Food for thought -
How do current or prospective students/parents feel about having a transportation service available exclusively for Ole Miss students on an unlimited basis for a monthly, per-semester, or annual subscription?
Potential Benefits:
- SAFETY. Remove financial decision from students’ hands, resulting in less DUI’s. On average, a DUI costs approximately $6400.
- Avoid having to pay for parking stickers or tickets.
- Convenience. It would be available anytime, anywhere.
- Don’t need or want them to have a car on campus? No more car notes, insurance, gas, or maintenance expenses.
- NO SURGE CHARGES that you get with other ridesharing companies during high-demand times
- Drivers will be vetted greater (background check, sex offender check, driving history) and be required to take at least one day of safe driver training
- Driver compensation plan would be more favorable than other available services, attracting high-quality drivers
Any feedback, comments, suggestions, etc. are greatly appreciated!
sounds good. My son has his car at The Retreat and takes their shuttle or Uber when they go out at night. Might be nice for freshman though.
Personally I don’t think it will work for a lot of reasons. To address the SURGE charges, the reason Uber has these is because demand often outstrips the supply of drivers (ordinarily Uber is much cheaper than a taxi). The Surge pricing encourages riders to wait a while, and also encourages drivers to stay out longer or make the effort to come out and start driving. Without surge pricing riders are going to be left waiting and angry for drivers who take forever to show up.
Most students from the South like having a car. They drive it to school and they use it. So they are not going to want a ride service to completely replace their car. And when they come out of the bars, if they are hiring a car they want the first one they can get, not a ride service they have to wait on.
I do think there is a need and demand in Oxford for a premium taxi service, as most of those serving the town are pretty weak. I think as part of that you would want to have a couple of NICE small passenger vans to cart a crowd to and from the bars. You are doing the right thing to ask questions, and I would continue to do a lot of market research before jumping in.
Son had a car freshman year and it mainly stayed parked unless he was coming home or wanted to go somewhere that the buses didn’t drop of at - plus if he found a good parking spot he didn’t like to move it until absolutely necessary. Buses give rides to Wal-Mart and some of the other areas but they don’t run 24 hours a day.
My son’s apartment next year has buses that bring to campus and the Square so car usage will be minimal again.