California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
businessinsider.com
California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
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Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#2There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I found by searching "Bay Area taxi"). In ALL cases there were issues, huge issues:
* the first one I called said he'll be there in 20 minutes(!!) but 30 minutes later he didn't show nor called. I call back and someone else answers and says they'll be there in 20 minutes, ofc 30 minutes later nobody showed up...
* the second time I needed a taxi I called, said they will be there in 30 minutes and never showed or answered any subsequent calls
* third time I think someone DID show up, after about 30 minutes (15 minutes later than they said they will)
Absolutely horrible, unacceptable experience. With Lyft/Uber I never had any such issues and I took many more rides with those. Not to mention it was much cheaper (the latter likely has something to do with the main complains being raised now by their employees).
Look, I fully support cab riders to get a living wage, even if that means significantly increasing my fare, but I do hope the new legislation doesn't result in going back to the pre-Lyft/Uber taxi experience because that was just insanely bad. Also, at least some of the drivers I talked to were doing this as an aside so it makes total sense for them to be contractors (one guy was temporarily in the Bay Area doing some construction work so he was Uber-ing on the side for extra money) so that is another issue that needs to be considered in legislation to still enable this type of use case.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#3There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I…
I don’t think we can really put the genie back into the bottle there. Uber and Lyft have proven that app-based hailing is what people want. The costs will go up though.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#4There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I…
I suspect it’s one of those case where things are bad because it made no economic sense to make them better, a bit like airplane boarding.
In the case of taxis, replacing them by Uber and lyft made no sense globally, because it was just exploiting the drivers, and using venture capital in an unsustainable manner.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#5There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I…
Shortly after Uber and Lyft became popular, they were forced out of Austin due to a scuffle around local regulation. It took very little time for some new competitors to start up, one of which (RideAustin), is still thriving. The cost is almost exactly the same, but far more money goes to the drivers, and the drivers tend to be far higher quality. If memory serves me right, they even adopted some user-friendly features like a female-only driver setting first too. You can have your cake and eat it too: there's no real dichotomy between Uber/Lyft and the taxi companies.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#6There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I…
Before Uber and Lyft cabs were terrible everywhere except maybe London and Tokyo. Competition was sorely needed in this industry. I hope the competition continues even if the prices go up.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#7There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I…
Shortly after Uber and Lyft became popular, they were forced out of Austin due to a scuffle around local regulation. It took very little time for some new competitors to start up, one of which (RideAustin), is still thriving. The cost is almost exactly the same, but far more money goes to the drivers, and the drivers tend to be far higher quality. If memory serves me right, they even adopted some user-friendly featur…
It's worth noting that the original scuffle was about fingerprinting drivers, a regulation that they already comply with in New York City.
The difference is that Uber and Lyft won't leave one of their biggest markets.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#8Fun fact - Austin is a peculiar example of a city that banned uber and basically created a black market for makeshift ridesharing service based on facebook groups, google docs, craigslist adds and only god knows what else.
People think that once uber is dead ridesharing will disappear, but reality shows that once idea is in the wild it's almost impossible to stop it.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#9There are many serious issues around how Lyft/Uber (and many others) treat their "employees" and I'm happy if things are moving in a direction to help them out. However, as a customer, Lyft/Uber has been HUGELY better than any previous taxi experience, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before Uber was a thing, I tried getting a taxi in the Bay Area at 3 different times. Months apart. Calling different companies (that I…
Anecdotal, but I've had less than great experiences with both Uber and Lyft. The most common issue if that a driver will accept you as passenger, then somewhere along the way, they cancel you, leaving you start waiting again for a new driver. Presumably they got a closer/better fare wherever they were driving from, but it sucks to be strung along 2 or 3 times like that while waiting for a ride home.
Re: California bill could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees
#10I worry that this bill will ultimately eliminate a unique niche in the job market. I have several family members who drive for Uber/Lyft and consider it a great way to make money. One of the aspects they like is how much independence they have: no manager, no set schedule, no need to work the same number of hours each week or each day. The pay is fine - not great - but the flexibility makes working for Uber much more appealing than e.g. working as a receptionist or taking another service job. Many drivers I've ridden with seem to value that component as well. If Uber switches to treating drivers as employees (which makes each driver have higher overhead) then they'll probably switch to.... well, treating them as employees: stricter rules about when you have to drive, how much you have to drive, and so on. The tradeoff will benefit some employees - basically those who are trying to make Uber into a full-time job - at the expense of others.