TRIDE and true

Tulsa’s ride-sharing future looks increasingly homegrown

There’s a new fleet in town, and they’re not scared of Uber.  

Mack Parks and Blake Litton’s brainchild TRIDE is the buy-local answer to the price-escalating car service options of Uber and Lyft. The two enterprising Tulsans figured a local alternative in a start-up city would make for a formidable opponent. 

“We wanted to start here and take on Goliath,” Litton said.

Litton said their start-up grew out of the same reason that most do: frustration. 

“Mack and I drove [for Uber] for fun and to meet new people, and the extra money helped pay some medical bills and student loans I had. We would network with other drivers while out driving, and 99 percent of them hated the way Uber treated their drivers.” 

To be more specific, Litton cited Uber’s plunging ride rates and deep commission cuts (often upwards of 25 percent) as a major pain point for drivers. Earnings as little as $3 from a 15-20 minute ride is commonplace, only to have to turn right back around and drive the 15 or 20 minutes back home. Big-ticket rides late at night usually make up for slower afternoons, but not always.

With TRIDE, Litton and Parks aim to take the best aspects of a car service, and make them more equitable, more affordable, and more reliable.

Like its competitors, TRIDE offers three tiers of on-demand transportation: sedan, SUV, and luxury. Customers can tap within the app to order a car, or pre-order rides for a later time. The car arrives, the rider hops in, cruises to their destination, and is then charged within the app. Cash tips are acceptable within the vehicle, in addition to in-app tipping. Drivers are subjected to background checks, and must present a clean record free of DUI or drug-related offenses, reckless driving or fatal accidents, and cannot have a history of criminal activity. 

Perhaps the biggest difference between TRIDE and the bigger guys is that they wholeheartedly reject what Litton calls “the dynamic pricing model.” 

This means no waking up to the dismal realization that the foggy 2 a.m. Uber ride that should have cost $10 somehow rang up at $40. (Hello, New Years Eve 2015.)

“Uber calls theirs ‘Surge’ pricing, and Lyft calls theirs ‘Prime Time’ pricing. It’s where they raise their rates late at night—usually around bar close, big events or bad weather,” said Litton. “Passengers can sometimes pay 750 percent [more during] Lyft Prime Time pricing, or seven times the normal rates with Uber’s pricing like it did during the early hours of Christmas Eve around 1:30am.” 

Typically, dynamic pricing is used to encourage more drivers to get on the road during peak hours. TRIDE combats this by ensuring a sustainable hourly rate despite the number of rides given. Uber and Lyft drivers cite the imbalance of time spent and profit gained as a major frustration with those services, along with the 25 percent commission deduction. With TRIDE, drivers can either make an hourly wage ($20 an hour guaranteed) or a lump payout sum—whichever is greater—less TRIDE’s $1.75 per ride pairing fee and 10 percent commission cut. 

At $0.20 more per mile, TRIDE’s rates are slightly higher than Uber and Lyft’s. But Litton said the fact that the company never raises rates makes up for it. “We’re not going to break your pocket book. Not to mention the passenger is supporting a Tulsa-based business, not a business monopoly in Cali.”   

The nascent service has already spread to Austin, Wichita Falls, and Corpus Christi, Texas. Parks and Litton have their sights set on more expansion, hoping to be in Lawton, Muskogee, Bartlesville, Tahlequah, and a few other Texas cities in 2017.

TRIDE also puts a heavy emphasis on driver support and a high standard of service. Each driver gets a personal meeting with a team leader before starting, and Litton said he and Parks make a point to recognize high performance from drivers, and strive to treat each like actual employees, or “family.”

“Tulsa is our home, and we want this to succeed in Tulsa,” Litton said. “We’re a local startup that has been self-funded, and we have a passion to reinvent the way the rideshare industry should be: honest and fair.”

For more from Megan, read her article on The Boxyard.