Originally Posted by
Sykes
In the SF Bay Area and other well-developed ride share markets, relatively few Uber and Lyft drivers use their own cars--most rent cars by the hour or week from agencies with fleets dedicated to ride share. It works really well, especially with hourly rentals, because maintenance becomes a predictable cost and the fleet utilization is very high (the same car can be used essentially 24/7). I suspect that the rental vendors will adapt to the electric mandates and, for example, allow drivers to swap a discharged vehicle for a fully charged one so there's less downtime for the driver. DC Fast Charging also allows many vehicles to charge to 80% in about 20 minutes, which really isn't that bad either.
Wonder if they can rent a car in NYC if they have to have a livery plate. Would make sense in some markets like Chicago where you don't need a car to rent one to do Lyft or Uber if the rental car allows it. I delivered piza's in college and my car got in a bad (not while delivering pizzas) and all the rental car places I looked at while my car was in the shop said I couldn't use the car for pizza delivery, they must have changed their policy on this.