It’s a brave company that seeks to take on the likes of Uber and Lyft in the ridesharing game.
But that’s exactly what Myle is doing in New York City.
Launched by Aleksey Medvedovskiy, who describes himself as a 20-year veteran of the Big Apple’s taxi industry, Myle started offering rides in all five boroughs on Wednesday, February 19.
So how on earth can Medvedovskiy make Myle a more attractive proposition than Uber and Lyft? Well, for starters, the new service promises that fares will work out at about 10% lower than those of its two well-established rivals, with surge pricing and other hidden fees excluded from transactions. There are also no cancellation fees and no lost item costs if riders leave behind personal items in the car.
Using the Myle app for Android and iOS, riders can select from a range of vehicles and service tiers that include Regular (four seats), SUV (six seats), Shared, Premium, Premium SUV, and Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle options.
Medvedovskiy: “A better solution”
“As a veteran of the New York taxi industry and an entrepreneur, I knew there had to be a better solution, so I set out to design and build a ride-hailing service that New Yorkers actually want to use,” Medvedovskiy said in a release. “Today, we have a service that is transparently priced, easy to use, and fully featured. Best of all, we’re going to be 10% cheaper than Uber or Lyft.”
New York City reportedly already has around 80,000 rideshare drivers on its streets, suggesting Myle has some serious work ahead of it to make itself known and capture a decent chunk of the ridesharing market. Myle is thought to already have around 5,000 drivers on its books, but it’s hoping that many more will sign up.
In a sign of the scale of the challenge ahead, ridesharing firm Juno ended its service in New York City in November 2019 after three years of operations there. Parent company Gett shuttered the service after reaching a strategic partnership with Lyft that saw all of its drivers invited to join the larger ridesharing service. Will the same fate befall Myle? We’ll have to wait and see on that one.