How to Set Up Direct Booking as an Independent Driver, Step by Step

A direct booking is a ride a rider books with you, on your own booking page, at a fare you set. Nobody dispatches it. Nobody else is offered it. The rider picks you by name.

It is not a replacement for app work. SOLODRIVE.PRO works alongside Uber and Lyft. You keep taking app-assigned rides exactly as you do now, on the app's terms. Your booking page is for the riders who decide on their own to come back to you, on trips the app was never going to send you.

That distinction matters for how you set this up. You are not switching anything off. You are adding a lane.

Have these ready and the whole thing goes in one pass:

• About fifteen minutes, between fares or at the end of a shift.
• Your bank account details, for the payment setup.
• A rough idea of what you want to charge. You can refine it later.
• The handle you want. Think about this one before you type it, because it is permanent.

You do not need a website, a logo, or an app of your own. You are not building software.

Your booking page lives at `app.solodrive.pro/t/{handle}`. The handle is the name it sits under, shown as `@yourhandle` in your operator console.

Pick something a rider can say out loud and type without asking you to spell it. Your first name works. So does your first name and your city.

One thing to get right the first time: your handle is permanent. It cannot be changed after launch. That is on purpose. Once your booking page is on cards in the car and saved in riders' phones, it has to still work next year. Look at it, make sure it is the name you want to be known by, then move on.

Open the Base Location tab in your operator console and start typing your base address, then pick it from the suggestions that drop down. Picking from the list matters, because that is what saves the exact coordinates. Typing the address without selecting a suggestion will not save it properly.

Your base does three quiet jobs. It stands in for your location when live GPS is not available, it centers address suggestions on your area so the right streets come up first when you or a rider type a pickup, and it is the starting point for figuring the distance on a ride.

Set it to where you actually start your day, not where you happen to be sitting right now.

Open the Pricing tab. This is where you decide what a ride costs.

First, the thing that confuses people: the rates here are what you charge the rider. They are a separate thing from the SOLODRIVE.PRO application fee. You set the fare, and the fee comes out of it. Do not mix the two up.

The settings that get you to a real price:

• Rate mode. How the fare is figured. The default charges whichever comes out higher, time or distance. That is a safe default, because it keeps a short but slow ride from underpaying you.
• Base fare. What every ride starts at.
• Minimum fare. The floor. No ride costs less than this, however short.
• Per mile rate. What gets added for each mile.
• Per minute rate. What gets added for each minute.

There are more settings than that, and you can leave them alone for now. These five price a real ride. If you are not sure what your numbers should be, the guide on how much to charge for a private ride works the math for your market.

Setting your own rate is the part drivers underestimate. On a direct booking the fare is agreed before the trip instead of calculated for you after it.

Until payments are connected, your console shows a banner on every tab saying payment setup is required, with a Connect Stripe button next to it. That banner is the one real thing standing between your page and your first paycheck.

Stripe is the company that moves the money, the same payment system ordinary businesses use. SOLODRIVE.PRO does not hold your earnings and hand them over. When a rider pays, the money runs through your own Stripe account and out to your own bank. Connecting Stripe is how you say where your money goes.

When you tap the button, Stripe's own setup opens. You are on Stripe's screens at that point, not ours, which is why your identity and bank details go straight to them. Stripe asks who you are, what bank account to pay, and a few details about your driving as your business. Have the bank details in front of you so you do not have to stop halfway.

Getting sent back to your console is not the same as being live. Stripe sometimes needs one more thing before it will let you take real card payments. If you land back and the banner is still there, tap Connect Stripe again and finish what it asks for. You are truly live when the banner is gone. No banner means you are on.

Full walkthrough: Connecting Stripe and going live.

Two tabs turn a blank form into something a rider trusts.

In Profile, set your business name. That is what riders see at the top of your page and in messages from you. You can add a short description of your service, a support phone and email, and a photo of yourself so a rider knows the face behind the name.

In Brand, set how the page looks: a main color, an accent color for buttons, a button shape, and a light or dark look. A live preview on the same screen shows exactly what the rider will see while you change it.

Worth doing at the same time: the Vehicle tab. Your car's make, model, color, and plate become the line a rider reads while you are pulling up, so they know which car is yours.

None of this is decoration. A rider deciding whether to book a person or reopen the app is deciding on how the page looks in about two seconds. Full walkthrough: setting up your booking page.

Two switches in the Storefront tab actually take you live: the master storefront switch, and accepting requests. Turn them on when you are ready to be found.

You can also set a busy message and a closed message that riders see when you are not taking requests, and set hours if you want the page to follow a schedule. Neither is required. The page works the moment it is on and accepting requests.

Your operator console keeps a short list of anything still missing before you can go live. Work down it and you are done.

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that produces bookings. A live page nobody has seen books nothing.

Say your handle. It is the weakest version on its own, because it asks a rider to remember a name while getting out of a car with a bag in each hand. It still works when you follow it with one of the two below.

Share your link. If you are already messaging about the pickup, send your booking page into that thread while you are still parked. It ends up somewhere they can scroll back to.

Let them scan your QR. Your booking QR code is the version that does not depend on anyone remembering anything. The rider points a phone at it and lands on your booking page. A headrest sleeve or a small window cling puts it in front of every passenger you carry, whether you bring it up or not.

Print a card if you can. Riders keep them in wallets and glove boxes for months.

One line at the end of a good ride is all the pitch this needs: if they ever want a ride like this again, they can book you directly. No speech about fees or the gig economy. There is a fuller set of lines on what to say to a rider so they book you directly next time.

The rider picks the date, the time, and the pickup, and sends the request. No card at that step. They do not download anything and they do not create an account.

You get the request and review it before anything is on your calendar. You see the trip, the time, and the pickup, and you send back the fare. Nobody else is offered it. That is the difference from a ride scheduled inside Uber or Lyft, which sits in the platform queue until pickup and then goes to whoever is nearby.

The rider sees your fare and puts a card on it, and that is what confirms the ride. The card is authorized then, not charged. Nobody is asked for a card before they know the price, and you are not holding a slot for a trip with no payment behind it.

Then you drive it. When the trip is complete the fare is captured through SOLODRIVE.PRO from the card already on the booking, so there is no cash conversation at the curb and no invoice to chase.

The rider also lands on your customer list, which is a read-only list of the riders who have booked you. It stays yours.

The second booking is easier than the first, because the rider has already done it once. The page is familiar, they know how the fare comes back, and the trip was fine.

If their trip repeats, that is where a direct booking stops being a one-off. Advance and scheduled bookings, so a rider can reserve you ahead instead of hoping you are free, start on the Basic plan. Recurring regulars run on Pro: you mark a rider as a regular, the rider consents, their card is saved, and SOLODRIVE.PRO bills that ride automatically each week on a Stripe subscription.

That is the point of the setup you just did. Not one extra fare. A number you can count on before the week starts.

Setup itself costs nothing. Your booking page, your handle, direct bookings, and your QR code all start on the Free plan at no monthly cost, so you can take a direct ride before you pay anything.

Every plan takes a fee on your direct rides, and it is a fraction of what the apps take. The fee is whichever is greater, the percentage or the per-ride minimum:

• 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. Advance and scheduled bookings start here.
• Pro: $45 a month, plus 4% per paid ride with a $1.00 per-ride minimum. Recurring regulars run here, and the first $500 processed each month is included.
• Elite: $100 a month, with no SOLODRIVE.PRO per-ride fee.

Worked at the Free plan on a $30 direct fare: 12% is $3.60, which is greater than the $2.00 minimum, so the fee is $3.60 and you keep $26.40. On a $12 fare, 12% is $1.44, the $2.00 minimum is greater, so the fee is $2.00 and you keep $10.00. Always run it as the greater of the two.

The fee comes off a fare you set yourself, on a ride nobody dispatched to you. Full details are on the pricing page, and which plan fits how you drive works the totals at real volumes.

1. Claim your handle. Your booking page is live at `app.solodrive.pro/t/{handle}`. 2. Set your base of operations, picking the address from the suggestions. 3. Set your rate mode, base fare, minimum fare, per mile and per minute rates. 4. Connect Stripe and finish it until the payment banner is gone. 5. Fill in your profile, your brand, and your vehicle. 6. Turn the storefront on and switch on accepting requests. 7. Put your QR in the car and share your link with riders who already ride with you. 8. Confirm the first request yourself, drive it, and the fare is captured when the trip completes.

You keep driving Uber and Lyft through every step. Direct bookings fill the hours around app work rather than replacing it.

How long does it take to set up direct booking?

The settings take about fifteen minutes if you have your bank details ready. The one part that can run longer is the Stripe connection, because Stripe occasionally asks for something more before it clears you to take card payments. When the payment banner in your console is gone, you are live.

Do I need a website to take direct bookings?

No. Your booking page at your handle is the page riders book on. You do not build it, host it, or maintain it, and a rider does not need an app or an account to use it. There is a fuller answer on whether drivers need a website.

Can I change my handle after I set it up?

No. Your handle is permanent after launch, which is why it is worth a minute of thought before you claim it. It is the address riders save and the one printed on anything you hand out, so it has to keep working long after you set it.

Do I have to stop driving Uber or Lyft to do this?

No. SOLODRIVE.PRO works alongside the apps, not instead of them. App-assigned rides are completed on the app's terms exactly as they are now. Your booking page is for riders who choose to come back to you directly. See can you drive Uber and take private clients.

How does a rider pay me on a direct ride?

Through SOLODRIVE.PRO. The rider sends the request without a card, you send back the fare, and the card goes on before the ride is confirmed. It is authorized at that point rather than charged, and the fare is captured when the trip is complete. Taking payment on a direct ride is included on every plan, including Free. You never handle cash or chase an invoice.

Do riders need to download anything?

No. Your booking page opens in a normal phone browser. The rider taps your link or scans your QR code, picks the date, time and pickup, and sends the request. The card comes later, once you have sent them a fare.

Can a rider book me for a date in the future?

Yes. Advance and scheduled bookings start on the Basic plan, so a rider can reserve a specific time with you instead of hoping you are free. Recurring regulars, where the same ride repeats and bills automatically each week, run on Pro.

What if nobody books me the first week?

Then the setup is still done and it cost you nothing on the Free plan. The page is live, the QR is in the car in front of every passenger, and the offer costs one sentence at the end of a good ride. The only real mistake is making that offer once and stopping.