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Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

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Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#111

Post by prostoalex »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #70
prostoalex wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't break the strike by removing surge pricing and increasing everyone's pick-up time, you break it by keeping surge pricing, so that the drivers chasing the surge swarm the location in order to boost their earnings.

Breaking the strike was picking up someone at JFK during the strike. Uber and Lyft both picked up riders during the strike. It's not complicated. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/01/2...

So just black out the area for drivers and passengers?

Unless this is a coordinated effort, drivers and passengers will just go down the list to see if Lyft/Gett/Wingz/you-name-it is working.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#112

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #3

Dan Primack summarised this well; Uber failed on messaging: "Uber has done a lot of questionable things over the years, but its actions this past weekend vis-a-vis Trump's immigration ban weren't among them. An actual timeline from Saturday, which may differ from what you saw on social media: • 4:20pm ET: CEO Travis Kalanick sent email to employees. It stopped short of explicitly opposing the ban, but did say: (1) Th…

[deleted]

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#113

Post by visarga »

MaxLeiter wrote: post #2

Completely stolen from https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/5r2apd/lyft_sur... This is all a consequence of bad messaging on Uber's part here; they're not in the wrong. Uber's Surge system is all automatic--if demand goes way up, and supply doesn't follow suit, prices will increase in the app. Unfortunately, demand goes way up during catastrophes like terror attacks, so Uber has had a few bad instances where,…

> People who don't know about how Surge works might assume that Uber is deliberately raising prices in these crisis zones to gouge people in peril, which obviously isn't the case.

They could collect an extra few cents from normal fares and store it to compensate drivers during peak time, without fluctuating the fare price for customers. It would work like insurance, and have the same effect with surge pricing while not generating bad PR.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#114

Post by knieveltech »

wikyd wrote: post #85
alphonsegaston wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber broke the strike by breaking the strike. This absurd focus on whether surge pricing was a multiplier or disincentive is a complete distraction. The taxi drivers reached out and asked Uber for solidarity. They dispatched drivers to break the strike. They made their bed in the court of public opinion, now they can lie in it.

Drivers on Uber are contractors. Isn't it each driver's choice to decide if they want to strike or not?

It absolutely is. This doesn't make scabbing any less vile, however. All it has guaranteed in this instance is that a bunch of hapless Uber drivers are going to be feeling the backlash. Friends don't let friends scab.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#115

Post by dllthomas »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #70
prostoalex wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't break the strike by removing surge pricing and increasing everyone's pick-up time, you break it by keeping surge pricing, so that the drivers chasing the surge swarm the location in order to boost their earnings.

Breaking the strike was picking up someone at JFK during the strike. Uber and Lyft both picked up riders during the strike. It's not complicated. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/01/2...

Workers choosing not to work is a strike. Infrastructure owners choosing not to let workers work is something else.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#116

Post by arglebarnacle »

prostoalex wrote: post #64
true_religion wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? I have a hard time understanding why a multinational company needs to participate so deeply in the politics and labor strikes of a single city. New York is big, but I'd imagine the CEO had a focus that included LA, Chicago, London, etc. and that would take away from coordinating with any taxi-strikers in NYC. Addendum: Did the taxi union contact Uber before the strike to coordinate this action? I mean it's a 1 ho…

Worth noting that 3 collective entities "broke" the strike. 1) Uber drivers by responding to pickups. 2) Uber customers by requesting those pickups. 3) Uber the company by facilitating those pickups. I am not sure we can claim high moral ground and label (3) immoral while staying oblivious to (1) and (2).

Failing to boycott is not the same thing as breaking a strike. If this whole incident has revealed one thing, it's the extent to which the labor movement has lost cultural and moral mindshare. Forty years ago, everyone knew what scabbing was, what it wasn't, and had social/political/moral ideas about it.

Now that the labor occupies a much less central place in our society, these common norms and knowledge have been lost. I happen to be appalled by this because of my own political views, but good or bad it's certainly a sign of the times.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#117

Post by knieveltech »

prostoalex wrote: post #111
alphonsegaston wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking the strike was picking up someone at JFK during the strike. Uber and Lyft both picked up riders during the strike. It's not complicated. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/01/2...

So just black out the area for drivers and passengers? Unless this is a coordinated effort, drivers and passengers will just go down the list to see if Lyft/Gett/Wingz/you-name-it is working.

Right. And then a driver from one of those services breaks the strike and the parent company they contract for gets hammered in the court of public opinion for breaking the strike.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#118

Post by Kalium »

rosser wrote: post #7
MaxLeiter wrote: post #2

Completely stolen from https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/5r2apd/lyft_sur... This is all a consequence of bad messaging on Uber's part here; they're not in the wrong. Uber's Surge system is all automatic--if demand goes way up, and supply doesn't follow suit, prices will increase in the app. Unfortunately, demand goes way up during catastrophes like terror attacks, so Uber has had a few bad instances where,…

I don't think the pricing is the extent of people's concerns, or even the majority. I'm not a fan of Kalanick, personally, but I was prepared to have been wrong about him when I saw his Facebook post about taking care of the drivers who were stranded by this idiocy. Then, I saw they were taking fares to JFK during the taxi strike — effectively breaking it. To my eyes, and those of many others, that is an ugly repudia…

Instead of a gesture, Uber chose to allow immigrants from the countries in question to keep earning money. Uber made it easy for protesters to get around the police blockade of the AirTrain.

There were no ideal options on the table. Joining the strike would have meant hurting a sizable number of immigrants and hurting the protests.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#119

Post by alphonsegaston »

prostoalex wrote: post #111
alphonsegaston wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking the strike was picking up someone at JFK during the strike. Uber and Lyft both picked up riders during the strike. It's not complicated. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/01/2...

So just black out the area for drivers and passengers? Unless this is a coordinated effort, drivers and passengers will just go down the list to see if Lyft/Gett/Wingz/you-name-it is working.

The strike was widely publicized and the protest visible. Everyone involved was allowed to act as they saw fit and we can think what we want of those decisions as well.

Re: Lyft surges to the top 10 on App Store following the “DeleteUber” campaign

#120

Post by wan23 »

throwaw181ay wrote: post #54

I'm no fan of Uber but come on, this is so stupid, and dangerous for Lyft, because now they are stuck into this kind of pandering. Do they really think these customers will be loyal? at the first political blunder, with enough outrage, they are done. They are pandering to a crowd that is never happy with political posturing. They'll learn it the hard way. Uber absolutely did the right thing here. They chose not to pl…

In the end, what really differentiates these companies? There aren't many reasons to pick one over the other. Any opportunity that Lyft has to say "Hey! We're different" is good for business.
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