💼 Copy this business to make $500/week passively (Business Feature #2)

🤔What It Is

Idriveyourcar.com is a car service company where the customers and driven in their own cars

💸The Business

The company name is self-explanatory. Like Uber, Lyft, and other private car services, Idriveyourcar.com will provide you with a driver who will drive to your pick-up location and take you to and from your destination.

Unlike Uber or private car services, however, the driver transports you in your own car.

Services the company offers include:

• Airport drop-off and pickup

• Event drop-off and pickup

• Full/Part Time drivers for individuals and/or families

• Long Distance Driving

They also have a website that offers a transparent rate lookup service. The rates seem to be comparable to Uber and Lyft, which we dive into a bit more in-depth later in this edition.

🧑‍💻The Model

From afar, the business model appears to be fairly simple:

1.  idriveyourcar hires drivers

2. Customers schedule a ride in advance

3. Idriveyourcar facilitates the connection between the drivers and the customers and for that service, they take a percentage of every ride fee.

   • Note: you are also encouraged to leave a 20% gratuity. This leads us to believe that the company takes at least 20% of the ride fee.

4. After the company takes their revenue split, the rest goes to the driver.

💰Revenue Streams

• Customer payments for rides

• Gratuities for drivers

Per ZoomInfo, the company has an estimated yearly revenue of $5.8 million. With the assumption that the average cost of a ride is $100 (larger than Uber/Lyft as most of the rides are more than likely longer distance for this service), we can estimate that the company is providing over 50,000 rides a year. That is the equivalent of over 1000 rides day week and over 150 rides per day!

🔻Potential Expenses (Expected)

• Technology (i.e. GPS/Website/Customers communicating with drivers)

• Customer acquisition/advertising

• Hiring costs (Finding drivers that you can add to the payroll)

• Insurance

• Miscellaneous (HR, Legal, etc.)

One of the largest expenses for a car service company in 2024 is technology. In 2019, Uber’s costs on technology alone was $2.9 Billion. The more decentralized a car-service business is, the more profitable they get. Some centralization is required, however, to ensure satisfactory customer service and safety.

Idriveyourcar appears to offer an app for its drivers to manage their rides, but nothing on the customer-facing side other than the website. This leads us to believe that expenses are relatively small and the company could be profitable (which took Uber 15 years to reach)

😎 Customer Appeal

A private driver experience for the cost of an Uber/Lyft. A quick case study we did found that idriveyourcar.com was actually cheaper than the Uber fee in this particular scenario:

The routes and date and time for the rides above were the same. Even factoring in a 20% tip makes the up-front fare cheaper than Uber. However, adding the cost of gas to the customer and the prices are approximately the same.

🚗 Driver Appeal

Expenses who? When you drive for Uber, you are responsible for your increased car insurance along with other expenses such as gas and car repairs. For idriveyourcar, the only expenses are associated with driving your personal car to the pick-up location of your client.

Additionally, since the website appeals to more pre-planned rides, your revenue and work hours are more well-defined as compared to Uber/Lyft.

👍The Good Stuff

• Cheaper/comparable rides to Uber and Lyft

• Drivers have less expenses

• Customers can ride in their own comfortable car

• Size of ride does not matter (SUV, Truck, or Sedan, the rate will be the same)

• Sense of security (i.e. your own car versus a stranger’s)

👎The Risks

• Insurance - (What if a driver crashes while driving someone else’s car?)

• Lack of an on-demand option – All rides must be scheduled in advance

• Time Between Rides - If you drive for Uber/Lyft, once you are done with one ride, you can immediately go to your next client. Here, the driver may need to return the car and then drive their personal car to their next pick-up location.

• Security and Car Drop Off – Let’s say you drop someone off at the airport. Where do you put their keys when you return their car?

🧠 The Op Ed

We think there is potential for a low-tech version of idriveyourcar.com that can act as a passive side hustle.

Potential Steps:

1. Look into the insurance/liability aspects of driving someone else’s car.

2. Get a list of 10 vetted drivers (friends, family, etc.)

3. Acquire customers and assign drivers accordingly. You set the rates for each ride.

4. Take 15-20% off the top of each ride.

Let’s assume each ride costs $100 on average and you take 20% from every ride as the owner. That would come out to be on average $20/ride. If you connect 25 rides a week, that is an extra $500/week.

OR

Just offer the service yourself. Rides are usually needed outside of work hours and on the weekends for travel to events anyways.

📚For the Road

• The main reason self-driving cars are not ready for prime time

• A non-Tesla self-driving startup

• Self-Driving Cars: The Complete Guide