Company Context

SwiftRide is a large ride-hailing platform operating in 40 North American cities. In its largest metro, Metroville, the company holds an estimated 38% share of app-based rides, behind the market leader at 46% and ahead of smaller local players. The business has strong rider retention and healthy brand awareness, but it is facing recurring supply shortages during weekday commute peaks, Friday evenings, and major events. These shortages are driving long ETAs, higher cancellation rates, and lower rider satisfaction.

Strategic Situation

You are the Head of Marketplace Strategy for Metroville. Driver supply cannot be expanded meaningfully in the next 8 weeks because of onboarding bottlenecks, background check lead times, and a fixed incentive budget already committed to retention. The GM asks you to recommend how to manage rider demand when supply is constrained, while protecting revenue, customer trust, and long-term market share. The decision matters now because Metroville is entering its highest-demand quarter and a major competitor has begun offering aggressive rider discounts in outer neighborhoods.

Data Points

Additional facts:

• 35% of weekly requests come from peak windows, but these windows generate 48% of contribution profit.
• 22% of peak-hour requests are from riders using promo codes or discounted commuter passes.
• 14% of requests are for trips under 1.5 miles; these trips have the lowest margin and highest driver rejection rate.
• Shared rides were paused 6 months ago; relaunch would require 4 weeks of operational work.
• Corporate accounts represent 11% of trips but have 2x higher 90-day retention than consumer riders.

Your Task

As the strategy lead, prepare a recommendation for the Metroville GM.

1. Identify the key levers available to manage rider demand when supply is constrained.
2. Segment demand and prioritize which rider use cases should be protected, shifted, or discouraged.
3. Evaluate the trade-offs of at least three levers using quantitative reasoning where possible.
4. Recommend a near-term plan for the next 8 weeks and a medium-term plan for the next 3-6 months.
5. Define the metrics you would use to judge whether your strategy is working.

Constraints

• Driver supply is assumed flat for the next 8 weeks.
• Incremental rider-facing discounts cannot exceed $1M total over 8 weeks.
• Legal and policy teams will not approve explicit service denial by neighborhood or protected class proxies.
• Product and operations can support at most two major rider-facing changes in the next month.
• The GM wants a plan that preserves long-term trust and avoids excessive social media backlash.