This New York Startup Helps Fleet Companies Deliver Cleaner, Cheaper Transit in Underserved Areas

In a Nutshell: In Brooklyn and Queens, New York, Dollaride connects residents in vast “transit deserts” — places where the subway doesn’t go, bus rides are sparse, and rideshares are too expensive — to low-cost rides in “dollar vans.” The dollar van phenomenon started informally in the 1980s when a public transit strike shut down service. The solution took hold and grew because it was better than any other. Now, Dollaride operates a network of city-registered dollar vans and supports fleet EV conversions through the Clean Transit Access Program.

New York City is a vast and diverse urban center, of which Manhattan is only a part. When it comes to transportation, most Manhattanites move around perfectly comfortably through rideshares and the subway and never get around to owning a car.

Many other parts of the city are more like urban and suburban areas elsewhere in the U.S., where people see cars as a necessity.

Then, there are the parts of the city that urban planners call “transit deserts” — places most people don’t think about when they think about New York. In New York’s transit deserts, solutions that are viable everywhere else seem to fall short.

For example, the subway doesn’t reach parts of the Bronx, Flatbush Brooklyn, and Jamaica Queens because the transit authority can’t make the numbers work. Bus stops thin out in frequency, distance, and availability until there’s no point in relying on the bus to get you to school or work and back home. No taxi or rideshare operators are around because there’s no one to pay for a ride.

The good news is that you can always count on New Yorkers to respond creatively to adversity. During a transit strike in the 1980s, residents in many neighborhoods began offering informal “dollar rides” to workers, students, and older people, emulating the danfo minibusses of Lagos, Nigeria, and the robot-taxis of Kingston, Jamaica.

The custom took hold because it filled a gap in demand. Now, a new company, Dollaride, exists to formalize and broaden access to cleaner, cheaper, more equitable urban transit according to the dollar ride model.

Dollaride supports a citywide ground transportation network with GPS tracking and routing, reservations, payments, and data analytics. Through its Clean Transit Access Program, it offers fleet companies a pathway to EV ownership. We spoke with Co-Founder and CEO Su Sanni in August 2024.

“Even though New York has the best public transit agency in the country, almost a quarter of our population struggles with transportation access,” Sanni said. “We make it easy for fleet owners to plug into our EV infrastructure or install a charger right on their site.”

According to the city, as many as 2 million people out of a total population of about 8.5 million live in New York City’s transit deserts. Many who proudly call themselves New Yorkers consider dollar rides (which now cost at least $2) as American as apple pie.

After working with his uncles, both of whom operated small transportation fleets, Sanni, a Nigerian-American who was born in Brooklyn, was inspired to explore cleaner, cheaper solutions to fill New York’s transit gaps.

Their complaints about fuel costs and other impediments as they struggled to gain operational efficiency and reach more customers taught Sanni much about small business challenges. They motivated him to build a tech solution capable of transcending them.

Meanwhile, transit desert residents continued to languish. Lack of transportation affects many other areas of life, including access to financial services. Underbanked individuals may have bad credit or no credit history, reducing employment prospects and chances for educational financing.

The odds are against them. People with poor transportation access tend not to travel as far for job opportunities, and when they do have jobs, it is more difficult for them to retain them due to a very long or expensive commute. Others pay disproportionately high percentages of income for transportation, setting them back economically before they ever get started.

“Sometimes up to 25% of their total income goes to transportation,” Sanni said. “That’s an incredible amount when you also realize these same populations are also dealing with our affordable housing crisis.”

Dollaride helps mitigate those stresses. Its ground transportation businesses work within the city and state to get more people where they want and need to go. Many Dollaride shuttle vehicles inhabit airports, casinos, colleges, and universities looking for customers. Some operators even deploy fleets as employee shuttle services.

“These sorts of vehicles get used in a lot of different settings,” Sanni said. “The through line is that they’re small businesses owned in the local area, and they provide a passenger transportation service to give people flexibility and options.”

Increases in gas prices caused Sanni’s uncles’ business plans to change constantly. Dealing with their irritation inspired Sanni to look into the viability of EV fleet conversions and their possible environmental benefits.

“I was able to show my uncles how they could save about 25%, maybe up to 30%, on their operating costs by switching to an electric vehicle,” Sanni said. “When it comes to gas, depending on the year and how much you’re spending at the time, you can save as much as 70% on fuel.”

Dollaride’s Clean Transit Access Program (CTAP) facilitates the transfer of fleet owners to electric cars by offering an affordable route for EV acquisition, charging station installation, training, and licensing. With CTAP, the EV option becomes a sustainable business, particularly for those operating in a transit desert and serving a price-sensitive clientele.

Sanni said transportation is the second highest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in New York City, next to buildings. Greenhouse gasses contribute a significant amount to air pollution and air quality.

“It’s not surprising that we have higher rates of asthma and airborne health-related issues in places like the Bronx, Flatbush Brooklyn, and Jamaica Queens, which are also the places where you have the worst access to public transit,” Sanni said.

Dollaride funds CTAP through $10 million in New York state funding combined with money from local green banks and community banks. CTAP procures commercial electric vehicles, EV charging stations, and GPS tracking software that allows Dollaride to deliver a turnkey EV-as-a-service offering.

When fleet owners work with Dollaride, they don’t have to figure out which type of vehicle would be the best for them. Dollaride shows them examples based on their duty cycle, operational model, and customer base.

The same goes for implementing EV charging infrastructure. Dollaride has EV charging station installation experience and a network of partners that already have EV charging infrastructure in place. The work demonstrates the economic feasibility of fleet EV conversion solutions. Amplifying the story will hopefully get other communities to follow suit.

“We want to make sure that CTAP’s benefits are available to disadvantaged communities just like they are to other folks,” Sanni said.

Riders gain access — it’s as simple as that. Providers gain profits. Sanni said the two combine to counter the counterproductive effects of transit deserts, which can compound to make the world smaller and the possibility of change more remote.

He said a business model that combines environmental sensitivity with cost savings and increased rider convenience creates a rare win-win-win across the urban transportation spectrum.

“Access positively impacts household income in many ways,” Sanni said. “The challenges we notice here in New York City may translate to 30 or 40 million Americans nationwide.”

Nationwide is indeed where Dollaride has its sights. CTAP demonstrates the viability of city-registered EV passenger fleets. Grant funding supplements local dealerships that provide leases and financing. Fleet owners qualifying for Dollaride’s CTAP program have many ways to make purchasing their first electric vehicle affordable and on their terms.

“We’re really just trying to meet customers where they are and work with the budgets they have,” Sanni said. “Whether folks buy the vehicle upfront or pay it off through a multiyear leasing contract, we hope they think of Dollaride as a one-stop shop to give them those resources.”

Daily responsibilities at Dollaride consist of speaking with transportation stakeholders and prospects about how CTAP works and how Dollaride models effective public transportation access through a private model.

The team also wants to know how current dollar ride businesses work. Some still work on the outskirts of legality, following the model of the 1980s. Behind the scenes, Dollaride is establishing a supply chain for EVs and charging infrastructure and an affordable auto insurance program to give them all a better bottom line.

“It really takes a lot of manual work to create partnerships and pathways that are affordable and reasonable in terms of customer expectations,” Sanni said.

At the time of our conversation with Sanni, Dollaride had passed the pilot stage for CTAP and had three EVs and charging stations installed in Brownsville, Brooklyn, with two fleet owners testing out the pilot vehicles.

An order for a new batch of vehicles will go out before the end of 2024. Those will go to customers who are currently on a waiting list.

“Things are underway — we’re advancing our program, learning a lot, and reporting back to the state and public,” Sanni said. “We think our solution could work in any major city.”