Ryan Branin wants to be part of something different.
For the past eight years, the 29-year-old has driven for Uber and Lyft. And like a growing movement of drivers, he’s fed up with his take-home pay constantly changing depending on criteria far beyond his control. He’s fed up with surge pricing. He’s fed up with supporting big tech over his local economy.
“A lot of people are tired of every aspect of their lives being controlled by an algorithm,” Branin said.
Enter the Drivers Cooperative of Colorado.
For the past two years, a group of drivers have been building their own platform to compete with the ride-hailing giants. The difference? It’s owned by each and every one of them.
“People think poor people can’t own technology,” said Minsun Ji, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, a business incubator that helped the cooperative get off the ground. “That’s not the case.”
More than 4,000 drivers have downloaded the app since its soft launch in August, motivated by a platform built by drivers, for drivers. As opposed to Uber and Lyft, where companies take a large percentage of every ride, the Drivers’ Cooperative guarantees drivers 80% of each fare. The remaining 20% goes to the cooperative.
Another key difference: No surge pricing. A ride home from the bar won’t be jacked up just because it’s late at night.
“Surge pricing screws passengers,” Branin said. “It’s price-gouging. I don’t like screwing people over to make my living.”
Ji spearheaded the project in June 2022 after consulting for a New York drivers’ cooperative — the nation’s first ride-hail app of its kind. Her task: expanding this model to other cities across the country.
When she took the executive director job with Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, Ji told the board she had one condition: She would be starting a drivers’ co-op in Colorado.
Soon after, she took her first trip to Denver International Airport to recruit drivers.
“They were super excited,” Ji said. “They said, ‘We cannot wait.’”
A group of local foundations provided the bulk of the start-up funding for the endeavor, including the Colorado Health Foundation, the Denver Foundation and the Rose Community Foundation. The co-op launched a crowd-funding campaign this fall and will continue to solicit grants from local foundations and loans from socially responsible investors.
More than 10,000 riders have downloaded the app thus far, and Ji said the cooperative hopes to attain a 10% market share within three years.
“This is revolutionary,” said state Rep. Stephanie Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat who, in 2022, became the first gig app driver elected to the Colorado legislature.
The governance structure consists of a board of four drivers, plus one seat held by the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center. The first election is set for April.
Isaac Chinyoka, the cooperative’s director of operations, said he feels pride knowing that the organization promotes upward social mobility. He’s heartened that all the money invested in the company will go to drivers and not C-suite executives.
“I’ve never felt this sense of belonging before,” he said.
The app comes three years after New York City drivers started the first cooperative of its kind. That venture — founded by a former Uber employee, a labor organizer and a black-car driver — specializes in paratransit and non-emergency medical transportation. It didn’t have an on-demand option.
Thus, the Colorado cooperative represents the first on-demand ride-hailing platform in the United States owned by drivers.
Colorado drivers — along with their counterparts across the country — in recent years have gone on strike for better wages and more transparency from companies like Uber and Lyft. They say the companies are taking a higher percentage of the fares than they used to, making it harder to earn a living wage. The companies’ algorithms, meanwhile, are opaque, critics say, leading drivers to be uncertain of how much they might make in a given week.
State lawmakers this session passed dual bills designed to increase transparency for delivery and ride-hail drivers. The bills mandate ride-hail companies divulge how much of the ride’s cost will go to the company versus the driver. The legislation also makes sure drivers know the destination and expected compensation for a ride before they accept it.
Drivers in September gathered on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol to mark the official launch of what they hope will be a nationwide worker-owned movement.
“We are the drivers’ cooperative,” they chanted. “Colorado proud!”
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