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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

#61

Post by lr »

wlesieutre wrote: post #41
lexs wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And suddenly Uber/Lyft are like any other Taxi company just with a massive valuation.

There's probably a balance to be struck, because part of the ridesharing design's efficiency is that if demand drops they can drop their rates paid to drivers, and the drivers who don't want to drive at those prices will stop. So if Lyft starts to say "we always want X drivers available as a base load, and we'll open up to contractors to fill in the demand spikes" it might make the contractor role too unreliable for…

Can we please stop referring to these services as "sharing"? Lyft actually started as a company that coordinated the sharing of rides, i.e., no money was involved. But the "sharing" pretense has long since past for all of these companies.

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

#62

Post by sly010 »

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.

In fact I am surprised it reacts as fast as the article describes.

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

#63

Post by ianhawes »

francisofascii wrote: post #22

Sounds like a cartel. Where parties mutually agree to cut supply to keep prices at a certain level.

You forgot the kicker to the definition of a cartel: "restricting competition".

The events in the article do not indicate that they are somehow prohibiting other drivers from accessing the platform. While it's certainly possible they're strong arming the drivers at the airport, overall they're not restricting someone from signing up to become a Lyft or Uber driver.

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

#64

Post by jfengel »

metalliqaz wrote: post #42
Waterluvian wrote: post #14

I can think of a ton of technical ways Uber and Lyft can combat this. And they probably will. And they'll be short term happy and long term foolish. Because they're treating the symptoms, not the cause.

Their hands may be a bit tied on addressing this issue, because if they start rejecting drivers based on when they choose to work, it's hard to call them contractors.

Isn't that exactly what you get to do with contractors? One of your criteria in picking a contractor is showing up. Kind of a problem, I'm told, with housing contractors.

And as with housing contractors, the best way to get them to show up is to offer more money than their other offers.

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

#67

Post by jakelazaroff »

sly010 wrote: post #62
lr wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In fact I am surprised it reacts as fast as the article describes.

I assume it's a combination of that and the sudden demand of a plane full of people all opening up their apps to look for a ride simultaneously.

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

#68

Post by lr »

metalliqaz wrote: post #27
lexs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It does not.

Not to mention that, as a contractor, they have to pay SS and Medicare payroll taxes, which total an additional 7.65%. So, that $20/hour, given the overall expenses, is probably not even equivalent to the new NYC minimum wage of $15/hour.

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

#69

Post by richardknop »

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.

Well, Lyft drivers are supposed to be contractors, it's normal for contractors to set their rate so I don't see how this is fraudulent.

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

#70

Post by jakelazaroff »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #51

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I agree with what I'm about to say, but the drivers need to be careful, because they might run afoul of collusion. Since they are all independent contractors, they are "rivals" in the same industry, so with all of them cooperating to increase fares for their benefit (and based on my understanding of the law), they are technically colluding.

That's an interesting take. Someone else in the thread likened it to a strike for higher wages, happening multiple times in a night. I wonder where the line is between that and collusion?
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