On the Relocation Behavior of Ride-sourcing Drivers

Figures & data

Figure 1. The stated choice experiment set-up.

Table 1. Attributes, attribute levels, and labels.

Existing attributes	Attributes	Definition	Attribute levels/labels
	Day of the week	The most common working day	Revealed by the respondent
	Time of day	The time that the decision on repositioning is made	Pivoted around the working shift reported by the respondent
	Waiting time around the drop-off location [min]	The duration of standing still or driving around the last drop-off spot	5, 15, 25
	Number of completed trips so far	Number of fulfilled trips since the beginning of the shift	2, 6, 10, 14
	Current location	The type of operating area	City centre, Suburb
	Familiarity with the neighbourhood area	Whether the driver is familiar with the drop-off point area	Familiar, Unfamiliar
	Parking availability	Whether a parking spot is available in the vicinity	Available, Unavailable
	Parking price [$]	The parking fee in case there is an available parking space	0, 2, 4
	Surge pricing [$]	A bonus that is offered when the demand is notably higher than the supply	1, 2, 3
	Drive time to the surge area [min]	Travel time between driver’s location and the surge area	5, 10, 15, 20
	Drive time to the high-demand area [min]	Travel time between driver’s location and the high-demand area	5, 10, 15, 20
Hypothetical attributes (not currently used by the existing platforms)	Bonus for driving to the high-demand area [$]	A guaranteed bonus for repositioning to the high-demand area	1, 2, 3
	Pre-booked rides around the drop-off location [min]	A guaranteed ride if the driver is staying around for the indicated duration at the last drop-off location	5, 10, 15, 20
	Traffic Congestion	The level of congestion around the drop-off location	Highly congested, Free-flow

Table 2. The levels of time of day pivoted around the driver’s working shift.

Shift starting time	Morning (5:00–11:00)		Midday (11:00–15:00)		Afternoon (15:00–19:00)		Evening (19:00–23:00)		Night (23:00–5:00)
Working Duration	8h	4h	8h	4h	8h	4h	8h	4h	8h	4h
Time of Day	8:00 12:00 16:00	8:00 10:00 12:00	13:00 17:00 21:00	13:00 15:00 17:00	17:00 21:00 1:00	17:00 19:00 21:00	21:00 1:00 5:00	21:00 23:00 1:00	2:00 6:00 10:00	2:00 4:00 6:00

Figure 2. Choice set interface with the existing (left) and hypothetical (right) attributes.

Table 3. The results of the choice models built upon the existing and the hypothetical attributes.

Parameters	Scenario 1 (only existing attributes)		Scenario 2 (with hypothetical attributes)
	Primary	Full	Primary	Full
ASC_Waiting	0.207	−0.283	1.12***	0.988***
Waiting Time_W [min]	−0.022***	−0.019**	−0.019**	−0.017**
Number of Trips_S&H	0.080***	0.060***	0.075***	0.048***
Driver’s Location_W [1=City center]	0.322**	0.315**	−0.009	−0.022
Familiarity with Neighbourhood_C [1=Familiar]	−0.312**	−0.201	−0.443***	−0.334*
Parking Availability_W [1=Available]	0.286**	0.277**	0.363***	0.325**
Surge Pricing_S [$]	0.177***	0.190***	0.165***	0.166***
Drive Time to Surge Area_S [min]	−0.020***	−0.020***	−0.016*	−0.017*
Drive Time to High-Demand Area_H [min]	−0.025***	−0.037***	−0.035***	−0.042***
Working on Weekend/Friday_W	0.350***	0.427***	0.183*	0.236*
Working Shift_C [1=Beginning of the shift]	−0.764***	−0.583***	-	-
Beginners_W&C [1=Beginners]	-	−0.322**	−.	−0.018
Part-time Drivers_W [1=Part-time]	-	0.393***	-	-
High Acceptance Rate_W [1=Acceptance rate>70%]	-	−0.407***	-	−0.369***
Fully Satisfied Drivers_H [1=Fully satisfied]	-	0.371***	-	0.524***
Taxi Driving Experience_C [1=Taxi driver]	-	−0.478***	-	−0.370**
Educated Driver_W [1=Educated]	-	0.406***	-	0.003
Working Shift_W [1=Beginning of the shift]	-	-	−0.476***	−0.344**
Part-time Drivers_C [1=Part-time]	-	-	-	−0.326**
Pre-Booked Rides_W [min]	-	-	−0.021*	−0.020*
Bonus to Drive to High-Demand Area_H [$]	-	-	0.264***	0.177***
Traffic Congestion_C	-	-	−0.407**	−0.283*
Initial Log-Likelihood	−3194.022	−3194.022	−3194.022	−3194.022
Final Log-Likelihood	−2991.151	−2938.735	−2986.493	−2949.844
Rho-square	0.064	0.080	0.065	0.076
AIC	6004.303	5911.471	6000.987	5939.687
BIC	6067.469	6009.092	6081.38	6054.536

Significance code: *p-value<0.05, **p-value<0.01, ***p-value<0.001 .