I remember talking to a driver back in the early days of Uber X (probably 2012-ish) who told me he was on track to make $80k driving for Uber that year. Wow have things changed.
Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
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Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#52Its like they see developers and drivers as two different species. For every twenty something dev that makes $132K, there is a fourty something trying to rebuild a life post-trauma, doing their best to net $13K. Since insurance and gas aren't cheaper, the driver now will net $6K next year, while the dev would jump ship to another company if they didn't get a $6K bonus. While my head understands the economic principle…
There is nothing stopping us from legislating minimum rates just like we legislate minimum wages.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#53How does dropping rates make any sense when gas prices are on the rise?
More profit for Uber? They don't give a f..k about the drivers.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#54So many parallels to the music industry here.
You have a vc-funded company, operating at a loss, commoditizing the "talent" (drivers/musicians), thereby conditioning the audience (passengers/listeners) to expect an unsustainable cost for the service, using that loss leader mentality to drive other solutions out of business, until they argue or take action that the talent should expect even lower rates than they've historically gotten so the company can have a shot at being profitable. When the larger effect is that the company has captured value that used to go to the talent and then instead goes to the investors.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people turn to jobs like Uber because they can't easily find a job. There are many people who desperately try for weeks or months to find employment. Companies like Uber love to prey on such people.
> Companies like Uber love to prey on such people. Offering someone a job is preying? Either they want it or they don't. Either it makes them money or they don't. You're talking like they are better off if Uber didn't offer them the job.
You're assuming that the people taking the job are fully informed, rational actors, not acting under financial duress. This is not a reasonable assumption for a near-permanent economic underclass.
Your rationale could be extended outward to every adverse outcome for poor: "Well, poor people have higher rates of obesity and cancer because of their poor life choices in eating fast food and smoking."
It's a convenient out for the exploiters to blame their victims.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#56So many parallels to the music industry here. You have a vc-funded company, operating at a loss, commoditizing the "talent" (drivers/musicians), thereby conditioning the audience (passengers/listeners) to expect an unsustainable cost for the service, using that loss leader mentality to drive other solutions out of business, until they argue or take action that the talent should expect even lower rates than they've hi…
Unlike the music industry, there aren’t a whole lot of people who would just be a cab driver for free in their spare time even if there was no money in it.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#57Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#58My girlfriend tried out the Instacart gig for a while as she finally got her chronic low energy and fatigue addressed through B12 shots and wanted something to occupy her and give her a little extra spending money outside of what's budgeted. That experience was absolutely demoralizing in terms of what she was able to actually make. Granted we live in a lower density city in the southeast so that result makes sense. B…
I guess they should form a union and strike.
Paragraph #2
> As independent contractors who can’t unionize, drivers are isolated from one another.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#59Its like they see developers and drivers as two different species. For every twenty something dev that makes $132K, there is a fourty something trying to rebuild a life post-trauma, doing their best to net $13K. Since insurance and gas aren't cheaper, the driver now will net $6K next year, while the dev would jump ship to another company if they didn't get a $6K bonus. While my head understands the economic principle…
I think it’s obscene how much I make for what I do, having grown up in a blue collar family, working jobs that are far harder than what I do now, making minimum wage. If I didn’t have a family, I’d probably still rather be a software developer at $10 an hour instead of working at a KFC kitchen making what I make as a software developer now.
Re: Uber is dropping rates for drivers down from 80 cents/mile to 60 cents/mile
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't really understand this argument. Uber didn't create the conditions causing these people not to be able to find better jobs. If Uber stopped "preying on" these people, would they be better off? It seems like they'd just be unemployed.
A slave owner gives an otherwise hungry man food and housing. That doesn't mean slavery is at all justifiable. Uber pays people who otherwise might not have a job at all. That doesn't mean paying them incredibly low wages is something that should be free of criticism.
Incredibly low wages? This is only a handful of people you’re hearing from. Every uber driver I talk to is happy driving.
You’re hearing from Some drivers that think they deserve to be paid 6 figures because they drive people around. It’s by definition a low-skill job. If they want more money they need to make themselves more valuable and find better jobs.
I use the jobspotter app to make extra money on the side so I know first hand how many “hiring” signs are shown in various areas in the Bay Area. You can find a job if you want. Almost every place is hiring. To say that Uber is your only choice is bullshit.
If you can’t find a better job in this economy and market then it’s you, not the market. And if you don’t like what you’re being paid then find a new job. It’s really as simple as that.