Flat fee or revenue share? Price the whole month, not one line

Compare what the whole month costs, not one line of it. A $40 software plan and a retainer plus a percentage are different products. One books jobs and bills you for each one. The other includes the stall, the electricity, the charging, cleaning between rides and 24-hour incident response. Priced hands-off with one per-job platform’s own prices and calculator defaults, plus our parking and weekly-cleaning assumptions, the per-job month comes to about $2,160 a car. Our Priority schedule at the same fares is $1,317 to $1,522, even with our percentage applied to the full fare. If you attend the charging and arrange the cleaning yourself, the software plan is cheaper. That is the real dividing line.

General information, not financial advice. Not affiliated with Tesla. Every per-job price and default below is quoted from public pages read on October 14, 2026.

The $960 comparison sets an operator against an app

A recent comparison of robotaxi management fees runs a simple widget. Ten percent of a $10,000 month is $1,000, a software plan is $40, so the percentage “costs” $960 more. It is a clean number. It also compares two different things.

The $1,000 side is a management fee: the company that runs the car. The $40 side is a software “planning allowance.” Charging, energy, parking and cleaning are billed separately. The page says so itself, in its fine print: “Platform-fee savings are not total operating savings,” and “This comparison does not claim total savings.” We agree with the fine print. The headline is the problem.

Our column describes what the retainer includes once a car is onboarded at an operating depot. No DockDuty depot is open yet. The full list, and what it does not cover, is on the pricing page.

Price the whole month with their own numbers

The same platform publishes a profitability calculator. Its defaults are 5 cars, 18 paid rides per car per day, a $12 average fare, 2.5 attended charging sessions per car per day at a planning cost of $17.50 each, and $0.36 of electricity per ride. Its result: “Known costs included $7,735” a month for the fleet, which is $1,547 per car. The calculator notes that this excludes “service charges” and “parking or depot costs,” among other things, so cleaning is not in it either.

Those defaults work out to $6,480 in fares per car per month (18 rides × $12 × 30 days). Add back what the $1,547 leaves out:

• $1,547 in known costs from the calculator: $1,312.50 of charging sessions, $194.40 of electricity, $40 of software
• $150 for parking (our assumption; neither side publishes one)
• $465 for cleaning: one $85 clean a week and one $125 deep clean a month

That is about $2,160 per car per month. Our Priority schedule at the same $6,480 in fares, with our percentage applied to the full fare, is $475 plus 13%, or $1,317 per car at seven or more cars, and $550 plus 15%, or $1,522, at one or two. Both include the stall, the electricity, the charging, cleaning between rides and the incident line. Even before parking or a single clean, the calculator’s own $1,547 is more than our $1,522.

A weekly clean, by the way, is one clean every 126 paid rides at 18 rides a day. Clean every other day instead and the per-job month rises by $935. Clean daily and it rises by $2,210. Our retainer includes cleaning and readiness between rides. We have not published a count of full cleans per month, so ask us what that looks like at your car’s ride count.

Does the work grow with revenue? With rides, it does

The core argument against a percentage is that it “can become expensive as revenue grows,” even when “the operational work does not grow at the same rate.” Robotaxi revenue mostly comes from rides. Every ride uses energy, puts a stranger in the back seat and brings the car closer to its next charge, its next clean and its next problem. The work grows with the rides.

That calculator agrees. It prices electricity per ride, $0.36, which is 3% of a $12 fare, and plans 2.5 attended charging sessions for every 18 rides. Per ride, that is $2.43 of charging service plus $0.36 of electricity: $2.79 a ride, before parking, cleaning or the app. Taken on the full $12 fare, our percentage is $1.56 to $1.80, and together with the retainer it covers all of those.

Where a percentage really does cost more

Two places, and you should know both.

When you do the work yourself. If you attend the charging yourself, 2.5 sessions a day by that calculator’s default, which is 75 a month, and you are fine with a clean every 126 rides, a software plan is cheaper than any operator. At $6,480 in fares that month is about $849: $40 of software, $194 of electricity, $150 of parking and $465 of cleaning. That is real money saved. It is also a job. A robotaxi stops being passive income when you are the one standing at the charger.

In a very strong month. A percentage grows with fares; that is how it is built. If the per-job charging stayed fixed at 2.5 sessions a day no matter how many rides the car gave, the hands-off per-job month would cost less than our one-to-two-car rate above roughly $11,800 in monthly fares, and less than our seven-plus rate above roughly $14,900. At a $12 fare those are about 33 and 41 rides a day, beyond the 12 to 24 rides a day that platform plans on. At a $12 fare, if charging sessions rise with rides, as its own per-ride electricity figure implies, there is no crossover in the hands-off case. But revenue can also grow without more rides, when average fares rise. Then the work stays flat and our percentage still grows. At a $20 average fare, the fixed-charging crossovers drop to about $10,700 and $13,300 in monthly fares, roughly 18 and 22 rides a day. That is the strongest form of the per-job argument, and it is a fair one.

The whole month, at five revenue levels

Per car, per month, rounded to the dollar. Rides a day assume a $12 fare and 30 days. DockDuty: $475 plus 13% at seven or more cars and $550 plus 15% at one or two, with the percentage applied to the full fare as the conservative case. Per-job, you attend charging: $40 software, $150 parking (our assumption), four $85 cleans, one $125 deep clean and $0.36 of electricity per ride. Per-job, hands-off: the same, plus 2.5 attended charging sessions per 18 rides at $17.50 each (the calculator’s default, scaled with rides). Insurance, financing, tires, repairs, taxes and one-time onboarding are left out of every column.

And an all-in flat rate? That is where a bad month matters

Some operators skip the menu and charge one flat monthly fee. One we have read lists $2,375 a car per month at launch, covering parking, charging up to a monthly energy cap, a set number of cleans and washes, and on-site servicing. That is a real all-in product. It includes on-site servicing such as tires and brakes, which our retainer does not; work only Tesla can do is passed through at cost.

Here is where a percentage earns its keep. A flat fee is the same bill in your car’s best month and its worst. Our percentage moves with the fares; our retainer does not. At $4,000 in fares, with the percentage applied to the full fare as everywhere here, our fee is $995 at seven or more cars and $1,150 at one or two, which leaves $1,225 to $1,380 for repairs before the flat rate comes out ahead. In a $2,000 month, ours is $735 to $850. The flat rate is still $2,375.

The flip side, stated plainly: above roughly $12,200 in monthly fares at one or two cars, or $14,600 at seven or more, our fee alone passes $2,375, and repairs are on top. If you are confident your car will earn that every month, a flat rate is the better deal. If you are not, and with no published owner terms from Tesla nobody can be yet, a fee that shrinks in a slow month carries less downside. Ours does not reach zero: the $475 to $550 retainer is owed even in a month with no fares.

Incentives cut both ways

The other argument is about incentives: with a percentage, the operator earns more as you earn more. True. That is the point of it. Our percentage is taken only from rides the car actually completes, and if the car earns nothing, the percentage is nothing. A per-job menu charges per job, so your bill rises when your car needs more work, whether or not the car earned anything that day.

Neither structure is pure. Our retainer is owed every month the car is onboarded, slow months included, and we would rather say that here than have you find it later. But look at which way the variable part moves. Ours moves with your fares. A per-job menu’s moves with the number of jobs.

A price you can hold someone to

One more difference that does not fit in a widget. The $40 plan is described as “a planning estimate, not a pricing change or final quote,” with exact pricing confirmed at registration. Our pricing page states ours: the per-ride percentage cannot be raised at all while your car is enrolled; the retainer can rise only by CPI-U, once per calendar year, on 60 days’ written notice and never before your first anniversary; onboarding is capped at $1,000 per car, with your $450 reservation deposit credited against it; and once you are operating it is month-to-month, with no minimum term and no early-termination penalty; the exit policy asks for 30 days’ notice.

Questions to ask any operator, flat fee or percentage

• What is my total monthly cost per car at my fleet size, in writing, including parking and electricity?
• What cleaning is included, and what does an extra clean cost?
• Who answers when the car has a problem at 3 a.m., and is that coverage guaranteed?
• Which prices are final, and which are planning estimates?
• Can any fee rise while I am enrolled, and by how much?
• What does it cost to leave?

Ask us all six: email them to support@dockduty.com and we answer in writing. If one of our answers does not match this page or the pricing page, tell us.

Flat fee vs revenue share: FAQ

Is a flat fee cheaper than a revenue share for robotaxi management?
Only if you compare the same services. A $40 software plan is cheaper than any operator if you attend the charging and arrange the cleaning and parking yourself. Priced hands-off with one per-job platform’s own prices and defaults, plus our parking and weekly-cleaning assumptions, the per-job month was about $2,160 per car at $6,480 in fares, against $1,317 to $1,522 on DockDuty’s Priority schedule with our percentage applied to the full fare. Onboarding is excluded from both, and no DockDuty depot is open yet.

Does a percentage fee get expensive as robotaxi revenue grows?
In our numbers, with the percentage applied to the full fare, it grows by $130 to $150 for each extra $1,000 in fares at DockDuty’s Priority rates. The work grows with rides too: in one per-job calculator, charging service and electricity alone come to $2.79 per ride, more than DockDuty’s percentage on a full $12 fare. Where revenue grows through higher fares rather than more rides, a percentage does cost more.

What does DockDuty’s monthly retainer include?
An assigned stall, charging with the electricity included and no markup, cleaning and readiness between rides, 24-hour incident response, maintenance coordination and the owner dashboard. Parts, repairs, tires, insurance and registration are the owner’s. No DockDuty depot is open yet; the retainer starts once a car is onboarded at an operating depot.

Can DockDuty raise its percentage?
Not while your vehicle is enrolled. The retainer can rise only by CPI-U, once per calendar year, on 60 days’ written notice, and never before your first anniversary.

Sources

• DockDuty pricing, last reviewed September 11, 2026
• All-in flat rate: a depot operator’s public fleet calculator and its notes, read October 13, 2026.
• Per-job prices, fine print and calculator defaults: a per-job robotaxi services platform’s public fee comparison (updated October 13, 2026), FAQ and profitability calculator, all read October 14, 2026. We keep dated copies of every page quoted here.

Last reviewed: October 14, 2026