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The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

nextcity.org

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Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#71

Post by usrusr »

nologic01 wrote: post #67

"Digital" cooperatives using (optionally) open source platforms is an idea that should be much more explored imho. The concept applies to so many verticals involving small companies or individual operators (from taxis, to hotels, to restaurants, to real estate agents, local bookstores, cinemas, to game developers etc. etc.) The inability of large numbers of small entities to coordinate and cooperate in the digital er…

So much "this!". The hotel/booking is the most blatant example, because the bar for "good enough" wouldn't really be that far up.

The only moat they have is worldwide discoverability (a regional cooperative just won't reach people who visit once, cooperatives would have to start global, or at least be really, really good at federating) and that the threshold for critical mass in that market is winner takes all: at least when you are not looking for that one spot for a two-weeks getaway (you might even enjoy trawling multiple platforms) but going through serial booking for a road trip (doesn't even matter wether it's bulk ahead or on the go),

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#72

Post by berkes »

renewiltord wrote: post #35
throwaway413 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? Curious.

A bit self-evident, isn't it? No one is going to give you capital so that you can hire workers to seize the capital.

That's a bit shortsighted.

There's good margins in any software that people want to use. There's money in Nextcloud hosting, Matomo services, or Bitcoin. All of which are open source projects that attempt(or attempted to) put power back in hands of users. There are many more examples.

VC will gladly fund a business model with solid margins. They often prefer those that might get a monopoly, grow exponential etc. sure. But it's certainly not the only mode.

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#73

Post by kortilla »

langsoul-com wrote: post #68

Doesn't uber lose money, that's why they can undercut everyone else. Nobody is going to pay more money, Ie every other service that requires a profit, compared to just uber.

No. Uber is not VC funded anymore and has to sustain a business.

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#75

Post by TylerE »

usrusr wrote: post #71
nologic01 wrote: post #67

"Digital" cooperatives using (optionally) open source platforms is an idea that should be much more explored imho. The concept applies to so many verticals involving small companies or individual operators (from taxis, to hotels, to restaurants, to real estate agents, local bookstores, cinemas, to game developers etc. etc.) The inability of large numbers of small entities to coordinate and cooperate in the digital er…

So much "this!". The hotel/booking is the most blatant example, because the bar for "good enough" wouldn't really be that far up. The only moat they have is worldwide discoverability (a regional cooperative just won't reach people who visit once, cooperatives would have to start global, or at least be really, really good at federating) and that the threshold for critical mass in that market is winner takes all: at le…

Depends on the vertical. I would not be real comfortable booking lodging on some random portal, especially if we're talking more of an AirBnB thing vs hotels.

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#76

Post by usrusr »

aiappreciator wrote: post #51
EGreg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the workers and the customers ?? That’s why I am a fan of crowdfunding with utility tokens. People on HN have to realize there is more to capitalism than shareholder capitalism and extracting rents from ecosystems ;-)

The customers want to donate money to local taxi operators and drivers? The taxi drivers who barely understand what open source is? This can work, but definitely not through crowdfunding. This better works through say business associations, say a national taxi association (composed of all small/regional taxi operators). That association can allocate a small portion of the funds to build this open taxi framework.

The truth is that I'd be happier donating to the project of a non-exploitative marketplace platform than tip a driver out of starvation while virtually all of the nominal rate goes to making a unicorn golden.

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#77

Post by aaa_aaa »

djbusby wrote: post #16

Oh man, a friend and I were thinking of building out a FOSS Uber clone for this exact purpose. Would allow a bunch of smaller regional Ubers to exist. Couldn't get funding and I don't have free time to write that much code. Hope these folks are able to succeed. FOSS is a great path for workers to seize the means of production.

> FOSS is a great path for workers to seize the means of production.

Good for people who works for themselves but please can we stop implying they are doing this for pushing communist ideals?

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#78

Post by pabs3 »

djbusby wrote: post #16

Oh man, a friend and I were thinking of building out a FOSS Uber clone for this exact purpose. Would allow a bunch of smaller regional Ubers to exist. Couldn't get funding and I don't have free time to write that much code. Hope these folks are able to succeed. FOSS is a great path for workers to seize the means of production.

There is LibreTaxi for that:

https://libretaxi.org/

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#79

Post by pabs3 »

darwinwhy wrote: post #12

I wonder whether they've considered the possibility of open-sourcing their apps and backend. Perhaps this is just Pollyannaism, but I tend to believe that workers' rights and open-source are the perfect match in a market like ridesharing. "Just goodenough" open source solutions have difficulty breaking through in consumer software (e.g. the mythical "year of the linux desktop"), but in a market like ridesharing, work…

None of their repos are public, so probably not. There is LibreTaxi though.

https://github.com/driverscooperative https://libretaxi.org/

Re: The Drivers Cooperative: New York’s driver-owned ride-hailing app

#80

Post by pabs3 »

AlbertCory wrote: post #63

This is a fine effort, but FOSS is a minor part of it. The big thing is the money -- how much of the fare do the drivers keep; how many staff are required to run it; is the allocation of rides fair; can customers get what they want; how are drivers hired and fired; how are the executives chosen; etc. There are lots of co-ops in many different industries. The Berkeley Cheeseboard is a co-op that's existed for decades.…

This app is not FOSS, they have no public repos:

https://github.com/driverscooperative

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