Wonder

Log in

Research Outline

Prepared for Grant B. | Delivered February 23, 2020

Ride-sharing market: Fuel Costs

Goals

To determine the number of ride-share/ride-hail cars that are operating in the US, how much fuel they consume, and how it is expected to grow over the next 5 years.

Early Findings

  • The Guardian has reported that there are currently around 900,000 Uber drivers in the US.
  • Since Uber represents 54.28% of all ride-share drivers in the US as per Statista, we can estimate that the total number of ride-share drivers in the US to be around 1.66 million (900,000/0.5428). This is assumed to equate to the number of ride-share cars in the US.
  • A report summary from Markets and Markets shows that the growth rate (CAGR) of the US ride-sharing market is 15.9%.
  • According to a working paper from MIT, ride-hailing drivers averaged $200 per month on fuel costs. The average spending on fuel is $0.30 per mile.
  • Based on the above findings, we can estimate the annual cost of fuel for ride-sharing/ride-hailing drivers in the US to be $3.98 billion (1.66 million*200*12 months).
  • At a CAGR of 15.9% (fuel costs remaining unchanged), the spending on fuel by ride-share drivers in 2025 will be around $8.3 billion ($3.98 billion*1.159^5).