New computer simulation tool helps estimate ride-hailing impacts on driver incomes, communities:

As reported in the Globe and Mail, author and technologist Tom Slee has released a report and accompanying computer simulation that can help communities with little or no data on ride-hailing activity understand the potential impacts of the industry on cities (congestion, emissions), drivers (income, utilization, deadheading), customers (wait times) and platforms (incomes) under different policy scenarios.  The report speaks to a number of urgent issues the ride-hailing industry poses to policy makers, including:

• illustrating how minimum pay for piece work cannot alone deliver the equivalent of a minimum wage standard for drivers/deliverers, as increases in supply predictably dilute available work for individual drivers;
• estimating the value of drivers’ unpaid “on call” time to companies;
• enabling the quantification of the external/social costs of s system designed to minimize customer wait times.