What They Needed #
For years, ride-hail drivers in New York City watched their pay decline while the apps they drove for grew into billion-dollar companies. Uber and Lyft took 25-40% of every fare —and sometimes even more. Drivers had no say in pricing, no control over the algorithm, no seat at the table.
They weren’t employees with benefits. They weren’t independent contractors with freedom. They were something in between—with the downsides of both.
Some drivers started asking: what if we just… built our own app?
What They Built #
In 2020, a group of drivers launched The Drivers Cooperative (TDC)—a worker-owned ride-hail platform in New York City.
The structure is simple:
- Drivers own the company. Each driver-member has one share and one vote.
- Drivers keep more. TDC takes only 15% of fares , compared to 25-40% at competitors.
- Riders pay less. Lower overhead means competitive pricing.
- Decisions are democratic. Major policies are voted on by driver-members.
The app works like any ride-hail service. You request a ride, a driver picks you up, you pay through the app. The difference is where the money goes—and who decides how the company runs.
What Happened #
TDC has grown to thousands of driver-owners and completed hundreds of thousands of rides .
What drivers say:
“I’m not working for someone anymore—I’m working for myself and my fellow drivers.”
“When they proposed a policy change, they actually asked us. We voted on it. That’s never happened at Uber.”
“I keep more of every fare. It’s simple math.”
The cooperative has navigated real challenges—building reliable technology, competing with well-funded incumbents, managing growth while staying democratic. They’ve made mistakes and learned from them. But they’ve proven something important: worker-owned platforms can work.
What They Learned #
Technology is the easy part. The hard part is organizing people, building trust, and creating governance structures that actually work. TDC spent as much energy on cooperative education as on app development.
You don’t have to beat the giants. TDC isn’t trying to replace Uber globally. They’re building a better option for drivers and riders in New York City. That’s enough. Sometimes the goal isn’t to win the whole market—it’s to prove a different model is possible.
Open source matters. TDC built on open source foundations and has shared learnings with other driver cooperatives starting up around the world. When your goal is worker ownership, not competitive moats, sharing makes everyone stronger.
The economics work. Lower take rates for drivers, competitive prices for riders, sustainable margins for the cooperative. It’s not charity—it’s a better-designed business.
What This Means for You #
The Drivers Cooperative is part of a growing movement of platform cooperatives—worker-owned alternatives to gig economy platforms.
Similar models are emerging in:
- Delivery (cooperative courier services)
- Cleaning (worker-owned cleaning platforms)
- Care work (caregiver-owned agencies)
- Freelancing (cooperative freelance marketplaces)
If you’re a worker in a platform-mediated industry, you might not have to accept the terms you’re offered. You might be able to build your own.
Learn more: drivers.coop
The gig economy said workers were “independent contractors.” The Drivers Cooperative took that seriously—and built a company they actually own.