Earlier quoted context omitted.
This question would have made sense 10-20 years ago.
No, I'm still confused. What is the problem with being a taxi driver for life and expecting a good wage?
Low barrier to entry.
Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
181–190 of 273 posts
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get it. Taxicabs such as in NYC are famously expensive to buy into, and yet drivers somehow afford it and make livings on them. So if they are clearly not losing money, why is it that a company that's supposed to be vastly more efficient due to use of computers can't make a profit? Are the tech overheads really that high?
Taxicabs such as in NYC are (were) monopolies. The price you paid was far above what the market rate should have been, which is why drivers were able to make livings on them. Uber/Lyft are simply forcing prices back down to the market rate which is where the prices should be in a free market. Driving isn't really something that should be a career. > "Why is it that a company that's supposed to be vastly more efficien…
> The price you paid was far above what the market rate should have been, which is why drivers were able to make livings on them.
This sentence makes no sense to me. How can something's "market rate" be non-profitable for the producer? If you have market forces acting on something the balance of forces will necessarily push the price higher than the price of production.
If something doesn't make sense to sell because it's too cheap, the market actors will not produce it, lowering the supply and decreasing the offer, thus increasing the price. eventually, you have to reach a price balance somewhere higher than the initial cost of production, for at least a subset of the producers.
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taxicabs such as in NYC are (were) monopolies. The price you paid was far above what the market rate should have been, which is why drivers were able to make livings on them. Uber/Lyft are simply forcing prices back down to the market rate which is where the prices should be in a free market. Driving isn't really something that should be a career. > "Why is it that a company that's supposed to be vastly more efficien…
If the GP is correct and the companies are losing money and subsidized by venture capital... Then no, they aren't fixing the process down to market rate. They are artificially delaying the market rate with venture capital.
Yep, and ruining life of lots of people in the process.
But hey, all for big money!
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would those companies want to smear Uber? Many of them profit from uber. Uber sells a ton of gas and cars.
Additionally, Uber usage encourages car ownership and usage, as opposed to cycling or public transport.
Does it? I'd have thought the opposite. The whole idea behind "ride sharing" is not needing to own a car, but being able to benefit from one when needed.
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Additionally, Uber usage encourages car ownership and usage, as opposed to cycling or public transport.
Does it? I'd have thought the opposite. The whole idea behind "ride sharing" is not needing to own a car, but being able to benefit from one when needed.
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Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#186Uber is losing billions and their drivers are making peanuts. That sounds sustainable.
It was never designed to be sustainable. Why does nobody get that yet? The only reason Uber and Lyft work is that there are a ton of people with limited job skills, who have time on their hands, are short on cash, and need to spend their extra time trying to make money. Sure, there may be "bored people" who do this because they're retired or whatever, but that's a tiny minority. Most people do not become part-time ca…
I smell a communist, lads! :)
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#187This doesn't surprise me at all and it's because of hidden costs incurred by the driver, combined with an implicit bidding system that drives down wages. Hidden costs: 1. Vehicle wear and tear (cars cost you money when you drive them) 2. Vehicle depreciation (cars cost you money even when you aren't driving them) 3. Interest and fees associated with auto loans and leases 4. Insurance premiums 5. Gas 6. Unexpected/unp…
I drove a cab for beer money back in college, and a year or so ago, I had an interesting discussion with a cab medallion owner, after some typical uber driver cut us off. He thought it was a suckers' game where it looked like you were making money - until you had your first breakdown and you had no money and no income. He was pretty confident the average cab driver couldn't plan for this, and the whole thing would co…
My mom is fantastically bad with money. When I was ten my dad was murdered.
Our survivor benefits in 1987 were ~2400. Our three bedroom apartment in San Diego was 700 a month. My mom managed to make us broke in 2 weeks and we were getting food boxes at the end of the month. She just went fucking bonkers whenever she had cash like it was our last day on earth. Tons of fast food, buying toilet paper at 7/11 instead of bulk at a large store.
30 years later she is even worse. She considers payday loans and her credit card unused balances income. It is fucking absurd. A few years ago I paid off all her stuff and said not to do it again. This ended exactly how you think it would.
I took the long way around to explain that people like my mom are so short-sighted that she will just see the balance and never consider the cost that was occurred for that balance.
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16499582 It's pretty easy to do so much damage. Imagine turning left without looking and an oncoming truck tries to avoid a collision and drives into a store front. Property damages will be very high and the injured people inside the store will need medical attention, too.
Also sounds like the truck's fault.
I caused something similar and accepted the accident as my fault.
I back-exited a parking space and turned left immediately after, while the truck tried to avoid me by going in the incoming lane; if he just hit the breaks without swerving I would most like have been killed.
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of giving in to a gut reaction, you should read the paper. All research must get funding in one way or another. If you exclude research due to funding sources and potential conflicts of interest, you wouldn't be left with much.
> If you exclude research due to funding sources and potential conflicts of interest, you wouldn't be left with much. If the majority of research is tainted by conflicts, that doesn't somehow make it any less tainted by conflicts. It's trivially easy to design a study to produce the results you want it to, just by selecting things like accounting methods at the outset. For example, one method of accounting is to allo…
You could also read the methodology in the study when it comes out, since describing that is required in science, as opposed to questioning hypothetical methodologies that could be used. From the brief version of the study (http://ceepr.mit.edu/files/papers/2018-005-Brief.pdf), it appears they're using per-mile costs and ascribing only the incremental costs on a per-mile basis.
> Of the five sources of cost estimated per mile (Insurance, Maintenance, Repairs, Fuel and Depreciation), approximately 40% of costs are attributable to Insurance, Maintenance and Repairs, 40% to fuel expenses, and 20% to depreciation.
Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are basically biding their time until driverless cars take off it seems.
That's what I never really got. The fact that self driving cars will be the savior for Uber. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the concept is viable in urban areas within 5 years and Uber puts a massive fleet of self driving vehicles on the road. While it's certainly true that they wouldn't have to pay drivers it would be a massive shift in capital investment. The "genius" of Uber is shifting the necessary…
Also, where does Uber store all the cars outside of peak times?
So it has to buy parking.
What happens when they break down?
Servicing.
How often do they have to replace their fleet?
$3 billion every 5 years.