Which SOLODRIVE.PRO Plan Fits How You Drive

• You are still getting your first direct rides. Free. $0 a month.
• Riders are asking you to pick them up next Thursday. Basic. $10 a month.
• You have a rider who rides with you every week. Pro. $45 a month.
• You are running most of your week on direct bookings. Elite. $100 a month.

That list is not about how good a driver you are. It is about volume and rhythm. A part-time driver with three standing weekly riders belongs on a higher plan than a full-time driver who takes one direct ride a month.

• Free. $0 a month. 12% per paid ride, with a $2.00 per-ride minimum.
• Basic. $10 a month. 6.5% per paid ride, with a $1.50 per-ride minimum.
• Pro. $45 a month. 4% per paid ride, with a $1.00 per-ride minimum. The first $500 you process each month carries no fee.
• Elite. $100 a month. No SOLODRIVE.PRO per-ride fee.

The per-ride fee is whichever is greater, the plan's percentage or the plan's per-ride minimum. Never both. On a normal fare the percentage is the bigger number. On a short cheap fare the minimum takes over.

Elite is the only plan with no per-ride fee. Free, Basic and Pro all carry one. It is small, and it is a fraction of what the apps take, but it is real and you should price your rides knowing it is there.

Free gets your booking page live at your own handle. Riders find you, request a ride, and you set the price and capture the card. You get the operator console, the drive-mode queue, in-ride mileage tracking on your own rides, and WebPush alerts when a ride comes in.

Nothing about being visible and bookable requires a subscription. If you are handing out your QR code in the car and waiting to see who books, Free is the correct plan and paying more would not speed anything up.

Stay on Free until one of two things happens. A rider asks you to book them for a future time, or your direct fares in a month pass about $180.

Basic costs $10 a month and drops the per-ride fee from 12% to 6.5%.

That is $1.65 back on a $30 fare, so about six direct rides in a month covers the $10 and everything past six is money you keep. In monthly terms the two plans cost the same at roughly $180 of direct fares. Above that, Basic is cheaper than Free even before you count anything it adds.

What it adds is usually the real reason. Basic is where one-off advance and scheduled reservations turn on, so a rider can book you for Thursday at 6 rather than only for right now. It also turns on automated quote-building with address autocomplete, stacked availability, and the cross-platform log where you record your Uber, Lyft and delivery earnings alongside your direct ones, with the mileage ledger and a CSV summary for tax time.

Most drivers move to Basic the first time a rider asks for a future pickup, which is usually before the fee arithmetic gets there on its own.

Pro costs $45 a month, drops the fee to 4%, and includes the first $500 you process each month at no fee at all.

Pro is where recurring and standing bookings live, which means Pro is where the regulars engine runs. You mark a rider as a regular, the rider agrees and saves a card, and the weekly ride bills itself every week without you asking anyone for money. That is the difference between a good customer and recurring revenue.

Pro also carries the Schedule C worksheet, the quarterly estimate and the PDF export. Those are Pro features. Basic and Free give you earnings and mileage figures, not the Schedule C block. The tax figures are an estimate to hand your preparer, not a filing, and SOLODRIVE.PRO does not give tax advice.

On cost alone, Pro and Basic land at the same monthly total at about $600 of direct fares, roughly twenty $30 rides. Above $600 Pro is the cheaper of the two, and it keeps getting cheaper the more you book.

Most drivers do not move to Pro on fee math. They move for one standing commuter, because a rider booked every Tuesday for a year is worth more than the fee difference on any pile of one-off rides.

Elite costs $100 a month and removes the SOLODRIVE.PRO per-ride fee.

Pro charges 4% above its included $500, so Pro's fee reaches $55 at about $1,875 of direct fares in a month. $55 is exactly the gap between Pro and Elite, so that is where the two plans cost the same. Past roughly $1,875 processed in a month, Elite is the cheaper plan and every ride after that costs you nothing in application fees.

If your direct bookings are still under that, Pro costs you less. Elite is a volume answer, not a status upgrade.

These assume $30 fares, so the percentage governs and the per-ride minimum does not.

About $200 of direct fares a month, roughly seven rides.

• Free: $24.00. Basic: $23.00. Pro: $45.00. Elite: $100.00.
• Free and Basic are within a dollar of each other. Either is defensible.

About $600 a month, roughly twenty rides.

• Free: $72.00. Basic: $49.00. Pro: $49.00. Elite: $100.00.
• Basic and Pro tie exactly. Pick on features, which means pick Pro if you want a rider billed weekly.

About $1,200 a month, roughly forty rides.

• Free: $144.00. Basic: $88.00. Pro: $73.00. Elite: $100.00.
• Pro is now clearly the cheapest.

About $2,000 a month, roughly sixty-seven rides.

• Free: $240.00. Basic: $140.00. Pro: $105.00. Elite: $100.00.
• Elite has taken the lead and it widens from here.

Run the same arithmetic on what you actually charge. You set your own price on a direct booking, so these fares are illustrations rather than a rate card.

If your direct rides are short and cheap, read this part before you pick.

The fee is the percentage or the minimum, whichever is greater, so on a small fare the minimum governs and your keep rate drops below the headline percentage. The fare where that flips is different on each plan.

• Free: the $2.00 minimum takes over under about $16.67.
• Basic: the $1.50 minimum takes over under about $23.08.
• Pro: the $1.00 minimum takes over under $25.00.

So a driver running $12 airport shuttle hops pays the $2.00 minimum on Free no matter what the percentage says. If most of your direct rides sit under $25, move up a plan sooner than the percentage math suggests, because the minimum is what you are actually paying.

The application fee applies to rides booked and paid through your own SOLODRIVE.PRO booking page. Rides you pick up on Uber or Lyft are not touched by it, on any plan. Those stay entirely between you and that platform on that platform's terms.

SOLODRIVE.PRO is a direct-booking layer you run alongside the apps you already drive. The apps bring you the first ride with a stranger. Your booking page is where that rider books the second one.

Pick the plan that matches the month you are in, not the month you are hoping for. Start on Free, get a real rider to book you at your handle, and move up when your own arithmetic or a rider's request says to.

The cost of guessing wrong is one month of the difference. The cost of never getting your page live is every direct ride you did not take.

Which SOLODRIVE.PRO plan should I start on?

Free. It is $0 a month, your booking page goes live at your handle, and you can take a paid direct ride today. The application fee on Free is 12% per paid ride with a $2.00 per-ride minimum. Move up when a rider asks to book ahead or when your direct fares pass about $180 in a month.

When does Basic pay for itself?

At about $180 of direct fares a month, roughly six $30 rides. Basic costs $10 more than Free and drops the fee from 12% to 6.5%, which is $1.65 saved on a $30 fare. Advance and scheduled reservations also start at Basic, so if you want riders booking you for a future time, that usually decides it first.

Which plan do I need for a rider to be billed automatically every week?

Pro, at $45 a month with a 4% per-ride fee and a $1.00 minimum. Pro is where recurring and standing bookings live, so it is where the regulars engine runs. You mark the rider as a regular, they agree and save a card, and each week's ride bills on its own.

Is Pro worth it if I only do a few direct rides?

On cost alone, no. Pro and Basic cost the same at about $600 of direct fares a month, and below that Basic is cheaper. Pro is worth it below that line only if you want recurring weekly billing or the Schedule C worksheet, since both are Pro features.

When is Elite cheaper than Pro?

Above about $1,875 of direct fares processed in a month. Pro's 4% above its included first $500 reaches $55 at that point, and $55 is the difference between the two monthly prices. Below that, Pro costs less.

Which plan has no per-ride fee?

Elite, at $100 a month. It is the only one. Free, Basic and Pro all carry a per-ride application fee, and any claim otherwise is wrong.

Do I pay a SOLODRIVE.PRO fee on my Uber and Lyft rides?

No. The fee applies only to rides booked and paid through your own SOLODRIVE.PRO booking page. Your Uber and Lyft rides stay on those platforms' terms and SOLODRIVE.PRO takes nothing from them.

Does my monthly price go up as I do more rides?

No. Each plan's monthly cost is flat and does not move with your volume. What scales with volume is the per-ride application fee, and moving up a plan is how that percentage comes down.