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> In the end Uber pretends to be setting up a market, however they act like drivers are employees. I am not sure I agree here. Can you elaborate on how Uber h

> In the end Uber pretends to be setting up a market, however they act like drivers are employees. I am not sure I agree here. Can you elaborate on how Uber has tighter controls on work location and performance? For reference, here is Uber's Driver Deactivation policy for the US: > https://www.uber.com/legal/other/driver-deactivation-us-english/ https://www.uber.com/legal/other/driver-deactivation-us-engl... Much of what is in it seems to be in line with what I expect from a company trying to maintain a healthy marketplace. Perhaps you can elaborate on some points where Uber has acted like drivers are employees so I can be better informed?

Retric 10y ago
First off Acceptance Rates' imply an employee relationship. Actual marketplaces connect both sides instead of requiring action on one side. Amazon marketplace in no way requires sellers to only act though Amazon, but if people can't be Uber and Lyft drivers at the same time that's a problem. Note: Managing cancellation rate's is fine as someone agrees to do work and then fails to do it. Star ratings are again a black mark. A gruff driver who plays loud music, but safely drives from A:B still preformed the work. Requiring more than what is directly required to do the job is problematic. An actual marketplace should show low star drivers as long as they uphold a defined minimal standard and users may still pick them. This also rolls back to price, a market place should let high star drivers charge more not ban lower star drivers. This even rolls into the perception it's marketed as people using 'Uber' not connecting people to drivers. One of the best signs someone is a subcontractor is the ability for them to pay someone else to do some or all of the work. If Uber let other company's onto their platform and users could pick one of several 'Joe's Cabs' which all share star ratings that would be a marketplace. All together if you compare Uber to say Amazon's marketplace, Apple's iOS store, a stock market, or a Flee market it's clear Uber is doing something else.
- gshulegaard 10y ago
  > First off Acceptance Rates' imply an employee relationship. Ah, I can see that. On one hand though, Uber needs to avoid the "ghost driver" situation where riders open the app and see cars that they cannot actually "hail" so-to-speak. I could see how this would create a negative market experience for riders...but perhaps acceptance rates aren't the best/most unbiased metric for quantifying this? > Star ratings are again a black mark. I don't know about this. Driver quality/rider experience are part of creating a marketplace attractive to potential riders. If drivers are giving riders bad experiences, their return to the market becomes circumspect. Quality control also isn't a new thing for market places, to further your Amazon parallel: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1010 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID... > If Uber let other company's onto their platform and users could pick one of several 'Joe's Cabs' which all share star ratings that would be a marketplace. Now that is an interesting concept! Allowing drivers to band together and present themselves as a collective would be an interesting Quality Control mechanism. But I don't know if this is malicious on Uber's part so much as the market vision they have is limited (e.g. individual drivers to fares). This might be because of the historical origin of Uber which was targeted towards facilitating "jobs" for private drivers. I think you have some really good points, but I, personally, am still not sure I 100% agree when you say Uber is not creating a marketplace...somewhat because I see a lot of parallels to Amazon's marketplace where you see a lot of differences :) I don't really want to defend Uber, I have a moral distaste for Walmart type wage avoidance...I just am not sure if I consider Uber NOT a marketplace. I also have a very incomplete picture so I will keep an eye out for more details about this particular line of reasoning. Thanks for the clarification!

Retric 10y ago

First off Acceptance Rates' imply an employee relationship. Actual marketplaces connect both sides instead of requiring action on one side. Amazon marketplace in no way requires sellers to only act though Amazon, but if people can't be Uber and Lyft drivers at the same time that's a problem. Note: Managing cancellation rate's is fine as someone agrees to do work and then fails to do it. Star ratings are again a black mark. A gruff driver who plays loud music, but safely drives from A:B still preformed the work. Requiring more than what is directly required to do the job is problematic. An actual marketplace should show low star drivers as long as they uphold a defined minimal standard and users may still pick them. This also rolls back to price, a market place should let high star drivers charge more not ban lower star drivers. This even rolls into the perception it's marketed as people using 'Uber' not connecting people to drivers. One of the best signs someone is a subcontractor is the ability for them to pay someone else to do some or all of the work. If Uber let other company's onto their platform and users could pick one of several 'Joe's Cabs' which all share star ratings that would be a marketplace. All together if you compare Uber to say Amazon's marketplace, Apple's iOS store, a stock market, or a Flee market it's clear Uber is doing something else.

gshulegaard 10y ago
> First off Acceptance Rates' imply an employee relationship. Ah, I can see that. On one hand though, Uber needs to avoid the "ghost driver" situation where riders open the app and see cars that they cannot actually "hail" so-to-speak. I could see how this would create a negative market experience for riders...but perhaps acceptance rates aren't the best/most unbiased metric for quantifying this? > Star ratings are again a black mark. I don't know about this. Driver quality/rider experience are part of creating a marketplace attractive to potential riders. If drivers are giving riders bad experiences, their return to the market becomes circumspect. Quality control also isn't a new thing for market places, to further your Amazon parallel: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1010 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID... > If Uber let other company's onto their platform and users could pick one of several 'Joe's Cabs' which all share star ratings that would be a marketplace. Now that is an interesting concept! Allowing drivers to band together and present themselves as a collective would be an interesting Quality Control mechanism. But I don't know if this is malicious on Uber's part so much as the market vision they have is limited (e.g. individual drivers to fares). This might be because of the historical origin of Uber which was targeted towards facilitating "jobs" for private drivers. I think you have some really good points, but I, personally, am still not sure I 100% agree when you say Uber is not creating a marketplace...somewhat because I see a lot of parallels to Amazon's marketplace where you see a lot of differences :) I don't really want to defend Uber, I have a moral distaste for Walmart type wage avoidance...I just am not sure if I consider Uber NOT a marketplace. I also have a very incomplete picture so I will keep an eye out for more details about this particular line of reasoning. Thanks for the clarification!