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Lyft became public. Then Uber. These measures are meant to illustrate the fact that the carpool companies were ready to leave the safety of Silicon Valley and get into reality. Yet, both IPOs have fallen flat on their respective faces. Each company's share price dropped and investors quickly realized that more customers were not synonymous with healthy activity. While discussions on the Uber and Lyft public offerings dominated the conversation, this awareness also shed light on how these companies treat drivers. And guess what, it's not great.
Lyft and Uber do not consider drivers to be employees. These men and women who work are more like independent contractors. As such, they do not enjoy the same benefits, safety rules and treatment as normal employees. Faced with these realities, these drivers often earn wages below the minimum wage, even if each company promised to do more than enough in its ads to acquire drivers. However, drivers found solutions to Uber and Lyft's predatory employment practices and lower wages than advertised because they routinely manipulated ridesharing applications to ensure higher fares.
Recently, ABC 7 News in West Virginia published an article about Uber and Lyft drivers handling carpool applications to create an artificial pricing. The practice works by a group of drivers agreeing to turn off their hail applications, reducing the number of active drivers. Then, once the rates have reached an agreed number, given the poor availability, they return to work with higher rates than before. According to ABC 7 News, this practice results from the more recent salary cuts of Uber and Lyft. One of the drivers interviewed said: "Uber does not pay us enough, what the company cheats is to defraud all these people by taking between 35 and 40%", while another said: "Everyone knows that [driving without surge pumping] It's not worth it. They know that if they leave here without making waves, it is not worth it. "
The readerHowever, found that surge pumping has been around for years. A Reddit thread from the beginning of last year talked about the collective creation of surges, stating, "It seems that around the beginning of the year, all the regulars had the brilliant idea of staying offline for cause a rise, and as soon as it appears, I see everyone jumps online very quickly. There is a problem for that, I saw it happen. I remember one day there were even placards on the portapotties that urged messy English drivers to stay offline to create a wave. "
In recent days, since the ABC 7 News survey, other discussions on Reddit have also appeared on the subject. One driver stated that "[Surge pumping] works as long as you can reduce the driver pool. Overvoltage is one more thing and occurs for the same reasons as before. The 10 cars in the airport queue and I sometimes go out sometimes collectively disconnect late at night after landing a plane. When we go get our pax, there are about 100 people standing there and often, my pax is like: "Whoa, how did you come so fast? These other guys ordered their ride 15 minutes ago and are still waiting. " The driver urged other members of the forum to stop talking to reporters about the rampage, telling them, "Stop telling reporters that drivers handle the picks.You're doing it.Let's leave the rest of us Apart from this." Some drivers engaged in the practice may be subject to debate, but the cause of these collective measures is not.
Recently, the National Labor Relations Commission issued a note stating that Uber and Lyft drivers were independent contractors, a blow to both activists and driver groups in their quest for more working conditions. uniforms. The NLRB said that because carpool companies offered "an important entrepreneurial opportunity because of the almost complete control of their cars and their work schedules, as well as the freedom to choose connection locations and work for competitors "As well as" the almost unlimited possibility of meeting each other exceed their weekly overhead costs ", the drivers must be classified as independent contractors and do not necessarily correspond to the extent of the employees.
A driver told ABC 7 News: "They take all this money because there is no liability system."
However, the two carpool giants disagree with Lyft's advice: "The hourly earnings of Lyft drivers have increased by 7% in the last two years and they have gained more than $ 14 billion since our launch. More than 75% work less than 10 hours a week to supplement existing jobs. Lyft drivers earn on average over $ 20 an hour. A study conducted by buzzfeedrefutes Lyft's claims that Uber and Lyft drivers earn less than $ 13.25 an hour on average. Given this reality, it is much more understandable for drivers to take charge. Recently, the two pilots, Uber and Lyft, went on strike to help them bring their fate to a national stage. Although it was not as successful as other more traditional union-led strikes given their professional status, it raised the conversation.
This is a much more complex situation than it has been reported. Without real representation, it is likely that drivers will pursue their collective actions for the benefit of the group. Nicole Moore of Rideshare Drivers United, a group of drivers resembling a national union, spoke with NPR after the carpool strike, said: "It is not because we can not be a union that we can not act as a union." a living wage, new strikes or a struggle for rights drivers remains to be seen.
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