Driver’s Seat Puts Data — and Power — in Gig Workers’ Hands

Using Data to Boost Incomes and Agency

A driver-owned cooperative supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, Driver’s Seat helps rideshare and delivery workers gain access to industry statistics through their app – including which ride and delivery apps are the most lucrative and which trips make the most money.

It then creates a personalized analysis for each driver to help them better plan their earning strategies.

“What stood out about Driver’s Seat was the innovative way they combined deep commitment to worker organizing and top-notch data science,” said Kevin O’Neil, Managing Director of Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation.

Here's How It Works

Following The Rockefeller Foundation’s initial grant, Driver’s Seat received further investment and support from impact investors like Impact America Fund, Draper Richards Kaplan, Mozilla, the Ford Foundation, and the Omidyar Network.

This has allowed Driver’s Seat to begin work with other gig worker advocacy and organizing groups – including Rideshare Drivers United, Los Deliveristas Unidos, and Jobs with Justice.

Driver’s Seat is also collaborating with city and state officials to bring gig worker voices into transportation planning to create safe community spaces for workers to rest and recharge – as well as developing incentives for drivers to go green.

Here is how it works:

At the beginning of a work shift, drivers check into the free Driver’s Seat app to see which gig apps (Lyft, Uber, Doordash, etc.) are paying best in their area.

The app then begins to automatically log drivers’ time, miles, and pay by syncing – with permissions – into the gig apps they’re using.

At the end of the day, drivers receive custom analytics within the Driver’s Seat app on their daily earnings and trends.

The app also allows drivers to track and advance daily, monthly, and even yearly income goals.

 Users of Driver’s Seat app can become cooperative members and are eligible for a share of the cooperative’s profits, as well as to serve on the cooperative’s elected board.

Empowering Essential, But Undervalued, Workers

Some 36 percent of all U.S. employees are gig workers–temporary, contract, or freelancers. Gig workers predominantly earn low wages, and are overwhelmingly people of color.

Over 62 percent of drivers consider ridesharing their full-time job, and juggle multiple apps to earn a living wage.

Because independent work does not fit neatly into labor statistics, it tends to be underreported and understudied, labor researchers note.

Shifting from Anecdotal Evidence to Data

Corporate rideshare apps such as Lyft, Uber, and Doordash are constantly collecting data on their millions of drivers, including customer hot spots, peak work hours, traffic patterns, and estimated hourly wages – data that, when analyzed, would be a critical resource for drivers’ incomes but isn’t made available to them.

Instead, before an app like Driver’s Seat, anecdotes and word of mouth were often the only way for drivers to share crucial information.

What boroughs are best for finding customers? When and where is traffic worst? What is the most profitable time to drive, and for how long?

These are the questions my dad and his friends constantly discussed.