Eva

Eva's mission is to improve people's mobility with the best ride-sharing app. It combines cooperative governance to ensure democratic management and decentralized technologie to ensure data privacy.

Eva is building the next wave of the ride-share platform economy based on blockchain technology, driver fair equity, and a green transition. Building on our successful launch in Montreal with over 25,000 rider members and nearly 15,000 rides completed in less than a year, we are now launching a driver-owned ride-share business in the world’s largest ride-share market — New York City.

Currently, the average for-hire vehicle trip nets a driver an average of $15 after paying a commission averaging 20% to Uber or Lyft. In 2019, the average driver took 2,998 trips per year, generating an average annual gross income of $44,998. But because drivers pay for the capital costs of the industry, net income is far lower.  

Of the 85,000 active Uber drivers, around 38,000 rent their vehicles. Rental costs alone for a Taxi and Limousine Commission, hereinafter "TLC", vehicle average $400 per week, equalling $20,800 in expenses per year. Gas expenses average $2,240 per year and car washes $780.00 per year, pushing driver net income to $21,180 per year. From this drivers have to pay self-employment tax of 15.2% and income tax. Combined, these costs push driver income well below the federal poverty level.

By simply reducing the commission on each ride to 5%, the app is be able to effect a pay increase of 28% for drivers, bringing average per-trip pay from $15.01 to $17.31. This would boost average pre-expense pay from $44,998 per year to $51,886 per year with no increase in fixed costs, boosting average driver pre-tax income from $21,180 to $28,066 per year.

Eva is a vehicle for transforming the for-hire vehicle industry through worker ownership, and closing the racial wealth gap. We are creating a driver-owned ride-share app to take back the 20% of the fare that is currently siphoned off by Uber and Lyft and facilitate a green transition to electric vehicles, and launching strategic partnerships to transform ancillary sectors of the for-hire vehicle industry.

Our solution works in Montreal, where the app is the second most used ride-sharing service after Uber, but before Lyft. Montrealers immediately adopted the fair and sustainable solution to Uber and Lyft's problem of exploitation.

Eva first serve local community by empowering workers, in the case drivers, with good social conditions and higher revenues. By keep the management local, Eva contributes to the community engagement with mobility, in order to make mobility fair and sustainable. 

Over 85,000 workers drive for Uber and Lyft in New York City. This predominantly immigrant workforce is pushed into poverty by commissions that siphon off 20% of fare revenue and by expenses that average over $25,000 per year for the inputs needed for the for-hire vehicle industry to function: vehicles, insurance, fuel, repairs, and car washes. This creates a $2.1 billion market for ancillary goods and services that is currently served by predatory, low-road players who gouge and defraud drivers, exploit their own heavily immigrant workforces, and pollute the environment. As the most accessible employment option for many immigrants and people of color, atrocious levels of exploitation in this sector are a key factor in New York City’s racial wealth gap.

Of the 85,000 Uber and Lyft drivers, 90% come from racialized communities, of which almost 40% come from poor socio-economic backgrounds. By increasing their income by almost 10%, a whole segment of workers comes to benefit from the use of the app. Obviously, everything is done gradually, but the idea is to be able to integrate these drivers into cooperative governance, share the profits based their participation, and ensure them a fair income. In Montreal, Eva implemented a minimum universal basic income pilot project, to ensure a healthy base for more financially insecure drivers.

Eva connects local movements with global scale. Through lower fares for rider members and higher revenues for driver member, it's aligned for success. It is building the next wave of the ride-share economy based on shared equity, and sustainability.

To achieve global scale while leveraging local roots, the business model is grounded on sociale franchises, namely drivers-owned cooperatives that tailor operations to the local context to maximize profitability. The cooperatives can also include riders as members as well.

Each social franchise is linked through the app by democratic governance. Eva provides the social franchisees with access to the app, the whole management infrastructure, brand image, and business development assistance in exchange for a percentage of revenue from each ride. 

The entire app is based on cutting edge third-generation blockchain protocol. The data is encrypted and anonymized, reducing vulnerability to leaks and hacking to zero. Through asymmetric blockchain encryption, only franchises can access certain data necessary for operations. By creating an account, rider members create wallets within the blockchain, providing government-grade data security. However, as a mass-market app, the user interface is as easy to use as any competitor. And unlike competitors, the data privacy is ensured.

Integrity of operations and business management is at the core of blockchain
technology because the database is encrypted. It ensures no single point of failure in the distribution of the system on which competition can launch network attacks. Such infrastructure allows for gamification of the app, incentivizing positive rider and driver member behaviour on the application with the issuance of tokens, which grant members benefits within the franchises. These tokens can be associated with equity within the franchise.

Eva is now the second largest ride-sharing app in Montreal, before Lyft. The application was launched for the first time in Montreal in May 2020 and got more than 10,000 rides completed with 25,000 members, including nearly 1,500 driver members. Developed in an agile way, with direct feedback from members, the open beta successfully validated.

Get the white paper by emailing at contact@eva.coop, since the website is under construction. 

CTV News | https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/vi...
Global TV | https://globalnews.ca/news/531...
The Guardian | https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/... 

With a lean and agile orientation, the software development is efficient, analytical, and methodical. The service stands out from the competition because of reliable fares for rider members and better wages and equity for driver members. 

By giving more back to the community, through the driver members, Eva will interact with them in a positive way. By then including the driver members, they will be more loyal, offer better service and increase the usage rate of the rider members. The coverage will be better and one kilometer at a time, Eva will go further with the communities involved as a cooperative.

There are now over 25,000 rider members and around 1,500 driver members in the Montreal area in Canada. In New York City, it is possible to reach out to nearly 150,000 riders members and 20,000 driver members in the first year of operations. 

City | New York (get 150,000 rides)
Driver Members | 20,000
Rider Members | 150,000
Funding | $600,000.00 (phase one)
Goal | To be the first full electric fleet ride-sharing app
Partner | Volkswagen

The architecture of the app is prepared to scale to hundreds of thousands of rides per day. However, Eva plans to develop several features for a phased entry into the New York City market.

• Chauffeur Mode: There is unmet demand amongst riders for an app that would allow them to request the same driver each day for a consistent, trusted pickup. On the driver side, many have private clients who they have cash-in-hand arrangements with to chauffeur for regular appointments. Driver members would like to run these trips through a base in order to be insured, and avoid running afoul of local regulations that require base affiliation. Eva plans to soft launch by making the app available for chauffeur mode trips for 2,000 driver members in order to develop a core of driver members.

• Destination Filters: Eva has a close partnership with the Independent Drivers Guild, a labor organization representing New York City’s app-based drivers. Through this partnership, we have a continual feedback from drivers on the features they want to see added to the apps. At the top of this list is destination filters. These allow drivers to only be assigned trips that will take them toward home when they are tired and ready to go home. 

• Artificial Intelligence: Eva constantly iterates the back-end of the app to reduce costs. Two features in development are tools to prevent credit card fraud, and an integrated machine-learning system that will allow Eva to cut costs for access to proprietary Google services. 

The app is fully functional, currently the second most popular in Montreal after Uber, but before Lyft. And then, the entire support software infrastructure is fully functional. However, like all technologies, it is a continuous process of improvement. Based on the needs of the members, the app is regularly updated.

In the coming months, many artificial intelligence components will be implemented, in particular to prevent credit card fraud. What's more, in order to reduce Google browsing costs, an integrated machine learning system will be added to better estimate ride fares. These are some examples of ongoing projects that will greatly improve the performance of the application.

Multi-stakeholders cooperatives as social franchises.

Owned legally by driver members, who have one vote each. Indeed, the social franchises are cooperatives. A cooperative is a business that is owned by its members. The current model of franchising to cooperatives allows the application to grow strong local roots. In Montreal, it has been found that rider members were ready to wait longer and give more tips. On the other hand, driver members were willing to travel longer distances and encourage customers of our competitors to come on board. Thus, the cooperative structure allows better retention of both rider and driver members

We're now 28 people, of which more than half works full-time. In Montreal, there are nearly 1,500 driver members, of which some are only delivery members. 

Co-founded in 2017, the movement now brings together a team that specializes in the operationalization of ride-sharing, with experience varying from software development to marketing.

Government of Canada (https://www.canada.ca/fr.html)
Government of Quebec (https://www.quebec.ca)
Desjardins (https://www.desjardins.com) + Desjardins General Insurance (https://www.desjardinsassuranc...)
Investissement Québec (https://www.investquebec.com/q...)
Independent Driver's Guild (https://drivingguild.org)
Réseau d'investissement social du Québec (https://fonds-risq.qc.ca)

And many more partners, also in the technology, plus investors as well.

The business model is based on a social franchises ecosystem with cooperatives local managed. For the people, Eva is only a cooperative ride-sharing application based on blockchain. It is the ride-sharing option to ensure a fast, safe, and, above all, sustainable and fair mobility. It combines cooperative governance, to pool resources, and decentralized technology, to protect personal use data.  

The management is governed by members in a democratic way. The entire application is decentralized, based on a third generation blockchain protocol.  The main stockholders are both rider and driver members. 

1. Driver members lose the incentives to drive since they earn less than three quarters of transactions, which means the renewal rate is very high.

2. Traditional ride-sharing companies sometimes relocate more than a quarter of transactions, which creates a collective sense of helplessness

3. Traditional businesses aggregate usage data for commercial purposes to the detriment of the privacy of users who become products.

It should be noted that the social and local approach ensures full cooperation of taxi services, which can be fully integrated into the application with their own respective fares. 

Eva gets 15% of every rides, which has completed over 15,000 rides averaging $15 in Montreal for the last year. In New York City, after the first phase of six month, the goal is to get 20,000 rides a day. Actually, Eva plans to go beyond Juno’s footprint by undercutting the competition on price by at least 10% by reducing our commission for the first year of operation, also allowing Taxicab drivers to join the app, expanding the possible market from 700,000 rides per day to 900,000 rides per day, and aligning drivers’ interests with the app through shared equity within the cooperative.

In New York City, Eva will build to market dominance through four distinctive
phases. Eva currently seeks financing to achieve each scalar jump in our
operations plan. Eva offers debt investments directly, or
equity investments within the cooperative structure. 

As a social economy company, funding represents the largest barriers to Eva's development. Indeed, since driver members are literally owner of the cooperatives, it becomes difficult to get venture capital in. Therefore, Eva is looking to be intouchables with impact oriented investors to help and orient its growth. 

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