Intention to provide ridesharing services: Determinants from the perspective of driver-partners in a gig economy

Research on ridesharing platforms under the gig economy has focused much on the incentives and barriers of users, leaving many gaps in understanding drivers’ intention to provide ridesharing services. This paper aims to explore, from the perspective of driver-partners, motives that encourage them to continue being gig workers. Data for the study are based on a cross-sectional survey of ridesharing drivers in three metropolitan areas in three regions (North, Central, and South) of Vietnam, conducted from June to July 2022. The paper regresses behavioral intention to continue being a gig driver on their demographic characteristics and self-estimation of economic benefit, time preference, and enjoyment of being a gig driver via ordered probit models. For all three regions, the result suggests that economic benefit, time preference, and enjoyment are good predictors of drivers’ intention to provide the services. Specifically, the probability of remaining in gig work among drivers decreases with their educational and economic status. Higher economic benefit does not predict a higher intention of drivers to stay longer in gig work. Similarly, those with higher levels of enjoyment of traveling and vehicles have a lower intention to remain in this sphere. In the North, the interaction terms between time preference and enjoyment level are significant, suggesting that the effect of enjoyment levels becomes less damaging with an increase in time preference. In other words, time preference is vital in keeping gig drivers in this type of work.