The growing pains of San Francisco’s app-driven amateur car service business
Photo Credit: Flickr.com / Zimride Crew
Skift Take
As they strive to make it easier for people to get around and people earn some extra cash, these (paid) sharing services will face their biggest challenge finding success in destinations not densely populated or where taxi and transit systems work well.
Late for a pickup basketball game without a taxi in sight, San Francisco resident Shobeir Shobeiri summoned a nearby driver with a few taps on his smartphone. Five minutes later, Shobeiri, 31, found himself in the back seat of a silver Scion sporting a furry pink mustache on its front bumper.
The car is one of 250 registered to cruise the taxi-deficient City by the Bay for Lyft, a ride-sharing service started in August by Zimride Inc. The 5-year-old company vets people looking to become drivers, connects them with ride-seekers through a software application for Google Inc.’s Android or Apple Inc.’s iPhone, and tracks the trip’s distance using the phone’s GPS to estimate the fare.
Zimride is just one of several venture-backed companies capitalizing on city congestion, high gas prices and a lackluster economy that is leading people to play taxi driver to earn extra cash. And now Zipcar Inc. is examining the sprouting industry as it seeks to move beyond hourly car rentals to
