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Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

bloomberg.com

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Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#141

Post by leesalminen »

lr4444lr wrote: post #104
Balgair wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find the post, but there was a 'UBER finance guy' (self-claimed) on HN a few weeks back that 'spilled the beans' and quit on what Uber is actually: a sub-prime auto loan company. Again, this is my recollection, take it with salt. It goes like: Driver (D): I want to drive for Uber! Uber (U): Sure! Do you have a car that is safe and less than 5 years old? (I have no idea what the car reqs. are) D: No U: Ok, wel…

Why not just lease... Are the drivers really falling for this en masse?

Leases tend to be low mileage which is not conducive to taxi driving. Yes lots of people do this.

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#142

Post by sverige »

dragonwriter wrote: post #35
bdrool wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber did the world a favor by breaking the back of the taxi monopoly. But now they need to either clean up their act or go away.

> Uber did the world a favor by breaking the back of the taxi monopoly. In much the same way that the capitalist class "did the world a favor" by breaking the politico-economic power monopoly of the nobility.

ARTHUR: Well, I AM king...

DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society! ....If there's ever going to be any progress--

WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh -- how d'you do?

ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Whose castle is that?

WOMAN: King of the who?

ARTHUR: The Britons.

WOMAN: Who are the Britons?

ARTHUR: Well, we all are. we're all Britons and I am your king.

WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.

DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship. ..... A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--

WOMAN: Oh there you go, bringing class into it again.

DENNIS: That's what it's all about if only people would--

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#143

Post by avaer »

tomkit wrote: post #135

I'm breaking a 4 yr HN commenting-hiatus to post this: it's a bit disappointing to see how the quality of HN comments has deteriorated over the years. Virtually all the comments I'm seeing here are sensationalist sentiments/anecdotes, backed with no facts, reverberated in an echo chamber. This is a plead to the HN moderators to continue to iterate on your product to improve the quality of the comments.

Welcome back!

One of the worst parts of open source is when someone who has been happily getting value out of your free product for 4 years opens an issue to complain about how quality has gone downhill, and you need to fix a few things.

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#144

Post by aarongolliver »

anigbrowl wrote: post #131
smt88 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small groups who can identify and contact each other can strike without a union. Uber drivers can't because Uber is the only party who can identify all of them. Furthermore, scabs might sign up without even knowing they're scabs, or drivers might refuse to strike. There would have to be some legal/organizational mechanism to force all current drivers to strike.

I'm sure that information could be...acquired. After that it's just social engineering.

I was in an uber to one of Microsoft's collegiate CTF's, and when my Uber driver realized that means I knew (the very basics of) computer security he begged me to hack Uber and get all the Seattle driver's emails so he could ask them to strike.

He also tried to sell me on his cult. And told me to defend my servers all I needed was a fractal firewall that used the number Pi somewhere because if you use a number with (presumably) no pattern in it no one could ever touch you.

I gave him 5 stars

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#145

Post by vacri »

aetherson wrote: post #94
Balgair wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find the post, but there was a 'UBER finance guy' (self-claimed) on HN a few weeks back that 'spilled the beans' and quit on what Uber is actually: a sub-prime auto loan company. Again, this is my recollection, take it with salt. It goes like: Driver (D): I want to drive for Uber! Uber (U): Sure! Do you have a car that is safe and less than 5 years old? (I have no idea what the car reqs. are) D: No U: Ok, wel…

I'm as negative as the next guy on Uber, and that's a great narrative, but they are losing vast quantities of money. Any dastardly deed that they do has to square itself with the fact that they are losing vast quantities of money. A predatory auto-loan company is not a $70B business.

It's almost like transport is a mature industry, with lots of competition, decades if not centuries of research on cost reduction, and running on thin margins!

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#146

Post by danso »

tomkit wrote: post #135

I'm breaking a 4 yr HN commenting-hiatus to post this: it's a bit disappointing to see how the quality of HN comments has deteriorated over the years. Virtually all the comments I'm seeing here are sensationalist sentiments/anecdotes, backed with no facts, reverberated in an echo chamber. This is a plead to the HN moderators to continue to iterate on your product to improve the quality of the comments.

If you think the posted sensational anecdotes are not factual, then you're accusing the userbase of being a bunch of liars. Maybe the product isn't as good as you think?

On a more constructive note, why don't you raise the angle that you think is worth discussing? The allegations are pretty straightforward and Uber looks to be admitting to the mistake, hence the payout. Maybe the posted Bloomberg link should be changed to Quartz, which has a more substantial story with more to discuss than the settled payments: https://qz.com/989040/uber-is-paying-back-tens-of-millions-o...

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#148

Post by nradov »

anigbrowl wrote: post #130
nradov wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The drivers are vendors, not employees, so there's no way for them to form a union or go on strike. But there's also nothing stopping a group of drivers from getting together and collectively agreeing to stop driving for Uber.

So form an 'association' or something. If you're dealing with a company that reflexively breaks rules you're under no obligation to worry about niceties like union certification requirements and procedures. there is no moral obligation to play fair with a known cheater.

There are no legal niceties even needed. Uber drivers in the USA wouldn't be breaking any labor laws by forming a voluntary association.

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#149

Post by adultSwim »

criddell wrote: post #48
potatolicious wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What your driver was talking about may not be a bug/math error like stated here. After rolling out guaranteed whole-ride pricing (as opposed to metering) Uber is allegedly testing algorithms to bid different prices for rides to both driver and passenger. i.e., passenger sees a fare of $X, while driver sees a fare of $Y, where presumably $Y Passengers' fares can be "optimized" by estimating a specific passenger-trip's…

When I read about stuff like this and also how Uber is losing a lot of money, I have to wonder if maybe there's a fundamental problem with their business model.

There is. Uber is predicated on brazen lawlessness and squeezing workers.

Re: Uber Plans Millions in Back Pay After Shortchanging NYC Drivers

#150

Post by aianus »

accountyaccount wrote: post #52
Jabanga wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue not all laws are moral and that following immoral laws is emphasising your own interests over those of humanity. If abiding by the law was people's only priority, there would be no widespread usage of public key cryptography (it was extremely illegal in the early 1990s, and only gained legal acceptance after cypherpunks pushed back against the laws and proliferated its use), which would have prevented…

Don't give me this happy horseshit masquerading as philosophy, this isn't about what "laws" or "ethics" are — Uber is constantly treating their drivers, who are people, like garbage.

I'm a part-time Uber driver and I've never been treated like garbage by them. They pay me exactly what they say they'll pay me and on time. If I don't like the rate I'm earning, I turn it off and go home.
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