Hitch, an app that provides a city-to-city ride sharing service, plans to double its number of drivers in the San Antonia area in 2022.
"I used to live in Dallas and commute pretty frequently to Austin," said Hitch CEO Kush Singh. "And the only way I could get there was (riding a bus). And it was ironic that on a weekend trip to Austin, (the trip was) the single most time-consuming (part) of the experience, the worst part of the experience."
Singh co-founded Hitch, which transported its first riders in November 2018, alongside San Antonian Matt Chasen, who now serves as chair; Tanuj Girish, chief technology officer; and Jay Manickam, chief strategy officer. Chasen and Manickam previously founded a freight transportation company called UShip together, and thought Kush's idea was a natural fit for them.
While ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft predominantly focus on short-distance travel within cities, Austin-based Hitch focuses on travel between 50 and 350 miles — at a comparatively lower price than many other services. Currently, San Antonians can use the service for trips to and from Austin or Houston, with the average ride starting at $15 a seat. Dallas is scheduled to soon be added as a destination.
"As we've launched (more) routes, we've seen demand ... increase on the platform," said Singh. "We have 400 onboarded drivers (in San Antonio), and there's actually a waitlist of more than that. Conservatively, I think doubling the pool is sort of the minimum threshold in 2022."
With so many working remotely due to the pandemic, he added, many people are already making city-to-city drives a few times a month from San Antonio to work in Austin or vice versa.
"A lot of these trips only have one passenger seated in them, so nationally this leads to empty and unutiilized car seats floating (among) our roads," Singh said. "The key incentive here is that a driver, without detouring from their original route, can earn $60 to $85 going one way on the platform, and that's about $120-$170 round-trip."
To handle the influx of those wanting to drive for Hitch or use its services, the company will soon be hiring for 50 more employee positions in marketing, customer experience and operations across all four Texas major markets: Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
Singh said Hitch will continue to expand both the number of daily trips and the number of drivers working from San Antonio, as the region's population continues to grow.
"It's a fantastic city and market to get into," he said.
