride-sharing services as it threatens a dying taxi industry, and are working longer hours to make up for the loss of demand. Yet, many drivers are not interested in transitioning to popular ride-sharing platforms due to the front-load cost of investment (cars, insurance, etc).
How can Uber and Lyft create a sustainable welfare system for the drivers?
Not all drivers feel supported and safe when they can't earn enough because not everyone is entitled to benefits such as health insurance, minimum wages from ridesharing services even though some customers are aware of a sense of responsibility for the treatment of drivers on these platforms.
We believe redesigning welfare/bonus structures will help drivers with low income feel more stable and increase job satisfaction.
How could ride-sharing platforms help drivers expand their skill sets so that they can be applied in other areas outside of driving?
A workforce of drivers is worried when companies invest more in autonomous driving because they could ultimately lose their jobs.
We believe building a training program for drivers to expand their skill set (ie Apple) will economically help drivers when their jobs are no longer in demand and help funnel talent to ridesharing services.
How could we help drivers understand the short and long-term financial and health trade-offs?
The typical routine of ride-sharing drivers negatively impacts their health when they push themselves to work overtime and sit for at least 6 hours a day because their revenue is less than they expected.
How could we redesign ride-sharing platforms to provide more options for differently-abled people?
Differently-abled people feel excluded when they use ridesharing services because the platforms haven't invested in more accessible cars for differently-abled riders. From business perspectives, this would be a high cost for the business in terms of financing because it can lead to drivers driving around, wasting gas, and not making very much money if there's low demand.
We believe ridesharing platforms should invest more in third-party services to provide options for differently-abled people.
How could a new ride-sharing platform create a stronger sense of community for those interested?
Unlike yellow cab drivers who have a community with other drivers from their leasing garage, Uber and Lyft drivers can feel frustrated by a lack of community with other drivers and at times.
Research Method
Our research approach began with mapping out the stakeholders that are impacted by ridesharing services. We picked two stakeholder groups and outlined them as:
Riders, or customers, who use these services.
Drivers for yellow cabs, Lyft, and Uber, who provide these services.
Based on these stakeholders, we moved forward to brainstorming assumptions that needed further validation.
DESK RESEARCH
Our desk research included covering news articles and Reddit channels. All the information we gathered from our desk research sessions was then grouped by stakeholder, and the main highlights were pulled out to analyze similarities and differences.
SURVEYS
In order to understand riders' experiences, we prepared an online survey that covered ridesharing as a transportation and delivery service. This tool gave us the opportunity to cast a wider net with the customers and gather feedback faster.
USER INTERVIEWS
To further validate our assumptions about drivers, we went into the field to interview and observe Uber, Lyft, and yellow cab drivers. To give a bigger picture of the current and potential future landscape of riders, we interviewed a design manager on Lyft's rider platform.
Team
Claudia Russo
Hyelim Lim
Liz Wang
Yiting Lu (Lora)