Pricing, Matching Probability, and Detour Cost in a Ride-Sharing Market
Due to the scarcity of vehicles, some ride-sourcing companies are promoting dynamic ride-sharing services. Unlike traditional ride-sharing programs, the dynamic ride-sharing services do not require passengers to pre-arrange their schedules of routes and time. Without prearrangement, it is not guaranteed that a ride in the dynamic ride-sharing system will be paired with a second ride. In this paper, the mean probability of rides being matched with other rides is named as the matching probability, which is dominated by the ride-sharing passenger demand and the detour time. The matching probability, detour time and passenger demand are endogenously interacted: the increase of passenger demand improves the matching probability, which in turn increases the detour time and further discourages passengers from choosing ride-sharing services. To model these complex interactions, this study proposes an equilibrium model in which passengers make mode choices among ride-sharing service, normal ride-sourcing service and public transit service. On the other hand, the willingness of drivers to work is determined by their expected mean earnings, which come from both the ride-sharing service and normal ride-sourcing service. The platform impacts the market equilibrium by two essential control variables, i.e. the ride-sharing pricing and matching strategies. To help the ride-sourcing platform makes better decisions, the authors discuss the optimal ride-sharing pricing and matching strategies for maximizing platforms’ profit or social welfare. It is found that introducing ride-sharing services into the ride-sourcing market can lead to a win-win-win situation, where the platform, passengers and drivers are all better off.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP020 Standing Committee on Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies.
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Corporate Authors:
Transportation Research Board
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Authors:
- Yang, Hai
- Ke, Jintao
- Li, Xinwei
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0000-0002-6262-5343
- Wang, Hai
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
- Date: 2019
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: References;
- Pagination: 5p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Costs; Detours; Mode choice; Pricing; Ridesharing
- Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Society;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01697989
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 19-00618
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM