New York-based Revel has made a lot of strides since initially launching in 2018 as a dockless e-moped sharing service. The BlackRock-backed startup briefly ventured into the e-bike subscription business. It started and now operates a handful of electric vehicle charging stations in five boroughs. And it launched an all-Tesla, all-employee ride-hailing service, which will see certain uses of its charging infrastructure in part.
After exiting the moped-sharing business in 2023, Revel is once again moving to abandon one of the key things that made its ride-hailing service unique: the startup laid off its 1,000+ drivers. has been and is adopting a similar jig-worker model. Competitors to Lyft and Uber.
The move comes after Revel successfully piloted the model with 100 Revel drivers in late February and has since brought on 100 more drivers.
“The reason we ran this pilot in the first place was simply to increase feedback from our driver pool as well as our recruiting efforts,” Haley Robinson, vice president of corporate affairs at Revel, told TechCrunch. “The main reason people didn’t want to join Ravel was the lack of flexibility.”
Robinson, who was Revel’s first tenant, said drivers initially gravitated to the platform because they didn’t have to deal with the hassle of owning or renting their own vehicles, buying insurance, dealing with 1099 taxes and handling their own expenses. wanted. But now, she says, Revel is having trouble recruiting drivers to its platform.
“We have to be responsive to what the industry is telling us,” Robinson said.
In an email to employees seen by TechCrunch and Bloomberg As first reported, rideshare vice president of operations Keith Williams said four out of five drivers who piloted the gig worker model would recommend the program.
The question of flexibility has been at the heart of the debate over whether ride-hailing drivers should be classified as gig workers or employees. If salaried employees are indeed asking to become contractors, Revel’s switch could lend credence to Uber and Lyft’s arguments as companies fight across the country to retain their existing gig worker models.
“Now is an opportunity to really serve the city’s larger rental car population,” Robinson said.
Current drivers on Revel’s payroll will have the option to remain with the company as independent contractors after Sept. 12, when the switch takes effect. Drivers can sign up to rent Revel’s fleet of Teslas for $10 an hour, which includes auto liability insurance, vehicle cleaning and maintenance and a full day of battery charging.
In 2025, Revel will open the platform to drivers with its EVs, giving the startup an asset-light path to grow the business and provide better service to riders. Revel has logged more than 2.5 million rides with its fleet of 550 Teslas, but customer wait times have been an issue with such a small fleet. Especially when compared to Uber and Lyft, whose drivers are outnumbered. Hundreds of thousands In NYC
That said, Robinson says that Revel’s ride-hailing segment of the business has recently driven gross margin positivity and is tracking to be EBITDA positive by the end of the year.
The expanded fleet could also help Revel with its real long-term bet — EV charging infrastructure. In 2022, Revel CEO Frank Rigg told TechCrunch that more than 90% of its charging hub usage came from Revel’s own ride-hailing fleet. That number has since grown to about 50 percent as EV adoption grows, according to Robert Familiar, Revel’s senior corporate affairs manager.
Revel has three active EV charging hubs in NYC – two in Brooklyn (Bed Stuy and South Williamsburg) and one in Long Island City, Queens. The startup aims to open another center this summer at Pier 36 in Lower Manhattan, just off FDR Drive, which runs along the East River. Robinson said Revel also plans to launch three more: one near La Guardia Airport; Another in Maspeth, Queens, will be the largest site with 60 plugs. And another in the Bronx.
Outside of New York, Ravel is eyeing San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In total, Revel has raised nearly $214 million since its launch. Per crunch base data. TechCrunch reached out to backers BlackRock, Toyota Ventures and Maniv to find out how investors view the startup’s latest turnaround but did not hear back in time.
Credit : techcrunch.com
