The new “ridesharing services” offered by high-tech companies Uber and Lyft – both of which launched in Sonoma County over the past few weeks – are deceptively simple.
Download the app to your smartphone and register with your credit card information. Then, whenever you want a ride, push a button. If a driver is available at that time and place, they’ll be along to get you – and the app tells you who’s coming, where they are and how soon they’ll get there.
It all works thanks to GPS technology and the companies’ software, which pairs riders and drivers in real-time. And it depends on the drivers, of course, who the companies say are vetted in advance and simply log in to be ersatz taxi drivers whenever they want.
Every time a driver drops off a fare, the app charges the rider’s credit card and the driver collects the fee – while Uber or Lyft take a cut.
“You can take a Lyft up to 60 miles” from the pickup spot, said company spokesperson Paige Thelen. Currently, she said, the company’s coverage area in this region ranges from Geyserville to Novato, east to Napa Valley and south to Vallejo.
Its drivers are not on the clock per se, but rather, she said, “they can log into driver mode whenever they’re ready” – perhaps on the way to work in the morning.
“If they live in Petaluma and they work in Sonoma … they can turn on the app in Petaluma, pick up some passengers on the way, and drop them off on their way to work,” Thelen explained.
“The beauty of the platform is how flexible it is.”
That makes two platforms, with the advent of both companies in Sonoma County. Lyft arrived last Friday, June 6, with promotions still ongoing for free rides in the area up to $25. Uber arrived a month earlier, with the launch event featuring a Snoopy mascot in a Jeep Wrangler riding through Santa Rosa.
Both companies say ridership and drivers are still limited in smaller towns like Sonoma, but that demand is sure to increase.
“It’s been growing every week” throughout the county, said Spencer Rinkus of Uber. He added, “As demand grows, supply grows.”
As does the money. Just last week, Uber, which now operates in about 130 cities worldwide, was valued in its latest fund-raising round to be worth somewhere between $17 billion and $18 billion – an astonishing figure said to be greater than the value of most large old-economy companies such as Whole Foods. If true, it would make Uber the second-most-valuable startup in history, after Facebook.
“I definitely can’t talk with any authority about what’s happening with any of that money,” Rinkus said.
As if that weren’t enough attention, the company’s driver-for-hire service has taxi companies extremely worried – so much so that they held anti-Uber protests around Europe on Wednesday, clogging city streets from London to Berlin.
Still, neither service has so far managed to replace local taxis. While they’re priced competitively with taxi services, both apps show spotty coverage in Sonoma, depending on where and when a ride request is made.
For example, on Tuesday morning at around 10 a.m., a request for a Lyft car in downtown Sonoma resulted in the message: “All drivers are currently busy.” At the same time, Uber’s app said it had an available driver two minutes from the Plaza.
Then, on Thursday morning, neither service had a ride available in downtown Sonoma.
“During the week there are always going to be drivers available, but it’s definitely more during the weekends right now,” Rinkus said. In Sonoma proper, he said, there are around 15 to 20 drivers currently signed on with the service.
So at this point, riders may need not only a smartphone, but a little luck, to get around.
That may be why Vern English, owner of Vern’s Taxi service in downtown Sonoma, isn’t too worried about the new high-tech competition. In fact, “I wasn’t even aware of it,” he said Wednesday.
English, who started out 15 years ago with just two cars, today runs a fleet of 14 cars and employs 20 drivers, all of them licensed through the city of Sonoma.
He said business continues to be strong – for example, “We’ve been to Petaluma three times today and Napa four times.”
A one-way trip from Sonoma to Petaluma is about $40 through Vern’s Taxi service – comparable to the estimated $44 to $58 for an Uber ride. The ridesharing services claim they are generally cheaper than most taxi services.
English also noted that “Sonoma has rules and regulations we have to follow” as taxi drivers. That includes the requirement that they carry a million-dollar liability – which Lyft drivers also carry through the company, according to Thelen.
English spoke of one local taxi driver who operated outside of those rules. This person used to work for English before striking out on his own, and today he drives clients around without being licensed by the city – even letting riders smoke pot in his car, according to English.
“He’s a little like Uber,” he joked.
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