Why do so many able bodied individuals pay at minimum twice as much for food to brought to them? I could understand a market need for the elderly or disabled, but why would a perfectly healthy 20 year old find this to be a reasonable cost to eat a typical meal?
Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
81–90 of 124 posts
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s a competitor in India called BluSmart right now that’s running all electric, fully owned fleets. The drivers are paid fair hourly wages and thus have no incentive to refuse rides or not wait. The cars are simply parked at earmarked charging spots in the city. Their own vetted drivers can unlock the cars at any point and start picking up passengers before dropping it off at a charging station. The rides are so…
> profitable unit economics. That may be, but are they equal or more profitable than the Uber, et al model? I'm willing to bet if it were that they would be doing that instead. These companies are in the U.S. where maxing profits/shareholder value vs. taking care of employee needs (or any other need) is generally the name of the game for a major majority of companies.
Uber is not profitable
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s a competitor in India called BluSmart right now that’s running all electric, fully owned fleets. The drivers are paid fair hourly wages and thus have no incentive to refuse rides or not wait. The cars are simply parked at earmarked charging spots in the city. Their own vetted drivers can unlock the cars at any point and start picking up passengers before dropping it off at a charging station. The rides are so…
> profitable unit economics. That may be, but are they equal or more profitable than the Uber, et al model? I'm willing to bet if it were that they would be doing that instead. These companies are in the U.S. where maxing profits/shareholder value vs. taking care of employee needs (or any other need) is generally the name of the game for a major majority of companies.
India is not some unicorn where employee needs are prioritised particularly highly; there’s plenty of egregious labour violations that happen in India.
It’s just that Uber and co are overwrought beasts that never had a successful plan in mind.
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#84To be clear before I say anything: I think the entire food delivery app business model is bad for all parties involved and that these companies are bad actors. But … I don’t think the cities are properly accounting for the ease of using multiple apps? If a driver is logged into Uber and Doordash and GrubHub on 3 phones waiting for a delivery they probably should not be accruing $17.96*3 per hour at that time. But it…
If it were bad for all parties involved, customers would not willingly and freely choose to use it.
That would be true if Uber didn't spend so much money subsidizing rides throughout its history. A customer would be dumb to refuse $2 of service for $1 of payment even if the system being created is going to lock them into an extractive duopoly later.
You can already see this at work as Uber tries to become profitable - ride availability, cost, and quality are getting worse but people continue to use them out of habit or because regional alternatives have been weakened by years of subsidies.
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#85> DoorDash argues in its lawsuit, however, that the law is improperly implemented, because it would force companies to pay workers for any time logged into the app, regardless of whether they were delivering or not, and that the DCWP ignored “mountains of hard data and analysis, and over emphatic objections from a range of constituents” in order to implement it.
I really wish companies weren't able to sue over this kind of thing.
The law is the law. The government should be able to create and update laws without getting mired in endless bureaucracy. If a majority of people don't like the law, they can elect different leaders, who should then be empowered to change the law at a reasonable speed.
Some number of restrictions on government power are of course healthy—I value the right to free speech, for example—but for goodness sakes, the government of New York City should be able to set minimum wages within New York City! This just isn't complicated.
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To be clear before I say anything: I think the entire food delivery app business model is bad for all parties involved and that these companies are bad actors. Funny I have the exact opposite opinion. I think it's good for all parties involved. Restaurants get a bigger market. Delivery people get more freedom at work. Eaters get convenience. Delivery apps get a piece of the revenue for efficiently routing drivers a…
> If it's truly bad for all parties, there'd be no Uber Eats, no one would order from Uber Eats, no restaurant would sign up, and no one would deliver. What a strange take. If I take 3 billion dollars and setup a company that flies in people from other parts of the country at a loss to do your job for half the money you get for it, and have everyone compete for it, then when you lose your job and the business you wor…
I don't think the moat for food delivery is big enough that capturing the market and hiking prices is a realistic option. Uber eats already has plenty of competition (at least in my country) from foodora, wolt and bolt food.
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#87Why do so many able bodied individuals pay at minimum twice as much for food to brought to them? I could understand a market need for the elderly or disabled, but why would a perfectly healthy 20 year old find this to be a reasonable cost to eat a typical meal?
I am too cheap to do this, but other people are too lazy to save money.
Plenty of people can afford this food and some luxuries, but then contribute 0 to their retirements.
Heck, as much as I like one of my best buds, he is a 6 fig earner and saves nothing. He buys niche cars, goes on soo many trips, orders so much delivery food, then complains how expensive his student loans are. Back in 2018 before he bought that car, I showed him he could pay off his student loans entirely before the end of the year.
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#88What a crap business model these companies have if they rely on haggling over legal loopholes to operate. The business case, at best, is the status quo remains with material threats to their operations if these laws change. This is a lose-lose for everyone. Ignore the morality arguments, why risk your money on something with almost zero upside and all this downside? Suing the government is not a sign of strength
There’s a competitor in India called BluSmart right now that’s running all electric, fully owned fleets. The drivers are paid fair hourly wages and thus have no incentive to refuse rides or not wait. The cars are simply parked at earmarked charging spots in the city. Their own vetted drivers can unlock the cars at any point and start picking up passengers before dropping it off at a charging station. The rides are so…
> ...fully owned fleets. The drivers are paid fair hourly wages...
> The rides are somehow cheaper, have no surge pricing, and from some insider reports, has profitable unit economics.
So a fleet of depreciating assets with a major infrastructure dependency, lower implied gross margins, and word from insiders of a positive bottom line without publicly disclosed financials to sanity check claims against. Curious to see what their balance sheet looks like.
The entire Asia Pacific geographic region, including India, accounted for 10.9% of Uber's FY22 revenue[1; p. 94]. It's likely more of an incidental snack than full lunch, but it would be funny if Uber lost out to what sounds like an upstart taxi company.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1543151/000154315123...
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#89What a crap business model these companies have if they rely on haggling over legal loopholes to operate. The business case, at best, is the status quo remains with material threats to their operations if these laws change. This is a lose-lose for everyone. Ignore the morality arguments, why risk your money on something with almost zero upside and all this downside? Suing the government is not a sign of strength
There’s a competitor in India called BluSmart right now that’s running all electric, fully owned fleets. The drivers are paid fair hourly wages and thus have no incentive to refuse rides or not wait. The cars are simply parked at earmarked charging spots in the city. Their own vetted drivers can unlock the cars at any point and start picking up passengers before dropping it off at a charging station. The rides are so…
So we went full circle back to a taxi company then?
Turns out uber isn't magic and the market settled on taxi companies being a thing that exists for a reason.
Re: Uber, DoorDash Sue NYC to Stop Delivery Drivers from Getting a Minimum Wage
#90What a crap business model these companies have if they rely on haggling over legal loopholes to operate. The business case, at best, is the status quo remains with material threats to their operations if these laws change. This is a lose-lose for everyone. Ignore the morality arguments, why risk your money on something with almost zero upside and all this downside? Suing the government is not a sign of strength
There’s a competitor in India called BluSmart right now that’s running all electric, fully owned fleets. The drivers are paid fair hourly wages and thus have no incentive to refuse rides or not wait. The cars are simply parked at earmarked charging spots in the city. Their own vetted drivers can unlock the cars at any point and start picking up passengers before dropping it off at a charging station. The rides are so…
They just raised $42 million[1]. Where are you getting the info that they are profitable?
[1]: https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/blusmart-mobili...