Matt Donlon, a local Uber driver, is developing a new system called UZURV that would allow riders to schedule their Uber ride.
“Where I live in Midlothian, I wouldn’t be able to get an Uber ride to the airport at six AM,” Donlon said. “Uber just isn’t around. The on demand engine doesn’t work well out there in the outskirts.”
The inability for Uber or Lyft to reach places that are not as active as the inner city of Richmond as well as the lack of drivers at certain times inspired Donlon to create an app that caters to those who do not live in high traffic areas or want an Uber at a specific time.
With UZURV, users select their location and destination as well as a time. Riders can also select which drivers they want and can even keep a “favorites” list of them for later rides.
Donlon realized some people would like to feel familiar with their drivers.
“People would say, ‘Well how can I get you again?’ and you really can’t the way it’s designed it’s just a pure on demand kind of a service,” Donlon said. “There was no way to get a repeat client based on your efforts.”
Once users request their ride, they pay a reservation fee of $2.95. They may also add an “incentive” which is any dollar amount of their choosing to make their driver want to accept their ride.
When the driver arrives, riders then have to request an Uber or Lyft on their phone so that they can pay the actual driving cost. The driver will be able to accept the ride request automatically because of the proximity of the request.
Though there are additional fees when using UZURV, according to their http://www.uzurv.com/faqs/ website, with all fees included they are still 45% less expensive than the average Richmond taxi ride.
According to Donlon, the app is not beneficial to just the riders. He said it also helps drivers know exactly where they will be driving as opposed to using just Uber, which will not tell you your destination until after accepting the ride. Drivers are also more encouraged to be tipped, which has not been an option with Uber.
Donlon also believes that UZURV will open up new markets for Uber and Lyft by having users that once did not have access to the service become customers as well as having people who may have not felt comfortable with a stranger driving them before.
“People want more reliability and more familiarity,” Donlon said.
UZURV enters Beta testing Jan. 18. If you’d like to test it out you can sign up here.
