How Many Regular Riders It Takes to Replace a Gig Shift

Not the gross. The number that reaches you.

Take one shift you drove this month. Write down what you took home after the app's cut. That figure is your target, and it is the only honest starting point, because the gross on your dashboard was never yours.

The cut is bigger than most drivers can add up in the moment. A study of more than 1.4 million Seattle trips found Uber's share of the fare grew from about 20 percent in 2019 to about 35 percent by 2024, with the average amount kept per trip rising from $4.69 to $13.06. A national labor-law review put the average across both platforms near 40 percent, and as high as 65 to 70 percent on individual rides. (Sources: Drivers Union WA, "Taking Seattle for a Ride," 2025; National Employment Law Project, 2025.)

So a shift that grossed $320 might have paid you around $200. Use your own figure. For the rest of this page I will use $200, because it is a round number and easy to move.

A direct ride is a ride a rider books with you, at your handle, at a price you set.

Say you charge $25 for a trip you already know: the weekday commute, the standing clinic run, the Friday airport drop. On the Pro plan the SOLODRIVE.PRO fee on that ride is 4 percent with a $1.00 per-ride minimum, which on a $25 fare is $1.00. You keep $24.00 of the fare you chose.

That is the piece the apps cannot match, and it is not close. On their ride they set the price and keep a third or more. On yours you set the price and a dollar comes off it.

A regular is one rider on a standing schedule. Most of them ride twice a week, because most repeat trips are round trips or a fixed weekday pattern.

Here is the week at $25 a ride on Pro, after the per-ride fee and after the plan cost, which is $45 a month and works out to about $10 a week:

• 3 regulars: 6 rides, $150 booked, about $134 left.
• 4 regulars: 8 rides, $200 booked, about $182 left.
• 5 regulars: 10 rides, $250 booked, about $230 left.
• 6 regulars: 12 rides, $300 booked, about $278 left.

Five regulars clears a $200 shift with room. Four gets close. Six replaces the shift and starts paying for the next thing.

Now run it on your rate, because the fare is yours to set. Two numbers move the answer: what you charge, and what your shift actually pays. If your typical direct fare is $18, the 4 percent lands under the $1.00 minimum, so the minimum applies and you keep $17.00. Ten rides is $170 booked, about $160 after the plan. At that fare a $200 shift is closer to thirteen rides, which is six regulars riding twice and one riding once.

That is the useful thing about this math. It gives you a rider count to aim at instead of a vague ambition to get more business.

Ten rides on your calendar are not the same as ten rides the app happened to send you.

You did not wait for them. You were not competing for them, repositioning for them, or driving empty miles to reach them. They are on a schedule you and the rider agreed on, which means the hours around them are yours to fill or to keep.

They also do not evaporate in a slow week. App volume is somebody else's demand curve. A standing Tuesday 6 AM is your demand, and it holds when the surge does not.

And they bill themselves. When you mark a rider as a regular and they agree and save a card, SOLODRIVE.PRO charges that ride every week automatically. You are not chasing money from people you like.

Recurring regulars run on the Pro plan at $45 a month. That is the plan the math above uses.

Every plan carries a fee on your direct rides, and it is a fraction of what the apps take:

• Free: $0 a month, plus 12% per paid ride with a $2.00 per-ride minimum.
• Basic: $10 a month, plus 6.5% per paid ride with a $1.50 per-ride minimum.
• Pro: $45 a month, plus 4% per paid ride with a $1.00 per-ride minimum.
• Elite: $100 a month, with no SOLODRIVE.PRO per-ride fee.

The fee always comes off a fare you chose. Full plan details are on the pricing page.

You do not go find five strangers. You look at the riders already in your car.

The people whose trips repeat are already regulars in everything but name: the weekday commuter, the standing medical appointment, the Friday airport run, the parent doing the same school-adjacent loop. Their week already has your ride in it.

When one of those trips ends, say the true thing plainly. You drive this route every week, you can hold that time, and they can book it directly with you from now on. Then share your booking page so they can set it up at your handle. From there you mark them as a regular, they agree and save a card, and the ride bills itself every week.

One rider a month is five regulars by spring. That is a slower story than most people want and a far more reliable one than waiting for a better week on the apps.

How many regular riders does it take to replace a gig shift?

For most drivers, about five. Five regulars riding twice a week is ten rides, and at a $25 fare you set yourself that is roughly $230 a week after the SOLODRIVE.PRO fee and the plan cost. Compare that with what one of your shifts actually pays you after the app's cut, and adjust the rider count up or down from there.

Can Uber and Lyft drivers really charge their own rate?

Not on a ride the app dispatches. Uber and Lyft set the fare on every trip they assign. On a direct booking the rider books you at your handle, and you set the price. You can keep driving the apps at the same time. SOLODRIVE.PRO is a direct-booking layer alongside them.

What does SOLODRIVE.PRO take out of a $25 direct fare?

On Pro, $1.00. The fee is 4 percent per paid ride with a $1.00 per-ride minimum, and 4 percent of $25 is exactly $1.00. On Free the same fare carries 12 percent, which is $3.00. On Elite there is no SOLODRIVE.PRO per-ride fee.

How many rides a week does one regular give me?

Usually two. Most repeat trips are either a round trip or a fixed twice-weekly pattern, like a commute or a standing appointment. Some regulars ride once a week and some ride five times. Count rides, not riders, when you check the math against your shift.

Do I need the Pro plan for this?

For automatic recurring regulars, yes. Recurring and standing bookings run on Pro at $45 a month. Free and Basic give you the booking page, direct bookings at your own rate, and payment capture on those rides, so you can build the rider relationships first and move up when the standing schedule is worth it.

Is this instead of driving the apps?

No. Most drivers build their regulars out of passengers the apps introduced them to, while still driving. The apps are good at the first ride. The point of a book of regulars is that the second, tenth and fiftieth ride do not depend on a dispatch.