Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I was an undercover Uber driver

citypaper.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 170 posts

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#111

Post by hkmurakami »

smelendez wrote: post #40
jaredhansen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The way they treat the drivers is pretty horrendous I keep hearing this, and it's ... confusing. I mean maybe Uber's really nasty to drivers, I guess, but if it is, then what are all these Uber drivers doing ? It takes all of ... what, like 45 seconds to download Lyft? If Uber is so bad, why don't all the drivers just switch? I don't know enough about the economics of any particular driver's situation to know how ma…

I've had drivers in a couple of different cities tell me they're on both apps, but there are generally more fares on Uber, since it's a more famous brand. In some cities, the base fares are notably higher on Lyft, too, making more money for the drivers but driving more customers to Uber. I'm not sure about other apps (Sidecar, etc.). But basically, the drivers can get a cheap fare fast on Uber, or they can wait longe…

I have found that the two services are comparable in supply side liquidity in SF, but that Uber far outpaces Lyft in that regard near Stanford.

I wonder if it's possible to stave off this issue.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#112

Post by morgante »

blahedo wrote: post #48
jwolgamott wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The offending code that reloads the page every 3 minutes [0]. Terrible. The author told me on twitter [1] it's because of traffic, but... no. it's the js code. Ironically, the forced reload is making the traffic problem worse. You can add a "function contentRefresh(){}" in your devtools js console to get rid of this. It was the only way I could finish the article. [0] https://gist.github.com/jwo/720edc9fedbbafc87a10…

Every 5 minutes, right? var timer = setTimeout("contentRefresh()", 1000 * 60 * 5);function contentRefresh(){self.location.reload(true)} But yes, this is astonishingly aggravating. Why would you do this on a site, or at least a page, that is attempting long-form journalism? Don't they want people to, you know, read it?

It's probably the work of a low-paid developer under pressure from business folks to force ad refreshing quickly.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#113

Post by smtddr »

javert wrote: post #83
DigitalSea wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ouch. That hurts. You have taken such a small part of what I have said and used it to paint me as someone who is taking advantage of the fact that Uber offers cheaper fares than a taxi service. And then to add salt to injury, you throw in that last line. While I agree somewhat with your point, your comment was just plain rude. There are so many other ways you could have said what you wanted to say without launching a…

The people making shoes, iPhones, TVs---they don't have to do that. They could do whatever they were doing before that factory came to town. But working in that factory is preferable. The same thing is true for Uber drivers. You don't have to feel guilty for any of these purchaes---you should only feel good about them, if anything. That guy was very rude, but you are just accepting his argument and trying to use it a…

>>The people making shoes, iPhones, TVs---they don't have to do that. They could do whatever they were doing before that factory came to town.

This isn't always true. There are situations where some big factory shows up, ruins the local economy(usually by wrecking the environment) and now the only way to make a living is to be part of the company... or move far away. Leaving your homeland of generations is technically a choice, but emotionally... not really.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#114

Post by zaroth »

BurningFrog wrote: post #106
pmorici wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Uber employs extremely deceptive advertising to recruit drivers and encourages them to do things like buy new cars then turns around and cuts the amount drivers get paid. This has the effect of totally screwing them over. It's a pretty exploitative situation for people who actually rely on it for income to pay their living expenses.

Can you show some examples of this advertising?

The article gives some examples.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#115

Post by stickfigure »

pmorici wrote: post #88
jaredhansen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The way they treat the drivers is pretty horrendous I keep hearing this, and it's ... confusing. I mean maybe Uber's really nasty to drivers, I guess, but if it is, then what are all these Uber drivers doing ? It takes all of ... what, like 45 seconds to download Lyft? If Uber is so bad, why don't all the drivers just switch? I don't know enough about the economics of any particular driver's situation to know how ma…

You can't just download the app and start driving. There is an application process. The issue is they are duopoly as far as smartphone hailed transportation goes and as a driver if one already has you locked into a car loan it's a very limited choice and a bit of a sharecropper like situation. It isn't like being a software engineer where there are dozens of top firms competing to hire a limited pool of talent. How w…

I don't buy this at all. Whatever the application process, it's much easier to switch between Uber and Lyft than it is to move to a different software (or almost any other kind of traditional) job. The parent's question stands.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#116

Post by stickfigure »

zaroth wrote: post #110
DigitalSea wrote: post #9

A few months ago when I was in Seattle for work, I caught Uber everywhere. I had so many conversations with Uber drivers about why they drove for Uber, how much money they made and why they weren't doing something else. Needless to say, unless I felt legitimately fearful for my life (which rarely ever happened) I would always rate 5 stars. I realised a lot of these Uber drivers (usually migrants with broken English)…

> I realised a lot of these Uber drivers (usually migrants with broken English) probably didn't have many other options to earn money. This is just such a perfect observation. What we are seeing here is an end-run around the minimum wage. The so-called "1099 economy" is increasing employment of unskilled workers who would otherwise be unemployable at the mandatory minimum. Where else are people going to find a job th…

The article mentions several times that expected wage post-expenses is around $10 per hour, not $5. That difference is material.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#118

Post by danieltillett »

rhino369 wrote: post #90
danieltillett wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the whole idea behind regulatory arbitrage. Find an industry that has built up "inefficiencies" due the law and then undercut by deliberately breaking the law. The only thing that amazes me about uber (apart from its current valuation) is that the taxi industry is powerful enough to prevent the issuing of more taxi medallions, but not powerful enough to get the current laws enforced against uber. Assuming ube…

"Taxi lobby" makes it sound like Uber is disrupting some megacorporate industry who control government in smokey back alleys. Taxi corps are small, many are essentially sole proprietorships. The drivers are essentially all running their own business, but the medallion owners tend not to be huge corporations. Medallions are required because cities regulate taxis prices and policies. Doing so distorts normal market for…

I agree. I was more making the point that regulatory arbitrage only works when you attack an industry without enough clout to shut you down, but enough clout to make the market worth attacking. Good luck trying to run regulatory arbitrage around the pharmaceutical industry. There would be massive profits to be made if you did, but you can expect to spend a long time in jail if you tried.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#119

Post by stickfigure »

BurningFrog wrote: post #104
DigitalSea wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like workers in sweatshops and factories in countries like Indonesia and China have a choice to not work for a few dollars per day in dangerous conditions producing textiles for your $200 sneakers and smartphone components for your $1000 iPhone or Android device? The people working in those deplorable conditions are doing so voluntarily, right? Just like the homeless guy digging through the trash on Market St in…

> The people working in those deplorable conditions are doing so voluntarily, right? They actually are, and if you ask them then can explain why they chose it. These factory jobs are usually very sought after, and has lifted millions from extreme poverty. I suspect you have little idea how harsh third world poverty actually is. This is a good overview: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=... >…

Another great overview is NPR Planet Money's series on how tshirts are made:

http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/

It includes quite a bit about the lives of people working in the garment factories in Bangladesh. Sweatshops are a major step up from the alternatives - especially for women.

Re: I was an undercover Uber driver

#120

Post by wutbrodo »

rhino369 wrote: post #90
danieltillett wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the whole idea behind regulatory arbitrage. Find an industry that has built up "inefficiencies" due the law and then undercut by deliberately breaking the law. The only thing that amazes me about uber (apart from its current valuation) is that the taxi industry is powerful enough to prevent the issuing of more taxi medallions, but not powerful enough to get the current laws enforced against uber. Assuming ube…

"Taxi lobby" makes it sound like Uber is disrupting some megacorporate industry who control government in smokey back alleys. Taxi corps are small, many are essentially sole proprietorships. The drivers are essentially all running their own business, but the medallion owners tend not to be huge corporations. Medallions are required because cities regulate taxis prices and policies. Doing so distorts normal market for…

> Taxi corps are small, many are essentially sole proprietorships. The drivers are essentially all running their own business, but the medallion owners tend not to be huge corporations.

Do you have a source for this? I'm only familiar with Chicago numbers, but a medallion costs $360,000[1] and the top 2% of medallion owners own FORTY ONE percent of the total[2]. 3/4 of medallions are owned by corporations who own more than 2 medallions (i.e. $720,000 in up-front investment or more).

[1] http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130913/BLOGS02/1309... [2] https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/06/...

Post reply on HN