There’s a new ridesharing company in Toronto that’s changing the game by letting drivers take home 100 per cent of the fare they receive.
HOVR is a rideshare company that says it is putting its drivers first by ensuring they receive the earnings they deserve.
Founder and President Harrison Amit says the app is fundamentally similar to other rideshare platforms, however with HOVR, he says there is one major benefit.
“The difference with us is that instead of the driver losing 30 per cent plus of their earnings from every ride, they keep 100 per cent of the fares. So, our slogan is, ‘100 per cent fare is 100 per cent fair’ and what that means is, when drivers are working for HOVR, the breakdown of the fare they receive is 100 per cent it,” he said in an interview with Now Toronto on Friday.
So, how does the company make its money if the drivers are earning 100 per cent? Well, through a membership model.
Amit says drivers pay a flat monthly membership fee of $20 which gives them access to the platform as a member. Unlike its competitors, HOVR acts on an “everybody wins” strategy where drivers keep 100 per cent of its earnings and in turn, are able to offer lower costs in services to the rider.
The founder says riders can essentially expect a 20 per cent reduction in the cost of a ride with HOVR compared to other ridesharing giants.
Thanks to this method, Amit says the response has been incredible with over 10,000 drivers signing up for the new app since its launch on May 2.
“…That’s actually about three times more than what we were planning for. So, we’ve just been hiring more people and onboarding internal members to be able to process all the drivers from the response,” the 28-year-old CEO said.
When it comes to riders, Amit says the company is trying to meet the demand as quickly as they can. However, the issue they’re currently facing is processing all the driver applications, as the city can only process a limit of one thousand drivers per day.
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THE INSPIRATION BEHIND ‘HOVR’
Amit was inspired to create HOVR after moving to Toronto in 2018 and finding it difficult and time-consuming to use the city’s public transit system. As a result, he became a frequent user of ridesharing apps to get from one meeting to the next. This led to dozens of conversations with drivers and learning about their struggles.
“I had a lot of drivers to talk to and so it was through the conversations that I was having, you know, genuine interactions with drivers, they’re telling me a day in the life, where they’re from, how this works, and why they do it,” he said.
“…There are tens of thousands of people that are basically looking to make money for the family to either support themselves, bring their family from a different country, often these drivers are newcomers to Canada,” he explained.
Amit says he relates to their stories because his own father is an immigrant and his family comes from a small town in Nova Scotia. Basically, the founder wanted to create a platform of opportunity for those who needed it. His goal is to change the industry by being equitable and transparent.
“The reality of the situation is that they are sometimes just breaking even, well below minimum wage after calculating after expenses, right, just based off of the current rideshare platforms and how they’re treated. And it’s only been getting worse year over year,” he explained.
“From a rider perspective, in order to provide a better experience, we want to first and foremost have a happy driver. Secondly, transparency. That was one of the things that I identified earlier about the rideshare industry. There’s a major gap, a major lack of transparency, where the rider doesn’t know what the driver earns and the driver doesn’t know what the rider is paying. And that creates this kind of almost transactional animosity,” he continued.
Amit says by being transparent and clear of how the business works, it can foster a better sense of community and be able to instill a higher level of gratitude from the riders.
“Having drivers be able to earn more per ride on a daily basis, it just contributes to a better overall ecosystem, a better experience for the riders as well as the drivers. We have a philosophy at HOVR that’s ‘happy driver, happy rider’,” he said.
Riders in the Greater Toronto Area can download HOVR now on the AppStore and Google Play.
