What You Do Not Know About Uber Lyft etc 7 Uber Drivers Compare Algorithmic Wage Discrimination
Kamala Harris’ brother is directly involved.
I was a cab driver for 30 years in Galveston Texas… They had successfully banned Uber and Lyft or any rideshare program from coming on to our Island for over 10 years. When they lobbied the government of Texas with 17 million in donations Uber arrived with extremely cheap fares. They eliminated the taxis within a year because drivers could not compete or make a reasonable living any longer. Once the taxis were gone it was amazing how quickly the price of rideshare became more expensive than the traditional regulated taxis.
Once you see this pattern, you can’t unsee it. This is how they get you, me, everyone.
That’s exactly what Walmart does but during a decade long progress.
That’s what they all do. Amazon did the same thing.
Uber will operate at a loss until they drive the local cab companies and drivers out of business and then they will raise their prices after the competition is gone.
It’s this way in many industries. The fines will wipe out a small business, but a big business just includes it in the cost of operation. If you make $5 million by illegal dumping and the fine is $50,000, that’s a good deal for you. If you get a $50,000 fine but only make $30,000 for illegal dumping, then you don’t do any illegal dumping. All the regulation does is make sure that big businesses can misbehave for big profits, squeezing all the little guys out.
I remember dropping off a passenger in santa cruz by the college. My map was lit up in red. Riders everywhere. As soon as i was clear to pick up another customer, the red disappeared. There was no more red. No more people needed a ride all of a sudden. I parked and waited an hour. Not one hit on my phone. That’s when i knew Uber managed how many rides you get a day.
As a driver, what bothers me is that Lyft continually says they only take 21%. I know that’s a lie because I ask riders what they paid and usually I’m getting 50% of the rate.
As reluctant users, my husband and I get different prices for Uber rides when we’re standing right next to each other, have the same rating, same tiered benefits, etc. They should investigate this too.
I drove for Lyft and Uber for close to five years but gave it up a year ago. Upfront pricing was the death knell for me. It just wasn’t economically feasible anymore. The costs of gas, the beating it put on my car, my time, etc. Not to mention the safety issues. Unlike passengers, us drivers have no idea who’s getting into our back seat!? Often the names are made up and people share accounts . I show up to pick up Linda and some 6’5 guy with a beard shows up. Lyft started making deals with medical insurance companies for us to practically do medical transport! All of a sudden somebody who just got out of the hospital with seeping wounds, broken legs or worse tries getting in the car. For $6 im supposed to deal with blood, wheelchairs, vomit, people who just had surgery!? Im supposed to help them into and out of a wheelchair and then wheel them into their house?? I am not a qualified medical person nor is my vehicle equipped for this stuff. But thats the greed of these rideshare companies. While they rake in the $$ from the comfort of their air conditioned offices us drivers are in the trenches.
“This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
This has been done to American truckers for the past 50 years. I’m glad this conversation is coming up.
I believe these Food Delivery apps are doing the same thing to us drivers.
Monopolies ruin everything they touch. It doesn’t matter what industry they operate in.
My daughter and I were contacting Uber at the same time for the exact same ride. She is 20 years old and I am 68. Her ride was substantially cheaper for the same ride.
I bet the difference is even bigger! Sometimes I wait only 5 minutes, and then I try again, the price is 20% lower. This is crazy. It has nothing to do with demand, demand did not decrease 20% in 5 minutes, it has everything to do with abuse and lack of transparency.
I’ve always known this is how they work. Who doesn’t? It’s like a cellphone company; charge 20 million customers $1 extra for 1 month and you just made 20 million dollars. They do this until an FCC or government “steps in” and then after profiting 200 million, they pay a 5 million dollar fine. Rinse and repeat.
As a former driver, I have seen first hand the average dollar per mile fall drastically over time while at the same time expenses like gas, insurance and repairs have been increasing steadily. It got to a point where I was simply at times paying to drive people to their destinations. It was demoralizing. I no longer drive for Uber or Lyft. These companies are exploiting drivers for their own massive profits.
Uber knows a busy driver is a happy driver , so they make all their drivers drive long distances to pick up their passengers even though an uber driver was parked next to the customer .
I started doing lyft in 2016. It was awesome. 2000+ a week. They had bonuses and plenty of rides. Now you’d be lucky to make 1000 a week in twice as many hours and there’s zero bonuses.
As a Uber eats driver, the algorithm actually dictates my pay. If I decline a bunch of orders, I’ll get punished. If I come back from a week or so break, it’ll give me delivery after delivery, just to get me back in. A few days later, barely any orders.
I’ve been driving for Uber and Lyft for almost 9 years (since December 2019). Lyft I distinctly notice will adjust prices based on how low I accept rides. If I accept a rides under $8 for example, it will continue giving me rides $5-8. If several times in a row deny rides under $10 for example it will bump prices up (for similar distance) to $12+. I’ve noticed the algorithm will see how low you’re willing to accept and based incoming rides on that, regardless of distance/time. ALSO, I have asked passengers how much they are paying of the ride and Lyft takes anywhere for 35-50% every time.
Amazon often does this. I’ve found if I place an item into my cart and wait 1-4 days, I’m offered a discount.
Greed is not the desire for more, it’s the desire for more at the expense of others.
“Dynamic Pricing” is absolutely dystopian.
I am a Russian man living in LA, and sometimes I work for Uber. This is hiw it looks so far: my car is getting old, the back seats look dirty from the passengers. Some days are ok, some days are very bad. But when you do the math, it turns out that you earn between $10 and $18 per hour. To be honest, I don’t understand how anyone could like this kind of work unless it’s a vital temporary necessity. I’ve met people who have been driving for 5-10 years, and I was suprised because everyone knows that Uber doesn’t pay much money but it’s just easy. I’m doing a series of videos on my YouTube channel where I talk about my experience at Uber. My idea is to make money and run advertising because driving around the city isn’t worth it.
If wage discrimination is illegal, then algorithmic wage discrimination is illegal.
I did uber out of curiosity mostly during the weekends, the first week i started out i was making a crazy amount if money, but later on as time pass, i was getting less request, sometimes taking hours, and even when i do get request, the distance takes me over 20 to 30 miles away just to make a 2 or 3 mile trip. Which wasnt worth it. Im glad i never made this a full time job, it would’ve been a horrible choice regardless. This video pretty much confirms my suspicions ive had all these years ago.
I did this for about three years here in vegas, especially when Uber/Lyft was starting to get a foothold here in Vegas. And yes, I did make quite a bit of money in the first 6 months. But, similar experiences as yours, I also started to see less pay and longer wait times between fares and having to drive longer distance for short fares. I also picked up the big differences between what I was getting paid for each ride when I first started to do uber/lyft to compared to 6 months and beyond. The companies were taking anywhere from 45% of the Faire to about 68%.
Me too, it was psychological manipulation and it’s demoralizing to know you’re voluntarily surrendering your intelligence to utter garbage.
I had an Uber ride to the airport once. The driver and I compared what I paid and what he was paid. Big difference. He gave me a business card and said next time I could call him directly and reserve a ride to the airport and cut out Uber. Win-win.
I used to do the food delivery apps. If you decline the low-paying ones (the ones where you lose money completing the delivery) too much, they stop sending you orders. They want you to quit. They want to keep the idiots that take $8 orders to drive 30 miles back and forth. That’s $8 – $5gas = $3 an hour.
Uber isn’t paying us, we’re paying uber.
I started working for Uber when they first came out, I’m 60 years old and Uber was the only employer that I’ve had in my entire life that paid me less every year. Instead of getting a yearly wage increase every year my wage went down, I quit driving for them in 2016, it wasn’t worth it. All the drivers are doing is cashing the equity out of their newer cars.
This video was eye-opening It shows how Uber and Lyft pay different rates for the same ride, which is crucial for drivers to understand.
I recently rode with one of the big ride share companies. Usually I like to chat with the drivers asking about themselves and experience driving. One driver recently told me the ride share company will inflate prices when a major event is taking place in the city (i.e.: music festival, etc). He said ride prices may double or more. But the driver pay doesn’t change, all the additional profits go to the ride share company.
I remember when Uber and Lyft first hit south Florida…. They violated every single state and local law that regulated “taxis” by declaring themselves not taxis. They did this to undercut the taxi market. I would expect nothing but predatory practices from either company. But, I bet the clock is ticking until another tech upstart comes along and just creates an app that only organizes driver and charges a minimal fee for the service… Allowing drivers to set their own prices and take in most of the fare themselves.
A platform where drivers are the actual owners and set their own prices is essentially a cooperative, not a capitalist firm.
@Will140f Uber did what all shady businesses do, they operate at a loss until their competition doesn’t have the same ability to compete anymore, then raise the prices, and since they were relying on gig workers who had to opt into being a servant, slash wages. Because now there are no taxi or food delivery jobs for them to go to, so they have to stay working for Uber.
What I’ve heard is that Uber pricing does not include the cost of depreciation and replacement of your car . This allows them to under cut conventional taxi cab companies. You think that you are doing OK, but you’re slowly going backwards.
These uber drivers are starting to see how taxi drivers felt 10 years ago.
I’m a taxi driver in a major city. Uber/Lyft started out super cheap, with their VC funds, and got most everyone to stop taking taxis. People got used to the cheap price, and now they’ve massively upped the cost. The crazy part is that people still are taking Uber/Lyft when it costs 2-3x as much as a taxi, believing that Uber is still the cheaper option. Uber/Lyft have effectively brainwashed almost an entire population.
The simple solution is to stop using Uber and Lyft.
As someone familiar with the software engineering space, this is the tip of the iceberg, guaranteed. Uber and Lyft destroyed the private transportation market with their illegal operations but because they were bringing in heavy revenue and greasing the right pockets, they were allowed to continue unchecked. The consumer benefit is miniscule compared to the detriment to society by their continued operations.
Singapore’s government kicked Uber out of the country years ago.
Controlled by algorithms? I knew this back in high school over 20 years ago. What the hell, man .
If the passenger is getting told the price upfront, why isn’t the driver getting the amount he’s going to make on the ride up front? That’s obviously shady business practice.
One major reason companies like Lyft and Uber advocate strongly to classify drivers as independent contractors is to avoid providing benefits such as health insurance, minimum wage guarantees, and other employment protections. This classification allows the companies to transfer the burden of vehicle maintenance and associated costs to the drivers. Many drivers, unfortunately, focus only on their gross earnings (the money received from fares) without fully factoring in the real cost of operating their vehicles, which reduces their net income substantially.
Their sick plan, imo is to lure an infinite pool of dispossable drivers into the app to lower their overall fares due to high availability.
Airline been doing this for decades.
InDrive a cab Company in India has solved this problem where riders and drivers can negociate their prices.
I’ve noticed that if you check rates right after getting off a plane and still a long walk to the pickup area the rates will be cheap with a “30% Flash Promo” but when you get to the pickup area it refreshes and the promo is gone and rates are significantly higher. Tested this with both Uber and Lyft on multiple landings.
America. Working as intended. The rich get richer. The workers get poorer.
As an owner of a Taxi Service that has been at war with Uber and Lyft for the past 10 years, I can tell you that what you just viewed is absolutely true. They even have protections in place with the State and local City Administrations in our state, to prevent interference in their operations. No one in Public Office will even talk to you. They all say that there is nothing they can do. It’s like God has given them Carte Blanche and no one can question their operation.
If Uber wanted to be fair, they would just charge drivers a flat rate each month to use their app and not take a cut each ride away from the driver.
I do uber part time, like 2 days a week. Been doing this for about a decade. My pay has dropped drastically over the years. We get lowball offers, like $4 or $5, and if we don’t accept like 3 in a row, we get penalized. I can tell because I’ll stop getting trip requests. So, sometimes we have to take trips that don’t make financial/economic sense for us just to get the algorithm working. I wish I could adjust my own fares. I wouldn’t accept anything under $6 no matter the distance. Alas, can’t. Lyft is even worse so I don’t drive for them. The whole thing sucks. I’m lucky that this isn’t my main source of income and I don’t rely on it.
There’s one very important thing that was never mentioned in this video. The cost involved in being a driver, gas, maintenance, tires, brakes, and insurance. They said these drivers are making less than minimum wage, then subtract the cost of operating a car. You end up working long hours just to make enough money to survive. Then in a couple years, your car has two or 300,000 miles on it, it’s no longer reliable, and it’s not worth anything. You don’t have any money in the bank because you’re barely making enough to get by and now if you want to keep going, you have to buy a new car. Since 2020 the cost of operating a car has gone up 27% and the pay for drivers has gone up 0%, in some cases driver pay has gone down. I’m not just talking about Uber and Lyft. There are millions of people in America that are couriers. I myself recently stopped working a job as a medical courier. I love the job and I did it for seven years. I worked long hard hours ,wore out two cars and made about $20,000 a year. All this time the products that I delivered were skyrocketing in price, but I never saw a dime of that increase going in my pocket.
In India, we have a company called NAMMA YATRI, which operates on a zero-commission model. You can book your ride without paying any commission to the company. It’s 100% open-source with open data, built on an open mobility platform. More companies should adopt this model to improve service quality and ensure drivers are better compensated. They operate on a subscription model for drivers to access their platform, rather than charging per ride or using other payment methods.
My husband gets lower prices in his Amazon account than I get. Same day. Same item. The algorithms think women will go for the higher prices, I guess. Maybe statistically we do.
This is why Uber was outlawed in Denmark, our laws protect decent wages, cab drivers are protected by their union and the law. Today Uber is trying a comeback in the Copenhagen area but it is actually just a regular cab that will come and the fare is the same. A Danish cab driver makes around $4000 usd a month.
An Uber/Lyft driver in USA is now making on average as low as $8 per hour working about 70 hours a week and after Uber expenses in most of the states which clearly breaks minimum wage laws which are on average $15 per hour. Plus, above 40 hours a week of work, the overtime rate should be applied which Uber doesn’t. Uber’s support is based in India, dealing with those people who clearly have no idea about situations in the United States. Sometimes, we have to beg them for a little problem for as long as wasting 3 hours of time, yet problem never resolves.
