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I drive for Uber too, or used to anyway. I applied because I heard stories of drivers earning $2k in a weekend during a conference which seemed like the perfect
by physcab 12y ago
I drive for Uber too, or used to anyway. I applied because I heard stories of drivers earning $2k in a weekend during a conference which seemed like the perfect side income source. After a number of drives I jokingly told my coworkers that I'd quit because the money seemed easy. But then uber dropped their rates and I went from earning $35 / hr to $20. And now all of a sudden I had to work twice as long to make the same income.
It wasn't worth it for me to continue as I value my free time from my normal job more than $20 /hr. But there are many more people who don't have that luxury. There are drivers who sunk in a lot of money to become drivers - bought cars, dropped jobs, moved cities, etc. When a company has that power to cut your wage so easily with the sending of an email or text message, that's disproportionate power.
- dnautics 12y agoIt's actually the opposite of disproportionate... It's proportionate. Firstly, these aren't wage jobs, so you're not entitled to a definite hourly yield. Secondly, if they lower their prices then they lower their returns too because it's a fixed commission. Thirdly, it's possible that a lowered price results in improved profits, if the frequency of rides go up. I've seen nearly no change in hourly profits despite lowered prices. And I do think Uber is very sketchily overestimating their driver performance in their recruitment efforts. And I think the extended line of credit for car purchases was dumb, but I didn't take it. Also your analysis has this problem -- by your argument, drivers who are more willing to accept a slimmer margin are "more powerful" although those are exactly the "economically disenfranchised" drivers.