4 ms·

So let me see if I get this. Uber has been struggling to become profitable and this blog has gone to town many times making fun of Uber for not being really pro

by targ65 4y ago

So let me see if I get this. Uber has been struggling to become profitable and this blog has gone to town many times making fun of Uber for not being really profitable. Finally, Uber does the only thing that can get it profitable: raise prices and control costs. And this blog finds a way to complain again, saying that it " Uber transferred $2.8b from its drivers to its shareholders". Of course, any company that makes any profit could instead, in theory, give that money to its employees/contractors. But then no company would ever be profitable. In addition, the blog says that the main reason for profitability is higher consumer prices, but then calls the profits a transfer from labor. The post itself says Uber investors have spent 32B and hasn't seen any returns. So yes, profits have to come from consumers spending more money than labor takes in. Revenue minus expenses. It's math. Don't get me wrong, Uber is very very far from a perfect company. But taking a communist point of view on everything a company does, just to stir anger and resentment, is not helpful.

dragontamer 4y ago
Uber is inefficient because you need to spend $500 in car maintenance costs / fuel to make $500 as a driver. Taxi companies, for all of their faults, can order fleet vehicles that minimize maintenance costs. Its a lot easier to maintain 100x of the same car, with the same parts, with the same maintenance crews/training, rather than 100x individuals all spending full rate on their own car maintenance fees. Whatever vehicle is most efficient (ie: Prius for the last decade), can serve as the low-maintenance backbone of your car network.
- b112 4y ago
  While there is truth to what you say, it is greatly, greatly exaggerated. As a person who delivered pizza through high school, and college, it's just not that bad. And yes, driving 8 hours a night, stop and go, is bad for a car ... regardless if it is pizzas or people being delivered. (Pizza delivery is worse, I'd often deliver 8 pizzas an hour average on Friday nights, try that with people!) However, I assure you I did not need to spend $500/week on repairs, 20 years ago. That metric has certainly not changed now. An example, by that metric, there are many brand new cars for under $15kUSD (pandemic issues are not part of this argument). At $500/week income, and by your logic therefore $500 per week in "car repairs", one could buy a new car every 30 weeks, or about twice per year. And as a person who delivered pizza nightly, 8 hours, 5 days per week, you wouldn't even new tires in that 6 months, or brake pads, or ... well.. anything. Personally, I used to buy used, but where high-cost items are in good shape. EG, transmission, etc, etc. I bought 2 cars in the 6 years I delivered pizza. Each 6+ years old, each only requiring tires, brake pads+rotors from time to time. When it came time for a big repair? That's when I bolted to the second car. My point in all of this, is that yes -- you pay for repairs. But the numbers I hear being thrown around, are just extremely excessive.
kcartlidge 4y ago
> So let me see if I get this ... finally, Uber does the only thing that can get it profitable: raise prices and control costs. And this blog finds a way to complain again What he's saying is that this isn't what they did - their profitability is a balance sheet artefact caused by Uber selling parts of itself off (and incidentally getting over-inflated shares as payment). The main problem with this is that the bits of a company they sell off can only be sold off once. The fundamentals of the business remain, and despite improvements in revenue vs expenses the reported profitability (using dubious accounting) is no more than a one-off event which they can only repeat by selling more of the family silver and not by running their actual business.

by targ65 4y ago

dragontamer 4y ago

Uber is inefficient because you need to spend $500 in car maintenance costs / fuel to make $500 as a driver. Taxi companies, for all of their faults, can order fleet vehicles that minimize maintenance costs. Its a lot easier to maintain 100x of the same car, with the same parts, with the same maintenance crews/training, rather than 100x individuals all spending full rate on their own car maintenance fees. Whatever vehicle is most efficient (ie: Prius for the last decade), can serve as the low-maintenance backbone of your car network.

b112 4y ago
While there is truth to what you say, it is greatly, greatly exaggerated. As a person who delivered pizza through high school, and college, it's just not that bad. And yes, driving 8 hours a night, stop and go, is bad for a car ... regardless if it is pizzas or people being delivered. (Pizza delivery is worse, I'd often deliver 8 pizzas an hour average on Friday nights, try that with people!) However, I assure you I did not need to spend $500/week on repairs, 20 years ago. That metric has certainly not changed now. An example, by that metric, there are many brand new cars for under $15kUSD (pandemic issues are not part of this argument). At $500/week income, and by your logic therefore $500 per week in "car repairs", one could buy a new car every 30 weeks, or about twice per year. And as a person who delivered pizza nightly, 8 hours, 5 days per week, you wouldn't even new tires in that 6 months, or brake pads, or ... well.. anything. Personally, I used to buy used, but where high-cost items are in good shape. EG, transmission, etc, etc. I bought 2 cars in the 6 years I delivered pizza. Each 6+ years old, each only requiring tires, brake pads+rotors from time to time. When it came time for a big repair? That's when I bolted to the second car. My point in all of this, is that yes -- you pay for repairs. But the numbers I hear being thrown around, are just extremely excessive.

kcartlidge 4y ago

> So let me see if I get this ... finally, Uber does the only thing that can get it profitable: raise prices and control costs. And this blog finds a way to complain again What he's saying is that this isn't what they did - their profitability is a balance sheet artefact caused by Uber selling parts of itself off (and incidentally getting over-inflated shares as payment). The main problem with this is that the bits of a company they sell off can only be sold off once. The fundamentals of the business remain, and despite improvements in revenue vs expenses the reported profitability (using dubious accounting) is no more than a one-off event which they can only repeat by selling more of the family silver and not by running their actual business.