> Welcome to the rest of the world where people [...] only get paid at the end of every month. Wait, what? You get paid once a month? Is this a UK thing? Every single job I've had over here (Canada) was either once every two weeks, or two times a month.
Once a month is standard for salaried work in the US.
Certainly not standard. I've never encountered anything but every two weeks or twice a month. I have little doubt monthly exists but anecdotally it's not super common.
uber is not getting kicked out just yet... they can continue operating while appealing... apparently have been operating without a license for a couple of years already using the appeals process.
Uber is not free, it's way past the free stage. I saw few acquaintances trying Bolt (in London) and the main argument is the first rides are free, then the next rides are free too if you refer a friend.
While not free, VC funds are still subsidizing Uber rides and driver incentives.
> Sounds like Uber provides valuable service to the poor who are more likely to work night shift On what planet are "the poor" commuting back and forth to work via Uber?
Anecdotally, I've seen this for wait staff; Most public transit services have reduced service on nights and weekends; so, in a world where you don't have a car; you can take the train/bus to get to a shift in the day, but must take a cab or uber home. It seems obvious that Ubers or Taxis would serve this purpose wherever vehicle ownership is cost prohibitive and public transit is at all available. Likely, this isn't…
London has night buses, and trains running up to midnight and starting again around 4:30am, every day.
The working class does not in general commute by Uber in London.
I'm not a fan of companies like Uber or AirBnB who attempt a violent takeover of a market. However, as a consumer who needs to get from A to B, or stay at some random city, I find those services invaluable. The black cabs in London are expensive, never around when you need them, and until recently might have refused card payments (now they just seem unhappy about it). At the very least I was hoping Uber would make th…
You're not a fan of them but you'll gladly pay them your money? Sounds like righteous hypocrisy to me. I'm not a fan of them and I've never paid them any money, neither one. They are scum bags. How will the world improve if you reward what you don't like?
I'm not driven by ideology. And yes. I'm not a fan and I'll pay them if they provide me a service I need at a time I need it. I'm also not a fan of the government but I pay my taxes. I'm upset with Netflix for cancelling great shows but i pay my subscription fee. I despise my regular commute train line. Hate it to levels you cannot imagine - but guess from where I'm typing this? Google is scum, Facebook is scum, Twitter is scum. it's all crap. Yet still I'll use it until a credible alternative rises up.
You want to call it hypocrisy - by all means do. I wouldn't care less.
For those of us in London who are totally fed up with bullish companies like Uber who refuse to play by the rules and systematically tread on workers' rights, there's a worker's cooperative called TaxiApp ( https://www.taxiapp.uk.com ) which works on a non-profit basis and attempts to give a similar experience to that of Uber/Lyft/Hailo etc. Unlike the others, it's operated and owned by the workers - so you know that…
What a ridiculous position - the UK only has full employment right now in part because of the tactics of companies like Uber. Gig-economy companies pump the "self-employed" figures with poor wages, hidden costs, and no employment benefits. You could pay the whole country a penny a day if all you cared about was boosting a number metric. It wouldn't somehow translate to worker satisfaction.
You have to remember that people work for the best option they have right now. If uber wasn't their best option they simply move to a better job. If you ban uber you simply remove the current best option for most people working for uber. You would worsen the conditions for them.
As was pointed out in the other reply - if you claim that full employment means that people always have other opportunities than Uber, then there is no harm in axing Uber. That there are worse actors than Uber in the job market is a terrible defense of it.
have you ever wondered what makes services like Uber affordable? 1) underpaid drivers 2) VC money dropped into an otherwise unsustainable business I'm pretty sure Uber will raise prices the moment it kills the competition
The affordability is only one thing that draws people to Uber. The convenience of the app and the fact that the fare is prepaid (and therefore there is no incentive for the driver to fuck around to inflate their fare) are imho at least as important. If the fare is known in advance I can make an informed decision about whether I can afford this ride. Taking a normal taxi is just always a gamble: will they try to win m…
Totally agree. And going further in the bad-intentioned-driver topic: There's also the issue with tourist getting fake curruncy, for expamle here in Buenos Aires a friend visiting from South Africa got fake pesos as change after paying in dollars. After that she only took Ubers.
I'm not a fan of companies like Uber or AirBnB who attempt a violent takeover of a market. However, as a consumer who needs to get from A to B, or stay at some random city, I find those services invaluable. The black cabs in London are expensive, never around when you need them, and until recently might have refused card payments (now they just seem unhappy about it). At the very least I was hoping Uber would make th…
Kapten and Bolt already exist, and give you access to substantially the same pool of drivers. Maybe some drivers are on Uber but not one of the others; that will change very quickly if Uber are banned. There's also Addison Lee, who have their own drivers, but offer a similar experience. This tunnel vision of only seeing one provider of a new but fundamentally commodity service is interesting. It reminds me a lot of h…
I've now got Kapten installed and will give them a try tomorrow. Hopefully there are Kapten drivers where I'd need it.