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Here at Ryde, we want to share our story with you and why we started Ryde in the first place. After starting our company, we realised that there were some significant issues in the industry. We knew right away that we wanted to become a company that did things differently. A company that puts riders first.

In the gig industry, the significant problem we saw firsthand was the unfair treatment of workers. Many gig industry workers complain of low pay, being underpaid, having no access to benefits, and having no guarantee of hours and salary.

This is why we wanted to make changes, and although we're not where we want to be just yet, we are well on our way. We strongly believe that a happy workforce, paid well with access to as many benefits as we can provide, will lead to high productivity for our customers, who can, in turn, better serve their customers.

Before we came in, many companies tried and failed with his approach. Uber, for example, has spent over $60 billion to fight against regulation—a massive amount of money that could have been better spent on improving the lives of their workers.

In addition to this, online giant Amazon has faced numerous lawsuits regarding the unfair treatment of workers and hundreds of other gig economy delivery-based businesses due to the unfair treatment of workers and underpay.

These companies spent billions of dollars on fighting lawsuits and opposing regulations. And recently, we have seen a significant drive by industry regulators to give more power to workers. Instead of fighting this regulation, we have decided not to take sides and offer our 10,000+ workers a choice of how they want to work.

Here's a timeline of how we started and where we are going with Ryde…

Launch

We knew we wanted to be rider-first; however, we didn't know precisely how to achieve it. So after building our initial customer base, we asked our riders what they thought and what they wanted to improve. The overwhelming answer was better pay—so we listened and paid our riders 20% higher than the industry average.

Year 1

We continued to work and listen carefully to our riders during our first year of operation. We learned that riders also wanted access to more benefits and not just higher pay. We began to build a more extensive customer base throughout our first year, and our network of riders is now over 10,000.

Year 2

We started to see a major development in the industry throughout our second year as regulators, looking to crack down on companies, gave workers' more status', meaning better pay and giving riders more access to benefits, time off, and guaranteed hours.

Instead of choosing sides, in either fighting this regulation or conforming to it, we decided to give our raiders options. This blended choice model is an approach we have recently launched and what we believe separates us from many other businesses in the industry.

Now

We now know that riders mostly prefer shifts instead of just 'on demand' work because of higher job security and more reliable work. This is why we are currently working on our newest delivery option for workers, Hourly +, which allows our workers to have a base amount of hours that guarantees them work while still giving them the flexible opportunity to work on demand.

Working on-demand is the model most criticised by our workers and riders across the industry, and we believe this new model is game-changing. Hourly + means more security, better pay, higher fulfilment rates, and higher productivity.

2022 and Beyond

As we move through 2022 and into the future, we are constantly working and innovating how things are done in the gig economy. We work extremely closely with our riders and honestly believe our rider-first approach can be as successful as some of the largest companies out there that are known for their customer service.

We'd love to work with your brand and ensure your riders have the best experience possible. We wish to make this happen, not just by conforming to regulation but through our innovative approach.

This world-leading and game-changing approach excites us, and we can't wait to share the experience with you. If you want to start creating a workforce of couriers for your new start-up business, please get in touch with us today.