About 91 percent of more than 500 students surveyed said they would use an Uber-style service, the international business club Enactus discovered after polling campus Jan. 31.
Within the next two weeks, Enactus members said the club plans to introduce its ride-sharing service — operated by students for students — to campus with the launch of a Hillsdale-branded ride-sharing app. Nine members will take the test-run app’s results to the annual Enactus competition on March 27 in Chicago.
“This isn’t a profit-maker for us, for Enactus,” Co-President senior Tucker Phillips said. “This is just a way that we are trying to reach out, help the school, help the community.”
Co-Presidents seniors Victoria Tran, Laura Crabtree and Phillips agreed the project will respond to problems in Hillsdale’s community the club wants to address: safety concerns and lack of student investments in Hillsdale businesses. It is the brainchild of members like Phillips, who said he remembered desperately needing a car a dozen times freshman year, and members who have worked for Uber before.
“It’s a nice way for students to make money, get people to go out to local businesses and help their businesses,” Tran said.
In the past, Enactus has partnered with a local nonprofit bakery and spearheaded recycling initiatives. But this time, students adopted a more technological approach to solving a problem, one they hope will improve both the social welfare of the surrounding community and the students’ experiences, Phillips said.
“Students aren’t going to Hillsdale businesses much, but we want students to be investing in the community more than we are,” Phillips said. “A lot of freshmen don’t have cars; the survey showed that. This will give them a way to explore the city on their own time.”
Vice President for External Affairs Douglas Johnson, the club’s adviser, said he was impressed with the club’s ability to work quickly.
“Their initiative is fantastic,” he said.
Now that the survey has identified a real consumer need on campus, Johnson said it’s time to start fleshing out a detailed business plan that attends to pricing and costs for drivers for the upcoming competition. He said he views the competition as an opportunity for students to first, meet students’ needs; second, learn how to put together business plans; and third, promote the college in front of big company names like Kraft and Wal-Mart.
“We want them to know it’s a calling card for the college,” Johnson said.
Pricing will align with Uber’s business model: Students will pay a minimum fee for each ride, with per-minute and per-mile premiums past two miles. When polled, students said the maximum they would pay for a zero to two mile ride ranged from 50 cents to $15 but averaged between $3 and $4. Customers will be able to pay through the app, Phillips said.
Of the respondents, 260 said they would be interested in being paid as a driver.
“That’s a huge chunk,” Phillips said. “Almost everyone agreed they would use the service. We have supply; we have demand.”
Enactus will demand a copy of each potential student driver’s license, insurance, proof of enrollment, and a reliable method of reaching the student.
“You’re trusting not just us but also Hillsdale College,” Phillips said.
Phillips said more people agreed to go longer distance than he had expected. Many students reported going to Jonesville and Wal-Mart once a week, and almost every respondent reported going to McDonald’s or El Cerrito’s once a week. The data shows most students will travel at least 20 miles to places like Michigan State University, the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, and Toledo, Ohio, over the course of the semester.
One obstacle the group of innovators faced was finding a coding-savvy student who could develop professional-looking phone applications and websites.
“The hardest part is definitely the coding,” Tran said. “Hillsdale used to have a computer science program but not anymore, so there are not many people who know about coding.”
Enactus surmounted the blip by finding a third-party organization that will create a Hillsdale-branded taxi app, costing the club $440.
Eventually, the team said it foresees selling the business model to other small Michigan college towns — like Adrian, Coldwater, Jackson, and Kalamazoo — with similar demands for taxi services but lacking the size for Uber.
The enthusiastic responses from campus encouraged members like Phillips, who said he was pleasantly surprised so many students said they would use Enactus’ ride-sharing service.
“I was surprised overall with how positive it was, not because I don’t believe in it — I think it’s a great idea,” Phillips said. “I’m glad to see the campus is so positive about it.”
