Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the together-we-drive dept.

The Center for American Progress reports:

Uber's business model is on the rocks [September 1] after [Federal Judge Edward Chen] granted class-action status to a lawsuit targeting the company's treatment of drivers as independent contractors.

[...] There are 160,000 drivers who will be party to the current lawsuit alleging that drivers are full employees of Uber with full labor law protections, rather than independent contractors. Any person who drove for Uber in California since mid-August 2009 and is not subject to a binding arbitration clause in her contract with the company will be considered part of the case.

[...] A jury trial will still determine whether Uber drivers meet the legal definition of employees--in which case the company would owe massive amounts of back pay to all eligible drivers--or not. And Chen did not give the drivers everything they wanted. The judge rejected class status for drivers' claims involving Uber policy around reimbursing expenses like gas, tolls, and the cost involved in a canceled fare.

[...] The cost of paying back wages and payroll taxes for the entire class, while certainly smaller than the $50 billion that the company is currently worth according to investors, would be vast.

takyon: Also at MarketWatch. In Seattle, City Council members have announced a bill that could allow Uber, Lyft, and other for-hire drivers to unionize.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:26PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:26PM (#231325)

    their hyper growth will start slowing down

    Not much of a prediction. Looking at the graphs they started their exponential range and grew 10x per year. The problem is about a year ago they had more than a tenth the working population of the country in their system as past users, I saw some figure about 15 million credit cards in their system as users. So they're basically done growing because there's not enough non-users left to sign up fast enough to continue that growth rate. There are not 150M employed potential customers in the USA. And there certainly are not 1500M in two years no matter how much we open immigration.

    Reminds me of the trajectory up and down of groupon.

    Their main business seems to be federalizing/nationalizing cabs. That always used to be strictly local and hyper corrupt, so there's plenty of money to scoop in by stealing their lunch. Once they "win" the profit won't be in that field anymore. That's not sustainable, someone else will come along without the historical baggage expenses and eat their customers, just like the ate the crooked cab system customers. Its the "arrows in the back of the pioneers" thing. They're doomed as a company.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:11PM

    by Francis (5544) on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:11PM (#231353)

    I was just reading a column in the paper today and the pay for Uber drivers is ridiculous. From the airport into town with a cab is $45 and about $20 with Uber. But, the Uber drivers around here are only making like $3 an hour from the driving. Which means that you absolutely do have to tip them a rather absurd amount of money so they can make ends meet.

    Cabs are expensive, but a lot of that has to do with the drivers needing to make an actually living at it.

    One other thing to note here is that with the changes to the labor regulations in the US, Uber is likely to be in huge trouble in the near future as the drivers aren't reasonably independent contractors.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:47PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:47PM (#231368)

      Cabs are expensive, but a lot of that has to do with the drivers needing to make an actually living at it.

      Ah but do they?

      I toyed with the idea of hacking the system a bit and being a driver myself and IF there is enough traffic, uber has very little way to tell if I'm "double dipping" so I could go to the ultra-mega-super-market that rules this city, fill my cart with food, and while waiting the checkout lane check uber for anyone else buying food at ultra-mega-mart with me, and then I'd drive them home and drive myself home. I mean, I'm driving home anyway, right?

      I almost never fly but if I was in the airport anyway I'd pick up a fare if one were available. The local combined amtrak/commuter rail/bus station is 3 blocks from work but the airport of course is 25 miles from home.

      I can't make a living doing uber, but I could maybe "drive for free" or reduced rate at least. My ability to do that would price out the people trying to drive for a living.

      Imagine how a pizza driver could theoretically clean up... Of course riders are going to complain his car smells of pepperoni but getting paid for two jobs at the same time is pretty sweet.

      • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:21PM

        by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:21PM (#231405) Journal

        Isn't that their claimed business model? Or at least it used to be, sharing the cost of driving to somewhere you were going anyway.

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:43PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:43PM (#231417)

          I actually looked and I'm guessing thats lyft. Or another competitor. Uber is the wanna be taxi driver one of the crowd.

          They (all?) seem to distance themselves from from the old college travel rideshare board mentality.

          • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday September 03 2015, @10:31PM

            by deimtee (3272) on Thursday September 03 2015, @10:31PM (#232007) Journal

            I could be mixing them up with Lyft. Or Maybe they pushed the rideshare angle a bit more here in Oz.
            If they claimed to be unlicenced taxis here, they would get shut down pretty damn fast.

            --
            If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:51PM (#231477)

    I also thought of that notion, though I generally hear it as "eating their lunch".

    My thoughts went back to Napster and how MAFIAA -could- have made their own app and pulled the rug out from under the nascent service.
    Instead, the incumbents decided to fight the tide--and in the process lost money, credibility, and any popular support they might have still had.

    From this week's news:
    Thousands Of NYC Taxis Are Getting An App That's A Lot Like Uber [gothamist.com]

    It's been completely legal to develop a ride-hail app for Yellow Cabs since the spring of 2013 [gothamist.com]. First, Uber stepped in with UberT, then, Hailo stepped in to challenge it [gothamist.com]. Still, only five taxi apps have managed to get [the approval of The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission] in the years since, and even Hailo, the most promising, shrugged and gave up [crainsnewyork.com] on NYC last fall.

    In addition, we previously mentioned
    Singapore Out-Ubers Uber [soylentnews.org]

    -- gewg_