THE ECONOMICS OF SHARE RIDE PASSENGER SERVICE

Share ride service is a compromise between taxi and bus service in urban transport, combining the convenience of taxis with the economics of multiple passenger loads. This paper first examines the availability of share ride services in North America. An operations and cost model of share ride service is developed in order to examine the cost and productivity factors that affect the potential profitability of drivers. Vehicle operating costs are collected from local taxi firms utilizing vehicles that would be used in share ride service. Information technology costs for computerized dispatching are collected from dispatch software suppliers. The model data are used to simulate profitability under various labor cost, productivity and demand scenarios, leading to an understanding of the supply side economics of ride share services. The paper concludes with hypotheses concerning the lack of shared ride services across North America.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  One Farragut Square South, Suite 500
  Washington, DC  United States  20006-4003
• Authors:
  • Chow, Garland
  • Gritta, Rich
• Conference:
  • Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Forum
  • Location: Annapolis, Maryland
  • Date: 2000-11-29 to 2000-12-1
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 467

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus transit; Demand; Economics; Labor costs; Profitability; Ridesharing; Taxi services; Urban transportation
• Subject Areas: Economics; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00804788
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 10 2001 12:00AM