From Siberia to South Florida: A new ride-sharing service touts cheaper fares
The newest ride-sharing app for residents and visitors in sunny South Florida has its origins in Siberia, and it is not a snowmobile.
inDrive, an online ride-sharing company founded about a decade ago by Arsen Tomsky in the Republic of Sakha, the largest part of Russia, has picked Miami as the first city it enters in the United States, where it hopes to grow in coming years.
The app became available on Thursday to consumers and about 5,000 drivers here, said Adam Warner, U.S. manager for the company, in an interview with the Herald.
“Miami is really our introduction into the U.S.,” he noted.
The move comes as the battle between ride-sharing companies Uber, Lyft, and others heats up. Drivers are complaining of low wages. Competition is fierce and from a variety of companies, including ones making autonomous vehicles. This week, Cruise, which develops an all-electric, driverless car backed by General Motors, said it started testing in Miami after having already done so in San Francisco, Phoenix, and across Texas.
inDrive chose South Florida due to its increasing gridlock, limited mobility, and continuing growth. “When we looked at this market, we definitely identified it as one hungry for transportation alternatives,” Warner said.
All the while, the region’s appeal as a global business hub continues to increase. It does not hurt either that it recently lured the world’s biggest sports star.
“I’m excited that Messi is here,” Warner said. “That’s going to attract even more attention to the city center.”
Of course, Messi for now is practicing and will play with Inter Miami in Fort Lauderdale, but the club plans to construct a new arena in downtown Miami. That could worsen the already terrible traffic.
No surge pricing
inDrive says it gives users and drivers more freedom and creates a fairer pay structure. It uses a bid-based, peer-to-peer pricing model. It does not use the surge pricing that Uber does.
Once registered, a passenger enters pickup and drop-off locations and proposes a price for the route. Counteroffers from other drivers then pop up on the screen and the consumer can choose what’s best in terms of price, driver rating, and vehicle Drivers also have the option to only take rides and fares they accept.
For now, and until January 2024, drivers will not have to pay any fee to the company, said Warner.
Globally, inDrive charges drivers about 10% of each ride, he noted. In Miami, it plans to maintain a minimum ride price to make the trips worthwhile for drivers.
The company did a test run in the region in early July with about 1,500 drivers. In 2018, it also did some pilot tests in New York City.
They learned a few things. Above all, “the biggest learning was the payments system and the payments flow,” said Warner,
“We just didn’t know and have the infrastructure ready and prepared and built directly into the product as it is now,” he said. They did not realize Americans love to use their credit cards, more than people in many other countries who still use cash.
One adjustment it made was ensuring it accepted Apple Pay and Google Pay for the Miami launch.
The company operates in 48 countries. They hope their extensive experience in Latin America in past years, particularly in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, will help them get off the ground here.
The company, founded in 2012, said it has more than 175 million downloads.
Tomsky, the company’s founder and chief executive, moved to Silicon Valley in 2020. And as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he ceased any business operations in Russia by last July, said Warner. inDrive’s corporate headquarters are in Mountain View, California.
They have about 3,000 employees globally, many in Kazakhstan and Cyprus.
For now, they only have a few people in their Miami office and Warner said he does not anticipate hiring locally immediately. “We don’t have any active postings just yet.”
But that could change as they figure out Miami.
