Most people have heard about Uber and Lyft, but there’s another budding rideshare company making a name for itself: Alto.
If you’re wondering what this rideshare company is all about, this article will fill you in on important details.
Table Of Contents
- What Is Alto Rideshare?
- How Does Alto Rideshare Work?
- What Types of Alto Cars Can You Expect?
- Where Is Alto Rideshare Available?
- How Much Does Alto Rideshare Cost?
- Save With an Alto Rideshare Membership
- About the Alto Rideshare App
- Is Alto Rideshare Safe?
- Other Line of Business: Alto Delivery and Logistics
- What Sets Alto Rideshare Apart from Uber and Lyft?
- Wrapping Up
Alto Rideshare is a ride-hailing service created to provide an eco-friendly and affordable way for people to get from point A to B.
The company offers rides in five cities inside the United States.
Alto Rideshare is different from other transportation services because it plans to become the first company with a complete fleet of electric vehicles.
Founders Will Coleman and Alex Halbardier started the rideshare company with these three values in mind: hospitality, consistency, and safety.
Using Alto is very similar to how Uber works.
The first step of the process is downloading the app on your phone, which allows you to request a ride whenever you need one.
Alto promises that each ride is only 10-15 minutes away.
Enter your address or use the pin to drop your location on the Alto app map.
Confirm your ride request and wait for your driver to arrive.
As you wait for the ride, you can swipe up to see your driver’s details.
You’ll see the Alto vehicle number and the driver’s profile information.
You can also tap on the “Identify Vehicle” option in the app to light the car’s grille, making it easier to locate your driver upon arrival.
The app provides an estimate for when your driver will show up.
It will also send you a push notification as the driver arrives for your trip.
What Types of Alto Cars Can You Expect?
Alto uses white SUVs for its fleet of cars.
The rideshare app uses 5-star crash-rated SUVs as a part of its commitment to offer top-notch safety to riders.
Each ride benefits from video monitoring for an extra layer of safety.
You’ll also benefit from the fact that each Alto driver cleans the vehicle thoroughly between rides, using disinfectants sanctioned by the EPA.
HEPA cabin air filters keep fresh air circulating throughout your Alto vehicle’s cabin.
You can hail an Alto ride in five U.S. cities: Dallas, Houston, Miami, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles.
The company plans to expand its services to at least ten new cities in 2023.
Keep an eye out for updates on their website or social media pages.
If you don’t see your city listed, sign up for updates so you will become the first to know when Alto expands.
As Alto expands into new cities, it will also replace its current vehicles with electric cars over time.
It plans to have more than 3,000 electric vehicles in its fleet by the end of 2023.
Alto bills itself as a luxury rideshare experience.
You can expect to pay more than you would when riding with a service such as Lyft or Uber.
The average Alto ride will cost similar to what you would pay when taking an Uber Black ride.
Alto Rideshare Fees
Alto charges a $6 base fare for every ride, but the company bills at a minimum of $14 for every ride.
It also adds in an 18% service share fee.
Each minute costs $0.50.
Every mile will cost you $2.15.
Alto also adds a waiting fee of $0.70 per minute to the fare.
Do You Tip Alto Drivers?
Alto uses employers for their drivers.
The company employs each driver instead of hiring independent contractors.
Since Alto pays its drivers a wage, the company doesn’t expect you to tip its drivers.
The Alto app doesn’t include a tip feature as other rideshare apps do.
Related: Alto rideshare pricing explained
If you find that you take frequent Alto rides, you have the option of buying one of its three membership options.
What Is an Alto Membership?
An Alto membership is a monthly subscription that allows you to receive discounted rates on all of your rides.
Levels of Alto Membership
There are three different types of memberships, which are essentially various payment options.
- Monthly
- Annually
- Family
The Family membership costs $99 per year, with an additional $25 for each extra family member.
The Annually option is $99 per year, and the Monthly membership costs $12.95 per month.
Each membership gives you a 30% discount on every trip you take through the Alto app.
Here are all the listed benefits of an Alto membership.
- Full Fleet Access: You have access to the entire Alto fleet, including electric vehicles. You’ll also enjoy “members-only” rides during peak, busy times of the day.
- Free Rides: Periodically, you’ll gain access to complimentary rides.
- Exclusive Promotions: Membership comes with a variety of rewards and perks.
- Members-Only Discount: You’ll never pay full price for rides with the 30% discount.
- 30-Day Free Trial: Alto lets you try the membership for a full month first. If you want to keep it past the 30 days, you’ll get charged the first billing cycle after the trial period ends.
- Cancel Anytime: Alto allows you to tap a cancel option inside the app anytime you want to end your membership.
If you don’t want to pay for a membership, you can take an Alto ride at any time as a Guest inside the app.
The Alto app provides a sleek, elegant style lit up with a light tan color.
It’s easy to download from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
It provides easy access to the map when starting a trip and shows you a picture of your driver.
The driver profile also provides additional information about your driver.
The Alto vehicle that will pick you up shows prominently on the app, so you’ll know what to look for at the pick-up spot.
The map stays lit so you can track the car before it picks you up and while you’re riding to your destination address.
The Alto app lets you control your vehicle’s lighting and music.
You can even select the “do not disturb” mode if you aren’t in the mood to talk with your driver.
You can now pre-schedule your ride inside the Alto rideshare app when using the membership option.
You can pre-schedule rides up to one hour before the trip.
Alto remains committed to safety.
All its drivers undergo a rigorous screening process that includes a criminal background check and driving record review.
The company also has a Trust & Safety team in place that’s available 24/7 to help with any issues you may experience during your ride.
Alto takes COVID-19 seriously as well.
Each driver disinfects their vehicle between rides.
A plastic barrier exists to separate the driver area from the passenger area.
HEPA air filters circulate air for added safety protection.
Alto requires all unvaccinated drivers and passengers to wear masks while inside the car.
Any passenger can also ask their driver to wear a mask.
The mask policy allows for any vaccinated passenger to take their mask off during the trip.
Video recordings of each trip represent another safety feature used by Alto.
If anything happens that requires a second look, you can gain access to the recording.
Other Line of Business: Alto Delivery and Logistics
Do you need to transport tangible items such as file boxes or any other type of package?
You can hail an Alto driver to pick up the package and deliver it to your desired location through the Alto Delivery and Logistics option.
Alto uses logistics software that includes advanced technology.
The technology involved allows for same-day deliveries.
Alto Rideshare offers an entirely different experience than Lyft or Uber do.
Uber drivers and Lyft drivers aren’t employees.
They’re independent drivers who use their own vehicles to transport you from place to place.
The cleanliness of an Uber or Lyft car depends on whether each individual driver decides to keep it that way.
As employees, Alto drivers have incentives to keep the vehicle spotless between each trip.
You won’t find an Uber or Lyft driver sanitizing vehicles consistently as Alto drivers do.
You don’t know how safely an Uber or Lyft driver will drive.
Alto employees must take driving tests to prove they know how to transport you safely.
Lastly, you may find that your Alto driver is less stressed than a Lyft or Uber driver.
Alto treats its employees well.
Wrapping Up
The Alto rideshare experience is perfect for those who want a luxurious, stress-free ride.
The app is easy to use and provides features that make your trip more enjoyable.
You can save money with an Alto membership or take advantage of complimentary rides every now and then.
With the sleek design, comfortable lighting, and relaxing music, you might never want to ride in any other type of car again.
They pay minimum wage and their health insurance is really bad, you can only go to CVS for a check up i have never heard of anyone going to cvs for that…. also tell people on the app after each ride not to tip drivers and that make driver like my self make less money because alo of people want to tip.. i have had people i take home tell me that
I don’t think they tell customers not to tip… it doesn’t benefit drivers or company.(+ company would look bad if they do that)ppl probably don’t tip because they are used to ( Uber or Lift ) chip ride . I’m Uber driver ( 4 years … I know what I talk about .Anyway Ian hear just to se what Alto is about … make decision if it’s for me
Well the idea sounds great but it sounds like they’re starting off just like uber started off first of all you’re going to be paying a driver minimum wage depends on what state they’re in in Nevada the minimum wage is 975 in California I believe the minimum wage is $10 or $12 depending on what county you’re in so I mean not a lot of people can live off of minimum wage because of the cost of living number two tipping is how people save money so if somebody wants a tip a driver $2 $1 $5 or $10 let them keep the tips why are you going not to let them keep tips they are working for you as an employee okay doing your job for you as a driver it’s like working at a restaurant you’re going to pay a restaurant worker to bus tables and clean tables and pay minimum wage but not let him accept his because you’re paying him an hourly wage it’s not fair to the drivers let them accept tips so by that being said I don’t think you’re going to have a lot of drivers working for you unless they’re college students they want to work part-time and make money because driving for somebody at minimum wage and not getting tips might as well work for Uber and Lyft and make a little bit more money yes you got to pay more commission but at least you can make your own hours and you can get tips you know what I mean so you must or figure it out or change the structure and how you going to do that if you want to keep drivers unless you want to just hire college students like I said they want to work part-time but they can quit on you at any time because they got finals and stuff like that so I would rethink this pay a little more to your drivers I think that the minimum starting pay for a driver should be $20 an hour minimum if you’re not going to give them tips or let them keep their tips or let them accept tips $20 an hour still not enough but it’s at least to get them by especially with the cost of living out here in this nation so let’s see how successful this is sounds like a good idea but the structure pay is not great