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Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

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Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#251

Post by asdff »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #140
lexs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also does that include repairs, depreciation, insurance etc. of the car? What about fuel?

It doesn't. After expenses/taxes deducted, they're making less than minimum wage. To me this just shows how much financially illiterate many Americans are; zero foresight beyond the amount in their bank account at any given moment.

One of my lyft drivers had their car in the shop for 6 months (some dispute with the kia dealership, they assured me that their lemon lawyer would recover the car soon) and the car they were driving for lyft was a rental from enterprise. Desperate people are taking these gig jobs and it's scary how far in over their head some of them are.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#252

Post by conanbatt »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #77
ardy42 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I dont see how Lyft gets off calling this fraudulent. The workers are "defrauding" Capital out of greater-than-substance wages. It's bullshit, and they'll try to re-frame in in terms of customers, but that's essentially their view.

Not exactly. The percentage that Lyft takes is the same, so Lyft actually makes more money from these price-hikes. The ones suffering are the passengers.

The math has some nuance: an extra dollar for the driver increases his margins a lot more than it does for lyft/uber.

10 rides at 10 bucks or 5 rides at 20 is the same for uber, but way better for the driver (and worse for the consumer).

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#253

Post by xyzzyz »

radcon wrote: post #237
leereeves wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under the theory that Uber/Lyft employees are contractors and allowed to set prices, wouldn't coordinating ("conspiring") to do so en masse be considered price fixing? Personally I think they should be considered employees, but a pro-management federal prosecutor could make some trouble for them.

On that note, does it make a difference that they're collectively refusing work rather than collectively setting prices ? Uber and Lyft are still the ones actually setting the price. In the end I don't think it will matter, Uber and Lyft could probably code around this pretty easily if it started to affect their bottom line. When they see 100+ drivers in the same place go offline within X seconds of each other, it's…

Refusing to sell a product or a service below a specific price is literally what setting prices is.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#254

Post by asdff »

Waterluvian wrote: post #31
deweller wrote: post #9

> They can’t afford to pickup people at Reagan for $4 in rush hour traffic. Are they really getting paid $4 to give someone a ride? That seems so low that drivers would be incentivized to find another job.

I'm not sure if the number is accurate but I do know how amazingly stubborn humans can be in finding a new job. I've had people refuse to quit a job that they groan about every day when I've offered them almost double the salary to work elsewhere with far better terms. Humans are risk averse and those who live paycheck to paycheck are especially so. It defies logic until you consider that their fear of the unknown +…

I've never met a lyft/uber driver who did it full time. Most of the people doing it need the work but can't manage committing to adding a full third shift to their life on top of their other job because they have kids/a dependent/class or just got laid off and are trying to stretch their savings while looking for work, and need the flexibility.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#255

Post by asdff »

Jommi wrote: post #199
kdot wrote: post #65

What's the rational for percentage based fees? The technology cost for a 4 mile ride is the same for a 50 mile ride.

It's not just percentage based. There is a fixed booking fee sometimes as well.

Some cities seem to get far better rates too. In Boston most of my trips were around $4-5, maybe closer to $15 to get to logan. When I was in Columbus it was like the trips were arbitrarily twice as much, hovering $7-10 for similar distances. Miami probably had the highest rates I've experienced (Like $25+ to get to the other side of the biscayne bay), traffic was terrible as well so I wasn't as shocked, but it seemed much higher than going a similar distance in LA. I was still able to get rides in 10 minutes in most cases everywhere, so it wasn't for lack of free drivers, it seemed.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#256

Post by momokoko »

cpitman wrote: post #247
momokoko wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DCA is also one of the easiest airports in the US to access the metro(public transit) out of the terminal. Is there a reason you just don't hop on the yellow line and get off at a less congested stop closer to your final destination?

Metro's hours are usually the problem for me, usually getting to the airport after the last train has left.

Absolutely, but in that case, the issue about extreme traffic congestion is much less likely. Even though traffic in the area can be difficult at times, 1AM seems like an unlikely time to run into that.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#257

Post by asdff »

lr wrote: post #55
Causality1 wrote: post #30

Seems like a small software tweak is all it would take to obliterate this tactic, like updating surge pricing every time a driver logged in.

The whole point of surge pricing is to get more drivers on the street. If they decrease it that quickly, then there is zero incentive for a driver to leave their house and get in their car and get out on the street, because by the time they do that, the prices are back down.

I'm fine with it. Airports are the worst sort of fares a driver could take, people could get dropped off deep in the suburbs and the driver has to take 20 mins to get back to the city where people are actually calling rides. Occasionally these distant drivers will try to snipe me too while they are out there, probably hoping I'm too drunk to notice that they will take 20 mins to arrive. It's fickle work.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#258

Post by bobwaycott »

ardy42 wrote: post #54
gdhbcc wrote: post #5

I dont see how Lyft gets off calling this fraudulent. Seems to me it's the system working as intended, and as it should. Drivers dont want to drive for under a certain value, so they simply inform the app who adjusts the value to fulfill demand. Seems like its what you want to happen.

> I dont see how Lyft gets off calling this fraudulent. The workers are "defrauding" Capital out of greater-than-substance wages. It's bullshit, and they'll try to re-frame in in terms of customers, but that's essentially their view.

I believe you mean subsistence, not substance.

Re: Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at DCA causing artificial price surges

#260

Post by hawaiian »

CPLX wrote: post #79

When low paid workers coordinate their efforts to increase their pay it's called an "artificial price surge" and allegations of fraud are thrown around. When highly paid executives, investors, and board members coordinate their efforts to increase their pay what does the media call it?

Growth
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