4 ms·

CA Labor Commission Has Just Killed Uber

18 points by acheron 11y ago

stephengillie 11y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9731963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9731963
- blisterpeanuts 11y ago
  Yes, thank you, I knew there had to be more than 3 comments on this topic :)
sudioStudio64 11y ago
I know that this site is going to be overwhelmingly pro-uber, but this guy is also a climate denier?
- blisterpeanuts 11y ago
  No, he's a climate skeptic, according to his website. I browsed that tab which has some extensive analysis.
  - sudioStudio64 11y ago
    I looked over that "extensive analysis" too, and it's the usual libertarian ridiculousness. He didn't link to anything even remotely non-partisan. Despite his being pro marriage equality he has links to the usual Republican hit pieces on things like women's issues. And it looks like he has the same weird fixation with progressives that every conservative fscking nutjob has. I'm so sick of science denial and the kind of counter-narrative "look at me mom, no hands" clever boy bullshit that passes for intelligence on the right. Hayek. Always with the god damned Hayek.
    - Frozenlock 11y ago
      Why are you bringing this on? How is that related to anthropomorphic climate change?
  - homulilly 11y ago
    "climate skeptic" is to "climate change denier" as "intelligent design" is to young earth creationism. It's the same position dressed up with language to seem less extremist.
    - sudioStudio64 11y ago
      As "Amen" is to "Hell Yeah". Well done.
- fedups 11y ago
  Boy is he gonna feel silly when he discovers that the climate exists
msabalau 11y ago
CA <> the addressable market in the world.
ChuckMcM 11y ago
Note this is a different article than the TechCrunch one, this goes into the impact to Uber if they classify drivers as employees and you can see that it doesn't look good for Uber. I wonder what the appeal process is here. I guess one of the good things about the current 'all money is private' investment strategy is that there isn't some hedgefund dumping millions of shares of Uber stock in uncovered short sales.
- x5n1 11y ago
  Couldn't have happened to nicer people. They will likely now double down on automated vehicles. Which I think are the future and I hope someone else succeeds in that as well.
- halviti 11y ago
  >"I wonder what the appeal process is here." Am I the only one that thinks this ruling makes sense?
warmfuzzykitten 11y ago
Seems more like a lot of whining about how hard it is these days for a small business to hire really low-paid, uninsured workers than anything to do with Uber. I'm inclined to think Uber won't go out of business if it is treated just like taxicab companies. After all, the selling point of Uber isn't low cost - if you can find a taxi it will usually be cheaper - it's superior service. Also, see the comment by Morgan D. Frank below the article.
lsiebert 11y ago
"This would obviously make Uber drivers subject to minimum wage. How does one even figure that out? Now that there are local minimum wages (e.g. LA soon to be $15 an hour) how do you compute minimum wage for a trip that begins outside of LA but ends inside the city? Or vice versa?" Probably you count time in LA at the LA rate, and when they leave the LA area by crossing the city limit, you calculate that accordingly. A lot of these seem like non issues. Like the time waiting to pick up a driver isn't the responsibility of the company anymore then your time checking a website to see if you got hours that week is the company's responsibility. The California Supreme Court, in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, found that you don't have to force meal breaks, simply provide them, and my understanding is that that only applies if they work more then five hours, and if a work period is no more then 6 hours, meals can be waived by mutual consent. Easy enough to do through the app. The employees will just be part time employees working a variable shift. That solves like half of these "issues". This didn't kill Uber. It still has economies of scale that put it ahead of normal taxi services, and the ability to intelligently adjust pricing.
- sharemywin 11y ago
  usually you would have to pay people from the first stop of the day to the last stop.

18 points by acheron 11y ago

stephengillie 11y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9731963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9731963

blisterpeanuts 11y ago
Yes, thank you, I knew there had to be more than 3 comments on this topic :)

sudioStudio64 11y ago

I know that this site is going to be overwhelmingly pro-uber, but this guy is also a climate denier?

blisterpeanuts 11y ago
No, he's a climate skeptic, according to his website. I browsed that tab which has some extensive analysis.
- sudioStudio64 11y ago
  I looked over that "extensive analysis" too, and it's the usual libertarian ridiculousness. He didn't link to anything even remotely non-partisan. Despite his being pro marriage equality he has links to the usual Republican hit pieces on things like women's issues. And it looks like he has the same weird fixation with progressives that every conservative fscking nutjob has. I'm so sick of science denial and the kind of counter-narrative "look at me mom, no hands" clever boy bullshit that passes for intelligence on the right. Hayek. Always with the god damned Hayek.
  - Frozenlock 11y ago
    Why are you bringing this on? How is that related to anthropomorphic climate change?
- homulilly 11y ago
  "climate skeptic" is to "climate change denier" as "intelligent design" is to young earth creationism. It's the same position dressed up with language to seem less extremist.
  - sudioStudio64 11y ago
    As "Amen" is to "Hell Yeah". Well done.
fedups 11y ago
Boy is he gonna feel silly when he discovers that the climate exists

msabalau 11y ago

CA <> the addressable market in the world.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

Note this is a different article than the TechCrunch one, this goes into the impact to Uber if they classify drivers as employees and you can see that it doesn't look good for Uber. I wonder what the appeal process is here. I guess one of the good things about the current 'all money is private' investment strategy is that there isn't some hedgefund dumping millions of shares of Uber stock in uncovered short sales.

x5n1 11y ago
Couldn't have happened to nicer people. They will likely now double down on automated vehicles. Which I think are the future and I hope someone else succeeds in that as well.
halviti 11y ago
>"I wonder what the appeal process is here." Am I the only one that thinks this ruling makes sense?

warmfuzzykitten 11y ago

Seems more like a lot of whining about how hard it is these days for a small business to hire really low-paid, uninsured workers than anything to do with Uber. I'm inclined to think Uber won't go out of business if it is treated just like taxicab companies. After all, the selling point of Uber isn't low cost - if you can find a taxi it will usually be cheaper - it's superior service. Also, see the comment by Morgan D. Frank below the article.

lsiebert 11y ago

"This would obviously make Uber drivers subject to minimum wage. How does one even figure that out? Now that there are local minimum wages (e.g. LA soon to be $15 an hour) how do you compute minimum wage for a trip that begins outside of LA but ends inside the city? Or vice versa?" Probably you count time in LA at the LA rate, and when they leave the LA area by crossing the city limit, you calculate that accordingly. A lot of these seem like non issues. Like the time waiting to pick up a driver isn't the responsibility of the company anymore then your time checking a website to see if you got hours that week is the company's responsibility. The California Supreme Court, in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, found that you don't have to force meal breaks, simply provide them, and my understanding is that that only applies if they work more then five hours, and if a work period is no more then 6 hours, meals can be waived by mutual consent. Easy enough to do through the app. The employees will just be part time employees working a variable shift. That solves like half of these "issues". This didn't kill Uber. It still has economies of scale that put it ahead of normal taxi services, and the ability to intelligently adjust pricing.

sharemywin 11y ago
usually you would have to pay people from the first stop of the day to the last stop.