How it works
Driving for yourself, laid out in order.
The home page is the short version. This is the whole thing: what the model actually is, the three steps drivers climb, and the tool that does each job. Most drivers have never seen it laid out. It is not complicated, and none of it asks you to stop driving Uber and Lyft.
The foundation
The power to negotiate.
Before any of the three steps, the thing that makes them worth climbing.
On the app you know what you got paid. You never find out what the rider paid. The difference between those two numbers was never yours, and neither of you is allowed to talk about it.
Direct, there is no difference. You name the price. So you can charge a rider less than the app charged them and still take home more than the app paid you. Nobody had to be talked into anything. The money that used to sit between you is just gone.
That is worth most on the ride you most want to keep. Somebody working an hourly shift, same place, same time, every day, is counting every dollar of that fare. A better price is what makes them say yes. And they are the rider who rides ten times a week.
This is why control is not step four. It is the ground the other three stand on. Take it away and step one is just handing somebody a business card.
The tools that do this job: payments into your own Stripe account, and records that are ready when taxes are.
The story
How driving for yourself actually works.
Four ideas. None of them are complicated, and the whole model rests on them.
The introduction is rented, not given.
The app introduced you to that rider. It did not give the rider to you. Next Tuesday that same rider opens the app and gets whoever is closest. That is how the app is built. It is not personal, and it is not going to change.
A rider who liked you is worth something, and you are allowed to keep them.
Nothing about driving for the apps stops a rider from booking you direct. They already know your name and how you drive. What they have never had is a way to reach you.
Repeat is a schedule, not a hope.
A rider who commutes with you every weekday is ten rides a week. Not ten pings you had to win one at a time. One arrangement, made once, that pays every week after that.
A business is the boring part.
A page people can book. A calendar. An account the money lands in. A list of the people who came back. That is the whole machine, and SOLODRIVE.PRO is those four things in one place.
Step one · Conversions
Effort, and reward.
The effort. Say a number out loud, and hand them your link.
You drop somebody at a drive-thru in their uniform, ten minutes before a shift. They will be back tomorrow, and the day after, and they just paid app prices to get to this one.
The audition is already over. You drove them here and it went fine. What has never existed is the part where they get to ask for you again.
So tell them what you would charge to do this ride direct. Out loud, in the car, before they open the door. Then hand them the link that lets them book it.
The reward. Somebody who was going to open the app tomorrow morning now has your name and a price they already said yes to.
The tools that do this job: your booking page at your own handle, with a QR code a rider can scan while they are still thanking you, and a rider list that remembers who came back.
Step two · Reservations
More effort, bigger reward.
More effort. Ask him to book the whole week at once.
He books you Tuesday. Good. Then Wednesday morning you are back where you started, parked somewhere with the app open, waiting to find out what today is.
A rider who has to think of you every morning is a rider you lose to whoever is closer on the morning he is running late.
So ask him to put the next two weeks in at once. Same shift, same time. He already plans his week around that schedule. You are the only one still treating it like a surprise.
Bigger reward. Thursday at seven is yours on Sunday. You stop guessing when to log on, because the week already told you.
The tools that do this job: a quote you send back before anyone commits, and reservations that hold the time so nobody can book you twice.
Step three · Recurring revenue
Best effort, best reward.
Best effort. Set his commute to repeat.
Two weeks of bookings is still two weeks of asking. Somebody has to remember to do it again, and the one who forgets first is the man with a shift to get to.
So stop booking it. Set it once and let it run. Same rider, same time, every week, until one of you says otherwise.
Best reward. The money arrives whether you thought about it that morning or not. That is the whole difference between a good week and a week you can count on.
One audition. One relationship. Ten rides a week.
The tool that does this job: a standing weekly booking that bills on its own.
Start at step one.
You do not have to do the whole climb today. One passenger you were already driving, who now has a way to ask for you again.
About two minutes. No card required. No app required.
Keep driving Uber and Lyft the whole time.