In March 2023, Luisa Pereira made a slight tweak to the way she accepted trips as a ride-hailing driver in São Paulo and almost immediately saw a significant rise in her weekly earnings. “It’s almost like the cost of a gas tank every week — around 200 reais ($41),” she told Rest of World. All Pereira had done was download a free app called StopClub onto her phone.
Ordinarily, when customers book a trip on ride-hailing apps — like Uber and the Didi-owned 99, the two biggest in Brazil — drivers are able to see the full distance, time required, and the amount they’ll be paid for the ride. StopClub gives drivers more clarity: It breaks down the total fare offered by the app and quickly estimates the rate per kilometer or per hour. If the driver finds it to be too low, they can refuse the trip and look for one that offers more bang for the buck.
StopClub’s technique is no secret — plenty of drivers make the same calculations in their heads before accepting a fare. But the speed and clarity of StopClub’s breakdown has helped them increase their earnings by targeting the most profitable rides, drivers told Rest of World. Even those more experienced among them find the app useful, they said, because Uber drivers only have seven seconds to decide whether to accept or decline a ride. (Uber claims it’s 11 seconds.) Pereira said StopClub has made drivers’ lives easier. “I was already used to doing the calculation in my head, but if you think about it, we have to pay attention to so many things: traffic, the passenger, potential thieves, pedestrians,” she said. “At the end of the day, our minds are tired.”
Founded in 2017, StopClub only saw modest success at first. It featured a map where drivers could track one another’s location, and a secret camera that allowed them to discreetly record audio and video during rides in case of trouble with passengers. In February, StopClub introduced the earnings calculator using a clever hack: It takes advantage of Android’s screen reader functionality for the visually impaired to “read” the app that’s currently displayed. Drivers don’t need to leave Uber or manually type in the fare — StopClub reads the fare directly from the ride-sharing app and displays the calculation. It can even automatically reject fares below a certain price set by the driver.
Since it added the fare calculator, StopClub has gone from around 87,000 active users in February to 250,000 across Brazil today, a StopClub spokesperson told Rest of World over email. What’s considered an ideal ride differs from driver to driver. Those who lease their vehicles, for example, cannot surpass a certain mileage per month, which means they often prefer shorter rides in busy neighborhoods. For drivers who own their vehicles, the choice might come down to whether their car is fuel-efficient (they prefer longer trips) and whether the ride takes them through heavy traffic.
Daniel de Almeida, a ride-hailing app driver in São Paulo, told Rest of World that rejecting less profitable rides results in reduced operational costs. Before downloading StopClub, he’d spend 120 reais (around $25) on gas per day. Now, he spends between 85 ($17) and 100 reais ($21). With StopClub, “it’s as if a blindfold has been removed from our eyes,” he said.
Uber Brazil took StopClub to court in July, claiming the app was illegally obtaining and storing confidential data related to passengers, drivers, and ride prices. It also alleged that StopClub was violating Uber’s copyright and competition rights. In response, StopClub said it doesn’t extract or store data. Instead, when Uber or 99 offer a ride to a driver, StopClub said it only reads the information shown on screen and executes a pre-programmed calculation. In late August, Uber lost its injunction to block the app.
On social media, influencer ride-hailing drivers posted videos celebrating the news of Uber’s defeat in court. A YouTuber and ride-hailing influencer known as Fernando Floripa brought his car to a sudden halt when the news came in. “I had to stop everything and tell you guys,” he said in a video posted to his 461,000 subscribers. “StopClub has just defeated Uber.”
Pereira, who manages WhatsApp groups with nearly 2,700 drivers, believes that Uber’s lawsuit backfired. “StopClub ended up gaining a bunch of fans” from the publicity that coverage of the injunction produced, leading drivers “to commit to helping the app live on,” she said. An online petition launched by StopClub received over 60,800 signatures, and three app drivers’ associations requested to be added to the lawsuit as interested parties.
Rest of World asked Uber how its fares are calculated, and whether the company could itself include a feature giving drivers a more detailed breakdown of their earnings. In response, Uber sent a statement saying it was appealing the court’s decision. A spokesperson told Rest of World over email that Uber’s terms and conditions did not allow users to “provide, distribute or share, nor permit the provision, distribution or sharing of the Driver Application (or data associated with it) with any third party.”
Three weeks ago, de Almeida posted a tutorial for the 128,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, explaining how to install and use StopClub. He said that by using the app, drivers are signaling to Uber that they don’t want low-paying rides. For now, de Almeida stands by StopClub. “Uber can’t take our freedom to choose rides,” he said.