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I see Uber more like providing the network and the app, not like the service provider. The service is provided by an independant contracter on which Uber has li

I see Uber more like providing the network and the app, not like the service provider. The service is provided by an independant contracter on which Uber has little control over. In fact, a lot of drivers use several apps like Uber, and sometime even contract privately. Imagine the same incident happen, but suddenly the Uber app crashes. You ask for a ride again, but on Lyft, but it's the same car arriving. Now what ? Lyft is responsible ?

danShumway 7y ago
Yes. At that point you would be using Lyft, with an expectation that they vetted their drivers and would protect you from common problems. If I mess up your food at Wendy's, the fact that I happen to also work at McDonald's doesn't change anything. As a business, you are definitely liable for independent contractors you hire -- that's gotten hammered into me hard at every place I've ever worked. To poke a hole in the service provider argument, think about the experience of buying something from a real service provider. Stripe charges me fees to move my money around. That's it -- they don't choose the price of the item, they don't change my fees depending on whether or not the item was shipped or delivered digitally. My Internet service provider charges me a flat fee or a usage-based fee depending on how much Internet I use. Similarly, if I want to advertise on a billboard, I pay for the billboard -- not a percentage of each sale I make. Even in the Internet advertising business, I pay for impressions, and clickthroughs -- not for what happens after a customer is connected to me. In short, you pay for the thing you buy, and companies are liable for the thing they sell you. Stripe is liable if they mess up transferring money, since that's what they charged me for. They're not liable if my item gets shipped wrong, because they tangibly, observably didn't have anything to do with that. So on Uber, the price is fixed by the app and I'm charged based on the distance I travel. Drivers don't set the price-per-mile, Uber does. Uber then directly collects money from me based on the distance I traveled, and separately pays a percentage to the driver after the fact. Optionally, I can tip the driver just like I would tip a normal taxi driver. That doesn't sound like Uber is charging a fee to connect me to someone. It's not a fixed monthly payment to use the app -- it's not based on whether or not the driver uses the Uber GPS or how much data they use. I'm not paying per ride-request. I'm paying Uber for the ride itself. It's a direct mirror of how I'm charged for a normal taxi. So I'm contacting Uber and saying, "I want a ride", and they're charging me directly for a ride, based on attributes of the ride itself and not based on my usage of the app -- and then they want to claim that they're somehow not involved at all when something goes wrong with that ride? No, I am buying a ride from Uber, not from the contractor, and thus Uber is responsible for the quality of that ride.

danShumway 7y ago

Yes. At that point you would be using Lyft, with an expectation that they vetted their drivers and would protect you from common problems. If I mess up your food at Wendy's, the fact that I happen to also work at McDonald's doesn't change anything. As a business, you are definitely liable for independent contractors you hire -- that's gotten hammered into me hard at every place I've ever worked. To poke a hole in the service provider argument, think about the experience of buying something from a real service provider. Stripe charges me fees to move my money around. That's it -- they don't choose the price of the item, they don't change my fees depending on whether or not the item was shipped or delivered digitally. My Internet service provider charges me a flat fee or a usage-based fee depending on how much Internet I use. Similarly, if I want to advertise on a billboard, I pay for the billboard -- not a percentage of each sale I make. Even in the Internet advertising business, I pay for impressions, and clickthroughs -- not for what happens after a customer is connected to me. In short, you pay for the thing you buy, and companies are liable for the thing they sell you. Stripe is liable if they mess up transferring money, since that's what they charged me for. They're not liable if my item gets shipped wrong, because they tangibly, observably didn't have anything to do with that. So on Uber, the price is fixed by the app and I'm charged based on the distance I travel. Drivers don't set the price-per-mile, Uber does. Uber then directly collects money from me based on the distance I traveled, and separately pays a percentage to the driver after the fact. Optionally, I can tip the driver just like I would tip a normal taxi driver. That doesn't sound like Uber is charging a fee to connect me to someone. It's not a fixed monthly payment to use the app -- it's not based on whether or not the driver uses the Uber GPS or how much data they use. I'm not paying per ride-request. I'm paying Uber for the ride itself. It's a direct mirror of how I'm charged for a normal taxi. So I'm contacting Uber and saying, "I want a ride", and they're charging me directly for a ride, based on attributes of the ride itself and not based on my usage of the app -- and then they want to claim that they're somehow not involved at all when something goes wrong with that ride? No, I am buying a ride from Uber, not from the contractor, and thus Uber is responsible for the quality of that ride.