What Exactly is Ridesharing and How Does It Work?

Ridesharing has become quite a confusing concept with the arrival of latest ridesharing services. Technically, you would define ridesharing as a journey you would take with another car driver who is going to the same destination as you. You could call it a way of getting lift from someone who was going to the same place as you. The good thing about such a ride is that you don’t have to pay much for your ride. It is because the driver of the car who has come to pick you up was going to go to that destination anyway.

For more than 2 decades the technology industry had been working on making it possible for people to get rides from the comfort of their homes. However, the technology available a couple of decades ago was not as good as today’s technology. People had to make phone calls to companies that would arrange cars for them to go from one place to another. There was no particular system that people could use to get ridesharing in real time. If you had to go somewhere right at this moment you could not arrange a car using the old services.

However, companies like Uber and Lyft completely changed the way ridesharing used to work. These companies came up with their ridesharing applications that people could easily use on their smartphones to arrange their drive with Uber and Lyft. There are literally more than 2 billion people in the world who have smartphones. These people could easily download this application on their phones and call for a ride using their smartphones. The calling method is not the old way of making a phone call to the taxi driver. People now have smartphone applications that let them arrange a car for their ride using only a few taps.

The modern ridesharing has become confusing because of the way companies like Lyft and Uber are working. Private drivers with their cars can sign up with these companies and choose to pick up people from their departing points, so they can drive with Lyft and Uber. These car drivers don’t necessarily have to be licensed cab drivers. These are people with their own cars who sign up for the service and use their cars as a taxi service. Why this type of ridesharing is not considered true ridesharing is because people who come to pick you are working as contractors of these companies and the might not be going to the same place as you.

Ridesharing companies are on the rise these days because of what they are offering. They allow people looking for rides to set their location on the application and wait for a driver at that location. The passengers don’t have to pay a tip to the drivers but they are not stopped from doing so if they want to do it at will. It is not to say that normal cabs cannot sign up on these websites. However, these companies have SUV and exotic car options available for their passengers if they are not comfortable with ordinary looking sedans.