Disrupting Uber
jacobinmag.com
Disrupting Uber
1–10 of 230 posts
Re: Disrupting Uber
#2> Yet again, an investigative report has found that Uber underpays its drivers.
Aren't the fares proportional to how many drivers are available? If the fares are too low, don't drive. If enough people stop driving, the fare will go up.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#3It's a bit silly to leave out any mention of self driving cars in an article called "Disrupting Uber".
Driving around cars around all day is a silly job, ideally a job that should not exist in 5 years from now. We'd better discuss basic income instead of co-op taxi companies.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#4I still believe that Uber artificially creates a market by subsidizing a price point that is attractive to the drivers.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#5"The drivers who don’t completely depend on their work with Uber to pay their bills — a group that makes up about half of the company’s workforce — depress full-time workers’ wages."
I bet this creates a larger defensive moat than most competitors assume.
Uber is a supply/demand driven model (eg success w surge pricing) and even modest additional supply generates lower rates.
Lacking that same supply efficiency in full time driver platforms will keep their prices higher and without a significant price advantage consumers will stay with the known brands.
Not to mention the end game which is going to drop human drivers from the equation all together.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#6It looks like post-Austin exit of Uber and Lyft, smart guys jumped on the opportunity to fill the gap. I really hope Arcade City will be able to provide sustainable & scalable solution!
P. S. I have no affiliation with either Arcade City or Christopher David. Read about this effort here: http://www.vocativ.com/327333/a-world-without-uber-dispatche...
Re: Disrupting Uber
#7> Yet again, an investigative report has found that Uber underpays its drivers. Aren't the fares proportional to how many drivers are available? If the fares are too low, don't drive. If enough people stop driving, the fare will go up.
If you're driving for beer money you won't care that the fares are low. If you're driving as a career you can't just not work and hope the fares go up.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#8> Yet again, an investigative report has found that Uber underpays its drivers. Aren't the fares proportional to how many drivers are available? If the fares are too low, don't drive. If enough people stop driving, the fare will go up.
Just this. How can you underpay for a job which isn't even contracted for a specific number of hours? It's like saying I underpaid for AAPL because my limit order executed. Uber offers a certain amount of money per mile to any driver who wants to take it. They don't even price discriminate against drivers who; drive more hours, have better ratings, have better cars, etc.
I just don't get it, it's not a right to drive for Uber and be paid a certain amount. If a driver leased a Prius to drive for Uber and saw the rates cut, even still, there's no contract with Uber guaranteeing a certain rate. We've even seen cases where they've exited a market altogether. Uber can disappear from a market tomorrow and those drivers will need to find someone else to drive for or get a different job. Likewise a driver can cut their hours or walk away with zero notice.
If Uber cuts their rates and still ends up with enough drivers, perhaps the only thing you could say is that they were overpaying.
There's only one thing the article touches on which seems worth investigating, drivers which get "stuck" driving more and more to try make their minimum required income. The anecdote of the driver doing 19 hours in a day. First, the driver app should not let you log 19 hours in a day. Second, if Uber is somehow "trapping" drivers to work more for less, I'm not sure I really understand the problem, let alone the solution, but it's something worth exploring, e.g. if there were false promises by Uber.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#9> Yet again, an investigative report has found that Uber underpays its drivers. Aren't the fares proportional to how many drivers are available? If the fares are too low, don't drive. If enough people stop driving, the fare will go up.
If you're driving for beer money you won't care that the fares are low. If you're driving as a career you can't just not work and hope the fares go up.
Which is exactly why no one should drive for Uber thinking it's a career. It's not W2, there are no benefits, there are no opportunities for advancement, and your pay can only decrease.
If at least rates increased as you logged more miles and 5-star reviews that would be something. But it's quite obvious that Uber drivers are fresh meat for the machine. Not only that, but Uber is investing heavily in ways to eliminate drivers altogether. Literally everything about this screams do it for fun, for pocket cash, this is not a career.
Re: Disrupting Uber
#10I still believe that Uber artificially creates a market by subsidizing a price point that is attractive to the drivers.
If their unit economics are positive than this is not true. If their unit economics are negative then it will be a spectacular show when the music stops. This is aside from promotional costs for the first few months when they enter a new market, as long as those costs actually decrease within the first year in a new market.