She loves that aspect of the gigs, but has noticed that she only gets about 30 percent of the fares her riders pay. Yet customers often complain about how expensive a trip is these days.
“I’m so sorry,” Unverferth tells them before delivering a pitch for Denver's new drivers' cooperative and its Co-Op Ride app, which will be available for use in Denver soon. “I'm not getting more [money], but let me tell you about this new drivers' co-op that's coming out.”
Unverferth is part of the board of directors for the new driver-owned business, which was officially incorporated on May 1 and hopes to compete with Uber and Lyft one day. Some boardmembers also belong to Colorado Independent Drivers United, a union for gig drivers that's advocating for more transparency and better treatment of app-based drivers.
The new Denver drivers' co-op is another solution to a problem that drivers typically face: As independent contractors, Uber and Lyft employees aren't allowed the same freedoms and benefits that they believe should come with that type of employment. The Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, a nonprofit headquartered in Denver that converts companies to employee-owned models, has teamed up with the drivers to help create the co-op.
In April 2022, RMEOC started an effort to incubate new employee-owned companies, beginning with the drivers' co-op. But the co-op has run into a bump on the road to launching this summer, in the form of a state law requiring a $111,250 annual application fee for transportation network companies to receive a permit to operate.
Luckily, the Colorado Legislature passed SB23-187, Public Utilities Commission Administrative Fee Setting Transportation Services. That bill will give the PUC the flexibility to lower the fee for local companies or employee-owned companies like the drivers' co-op.
“Everybody's really excited about it,” says Unverferth, who watched some of the proceedings at the Capitol this legislative season.
“They were very excited about the fact that the employees [are] getting more control over this instead of the executives with Uber and Lyft," she recalls. "That's a boon for our people, because more money's coming back to our economy.”
While the excitement over the passing of SB23-187 is already palpable, the new rule doesn’t kick in until January 1, 2024 — so drivers are currently considering what to do. “We have two choices,” says Minsun Ji, executive director of the RMEOC. “One is we're going to wait until January 1 to start the cooperative, or we start sometime in the summer and pay the fee that's too absurd.”
Ji met with PUC officials on May 15 to discuss a waiver for 2023, and while the utilities commission is open to talking with drivers about solutions, it's still bound by the current law.
Whatever it decides, the co-op moving ahead with organizing and gathering the capital needed to launch, finding office space and preparing a marketing strategy to get the word out about the potential launch and a beta testing period that will likely occur in June or July.
“We need two kinds of people,” Ji says. “Massive numbers of drivers and massive numbers of riders. … Hopefully when we actually launch the cooperative, we have a lot of people riding.”
Ji met with PUC officials on May 15 to discuss a waiver for 2023, and while the utilities commission is open to talking with drivers about solutions, it's still bound by the current law.
Whatever it decides, the co-op moving ahead with organizing and gathering the capital needed to launch, finding office space and preparing a marketing strategy to get the word out about the potential launch and a beta testing period that will likely occur in June or July.
“We need two kinds of people,” Ji says. “Massive numbers of drivers and massive numbers of riders. … Hopefully when we actually launch the cooperative, we have a lot of people riding.”
The co-op plans to generate business immediately through contracts with entities that need driving services. One of those is the nonprofit Remerg, which helps people recently released from incarceration access resources they need in order to stay out of jail or prison.
“We have a grant that we're doing for a pilot program for people coming out of incarceration, and I'm writing [the co-op] into the grant,” says Carol Peeples, Remerg founder and executive director.
Through the program, co-op drivers will take recently released people to doctor’s appointments, job interviews and anywhere else they need to go. Peeples knows that public transportation isn’t always an easy way to get around, and says she prefers the drivers' co-op to rideshare giants.
“It's more of a win-win-win for the community in that the drivers make more money, and then you also have people who we're trying to help as a nonprofit have better transportation options," she explains.
Peeples met RMEOC co-founder Dick Peterson at a leadership class in 2007, five years before the Employee Ownership Center opened in 2012. She kept a connection to the business because she thought it was a great idea and wanted to work with the center in some way to help honor Tina Yankee, an early advocate for employment equity after incarceration. She's thrilled to finally have a partnership through the drivers' co-op.
“We have a grant that we're doing for a pilot program for people coming out of incarceration, and I'm writing [the co-op] into the grant,” says Carol Peeples, Remerg founder and executive director.
Through the program, co-op drivers will take recently released people to doctor’s appointments, job interviews and anywhere else they need to go. Peeples knows that public transportation isn’t always an easy way to get around, and says she prefers the drivers' co-op to rideshare giants.
“It's more of a win-win-win for the community in that the drivers make more money, and then you also have people who we're trying to help as a nonprofit have better transportation options," she explains.
Peeples met RMEOC co-founder Dick Peterson at a leadership class in 2007, five years before the Employee Ownership Center opened in 2012. She kept a connection to the business because she thought it was a great idea and wanted to work with the center in some way to help honor Tina Yankee, an early advocate for employment equity after incarceration. She's thrilled to finally have a partnership through the drivers' co-op.
The co-op is looking into other partnerships with government departments and companies that may need transportation support.
“I'm hoping that city agencies and other nonprofits will take advantage of it and support it,” Peeples says of the co-op. “It will need to be supported with contracts and with funding.”
Unverferth says a lot of her current customers are people who can’t drive anymore because of DUIs, along with people with disabilities. She would like to explore options to help support those groups, too.
“You need to be able to get around when you can't drive,” she says. “I especially love taking people with their service animals.”
“I'm hoping that city agencies and other nonprofits will take advantage of it and support it,” Peeples says of the co-op. “It will need to be supported with contracts and with funding.”
Unverferth says a lot of her current customers are people who can’t drive anymore because of DUIs, along with people with disabilities. She would like to explore options to help support those groups, too.
“You need to be able to get around when you can't drive,” she says. “I especially love taking people with their service animals.”
These drivers hope to compete with Lyft for market share.
Kate McKee Simmons
To join the co-op, drivers will each pay a $100 buy-in and complete an orientation. The co-op will set a designated amount it takes from each ride to help with operating costs — likely 20 percent — and drivers will get the rest.
That system will bring transparency to gig workers and riders, helping both groups, Unverferth notes.
“Drivers it'll help, because we can schedule things a little bit more — so that our drivers aren't out at 2 a.m. trying to get a quest done for Lyft to get the number of rides so that they can make a decent amount of money from it," she says.
Knowing how much they’ll get up front from each ride provides stability and peace of mind for drivers, and it will do the same for riders, with more consistent pricing and the assurance that what they pay will directly benefit local drivers.
The co-op will also explore ways to help drivers pay for liability insurance and health care and even save for retirement, Unverferth says.
“We're gonna get better drivers because of this, too,” she predicts. “You're working for your own company, you're gonna have a little bit more pride in that.”
Denver is the second city to launch a drivers' co-op; the Drivers Cooperative started in New York City in 2021. Ji plans to get the program going in other cities once Denver is up and running.
“Hopefully, our co-op is working really well with the support from the riders and community in Denver,” she says. “We can actually become a model and inspiration for other cities to start their cooperatives, too. Again, I do believe that this is a big, global movement.”
The Denver co-op is hoping to raise about $1 million before it launches. It's already on its way, thanks to contributions from the Colorado Health Foundation, the Rose Community Foundation and the Denver Foundation. It's also considering a crowdfunding campaign — especially if it decides to pay the hefty PUC fee in order to start in the coming months.
The co-op will host a social poker night fundraiser on Saturday, May 20, starting at 6 p.m. at 7005 East Exposition Avenue; admission is a suggested donation of $40 per person, $60 per couple, and $30 for students.
“I'm excited about helping people get paid a fair wage for what they're doing,” Unverferth concludes. “Consistency for our riders, a better experience for our riders, better pay for our drivers and better ways for our drivers to be heard.”
