I wish all the energy spent on introducing business-have-to-provide-this and business-have-to-provide-that laws were invested in getting public healthcare and more affordable housing.
Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
671–680 of 1001 posts
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#672Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that'd be great when they shut it all down for the next pandemic
This is a dishonest argument. Compared to the United States, countries like Japan, Germany, and others in Europe have been much more successful at containing the pandemic, even with their extensive public transport systems. Our transportation system is entirely based on individual travel, and yet we cannot keep cases under control. Besides, this situation is not permanent. We should not live in complete isolation out…
I live outside of the USA. I used to take our electric rail system all the time. Haven't touched it since January and won't go back till next year. Have fallen in love with driving and the personal convenience of it all over again.
Even when the pandemic is over, I might end up driving more often than before. It's so nice to know that I can just stay somewhere until I want to leave, to know that I can go wherever I want at whatever time, without having to worry about coordinating it with anyone else. Profoundly enabling, even as it is sickeningly individualist.
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#673Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uber and Lyft are voluntarily suspending operations to make a political point; they are the ones kicking the little guy while they're down. The fact that these companies can spend 100 million to dismantle the outcome of the political process shows how little power the California government actually has.
Tough to call anything done as voluntary with a gun held up to the head. Their entire business model (which has not been super profitable to say the least) was just made illegal in California. Life goes on though, probably the Taxi industry is very pleased, many of the full-time drivers will go on to work as Taxi drivers, licensed with hours and all. And I'll just lower my expectations for getting a taxi dispatched w…
I mean, if your business model is predicated on violations of the law, maybe you aren't a viable business as currently structured, and should restructure to be in compliance with the law?
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#674Another group caught in the collateral damage is people in wheelchairs. Paratransit sucks in most places and where wheelchair accessible Uber/Lyft is available they provide a much better service. This is an especially vulnerable population because it's not like a wheelchair user can just find a friend with an accessible vehicle to take them to appointments, etc.
A while ago — and I have no citations for this — I read it was easier to just pay for private rides for every accessible person than to make NYC and SF's public transportation accessible. Yes, in perpetuity. Considerably cheaper, too. Why then, go through the effort? Because they should be integrated into society like all others. I firmly believe public transportation has benefits beyond efficiency. Something about a…
> A while ago — and I have no citations for this — I read it was easier to just pay for private rides for every accessible person than to make NYC and SF's public transportation accessible. Yes, in perpetuity. Considerably cheaper, too.
1. Accessibility doesn't just benefit wheel-chair bound people. Accessibility benefits just about anyone who has temporary difficulty walking, is carrying heavy or bulky things, is out with children, is not fully sober, etc, etc, etc.
2. NYC may indeed be a special case, because of the poor design of existing subway stations, and the difficulty of rebuilding them in the middle of Manhattan. I don't think this sort of thing would generalize to other locales.
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#675Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know anyone who is paid to be on call at two different employers simultaneously.
neither do i. all of the on-call folks I know must respond to pages; they don't have the option to pass on them. that's just the existing on-call model. it's quite easy to imagine that a service overprovisions to account for people not being required to accept a "page". that overprovisioning specifically is so that people can hold multiple on-call type jobs simultaneously.
But I think if Uber and Lyft are required to pay their employees an hourly rate they would then require them to respond to every page for their scheduled shift.
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#676Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about the wheelchair users? What do they prefer? If it were both cheaper and best for the users (as I believe it would be) to pay for private rides, I would support that wholeheartedly. If one option were cheaper, and the other is preferred, it would seem that you'd have to engage in some type of cost-benefit analysis. I don't see why able-bodied people should impose their view of 'social integration' on minorit…
You have a good point. But I think taken to the extreme: who wouldn't prefer a private air-conditioned taxi over 100 ˚F subway platforms? In this hypothetical: we're assuming the facilities are good enough that the experience for the disabled is within reasonable parity. On the other hand, if it means having to go 40 blocks uptown, just to find an elevator then head back downtown, the system is inadequate and my narr…
> who wouldn't prefer a private air-conditioned taxi over 100 ˚F subway platforms?
When it's prohibitively expensive to take private air-conditioned taxi.
If taxi is, as you said, both cheaper and provides a better experience, why not? Are we torturing people just for your poetic justice?
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#677" As employees they would have to work set schedules and shifts, would not be able to work for multiple app-based companies and would have reduced earning potential — and many jobs would actually be eliminated. " ( https://prop22facts.com/lyft/ ) Is that something mandated by California? As far as I know, everywhere else I've been, work-schedules and anti-moonlighting are restrictions placed by the employer, not the…
I don't think it's an anti-moonlight clause, I think it's saying that you can't do what many drivers do now, which is sign on to both apps and wait for a ride to come in, then sign out of the one you're not serving. If you're an employee on the clock, you can't be on the clock for two different organizations at the same time.
If this is really the case (and I have my doubts) then wouldn't the two companies just create a joint employment pool by subcontracting out their workers to a third party which handled all the benefits and such and passed the necessary costs on to Uber & Lyft?
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#678Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you get to decide what a fair wage is, or what a positive force in the economy is? Taxis are an obsolete service, Lyft and Uber are overwhelmingly favored by customers and businesses.
Lyft and Uber are favored due to convenience and price. Nothing stops a regulated Uber that pays fair wages from convenience...but the price paid will have to become higher to support people. This is like McDonald's paying workers $3 an hour, charging $2 for a value menu meal, and then people saying 'wow, McDonald's has made Burger King obsolete!'. Of course customers will prefer the cheaper service that screws worke…
Before Uber/Lyft existed, the taxi experience sucked. Uber/Lyft provided:
- A way to pre-pay
- A way to communicate current location and destination clearly to driver
- All from an intuitive app on your phone
I'm guessing you never went to NYC, tried in vain to find a taxi when you needed one, then got a taxi driver who barely spoke English, tried to communicate where to go, ended up paying way more than you intended?
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#679Earlier quoted context omitted.
This idea of micro-shifts sounds made up. Can you reference any companies that have this setup as an employer-employee relationship?
I've done tutoring for people in small increments like 15-30 minutes for questions before tests. That seems similar to micro-shifts though that is freelance. Lawyers have billable hours and work for multiple clients. Some firms do have compensation tied to billable hours as well. While it's not exactly the same thing the result feels similar to me.
All that is true, but remember that we're operating within the realm of legal terminology here.
What the word "employee" means within the context of California labor laws is probably quite different from what we understand it to mean in everyday conversation. What one can imagine might work in an abstract sense may not be even remotely possible within California's legal framework. What is known to already happen and work well in other states isn't necessarily possible in California, either. (At least not without getting the legislature involved.)
Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California
#680Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not the only way to employ workers, though. We often think of "on the clock" employment in terms of shift work, where the worker has a scheduled, fixed-length shift with a single employer, and whether they're actively working during that time or waiting around for the employer to tell them what to do next, they're paid for the hours on the clock. But it is possible for ridesharing companies to employ workers…
In California though an issue with your "micros-shifts" is that California State Laws would apply things like call in pay for this and would also have to pay minimum hours for an employee showing up for a short shift. If an employee gets called in to do 30 minutes of work, the company has to pay the employee at least a certain amount of hours I think it's 2 or 4. So that micro shift of a 10 minute ride, Uber/Lyft wou…
That seems like a reasonable thing to change in the law