Minimum wage laws don’t apply to drivers for ride-hailing apps. Since they’re independent contractors and must cover all of their vehicle expenses themselves, it’s difficult to figure out how much a driver makes at a glance without knowing what their expenses are. However, it turns out that Uber ran these numbers before a recent price cut, and provided raw data to Buzzfeed after the company’s calculations were leaked. [More]
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After Threatening To Leave City, Chicago Will Not Require Uber, Lyft Drivers Provide Fingerprints
By 6.22.16
Earlier this week, it looked like Chicago was about to become the biggest city to require that drivers for services like Uber and Lyft provide fingerprints to check against existing criminal databases; but after intervention by the Mayor Rahm Emanuel — whose brother is an Uber investor — Chicago city leaders have approved a compromise version of these rules that kick the fingerprint can down the road for at least another six months. [More]
Austin City Councilman Sues Mayor To Overturn New Ride-Hailing App Ordinance
By 6.20.16
A new law requiring drivers for ride-hailing services to undergo a city background check, including fingerprinting, led the two leading companies in the industry, Uber and Lyft, to pull out of the Austin market, leaving passengers rideless and around 10,000 drivers jobless. Now a city councilman who was against the original law has filed a lawsuit against the city. [More]
Uber Teams Up With Capital One For Rewards Program
By 6.15.16
For the most part Uber and credit cards go hand-in-hand: in order to hail a ride you must be willing to pay for your ride via a debit or credit card stored to your account. So it should come with little shock that the company is now partnering with Capital One on a rewards program for riders. [More]
Uber Investigator Pretended To Be Reporter To Dig Up Dirt On Lawsuit Plaintiff
By 6.13.16
Two years ago, Uber was heavily criticized (by basically everyone except investor/sort-of actor Ashton Kutcher) when an executive suggested the company should probe the personal life of a reporter who criticized the ridesharing service. Now Uber has gone from trying to dig up dirt on reporters, to hiring investigators who pretend to be reporters to dig up dirt on a someone suing the company. [More]
Former Uber And Lyft Drivers In Austin Sue Over Abrupt Pullout
By 6.10.16
In Austin, TX last month, city voters approved a ballot measure that would require drivers for ride-hailing apps to pass city background checks and be fingerprinted. Both companies immediately pulled out of the city, suddenly leaving thousands of workers, many of whom were driving for their full-time jobs, out of work. Now drivers are suing the companies, alleging that they were owed notice under the WARN Act. [More]
Uber Now Allows Riders To Schedule Trips In Advance
By 6.10.16
Less than two weeks after Lyft rolled out a new service that allows riders to book trips in advance — despite the fact that that action essentially defeats the purpose of an on-demand ride-hailing app — the company’s biggest rival is joining club: Uber will now let users schedule trips between 30 minutes and 30 days in advance. [More]
In France, Uber And Executives Convicted Of Deceptive Commercial Practices
By 6.9.16
Ride-hailing app Uber’s service that lets any safe driver with access to a new-ish car become a driver for hire is generally popular with the frugal public all over the world, but is less popular with regulators and with professional taxi drivers. That’s been the case in France, where the company was convicted today of deceptive commercial practices and illegal business activity, and with its executives fined a collective €850,000 ($962,689). [More]
Uber’s Head Of Global Customer Support Steps Down
By 6.7.16
After hopping over to Uber from Amazon in January 2015, the head of the ride-sharing company’s global customer support operations, Tim Collins, is returning from whence he came: he’s stepped down from his job at Uber and is reportedly going back to Amazon. [More]
Uber Rolling Out Guaranteed Arrival Times For UberPool
By 6.7.16
In its latest effort to get more people to use its carpooling service UberPool, Uber is introducing guaranteed arrival times, so passengers won’t have to worry about being late, even if they’re picked up first and dropped off last. [More]
Our Government Has Somehow Managed To Suggest An Even Worse Name For The Sharing Economy
By 6.7.16
If you want to bash your head against the closest rock whenever you hear that a new service wants to be the “Uber of [fill in the industry],” you are not alone. Both the industry and the general public have struggled to come up with names for the new model of sharing cars, homes, etc.: there’s the sharing economy, the gig economy, and now, the government has its own idea for a term that might be worse than all the rest. [More]
Uber Adds Tools To App For Drivers, Doesn’t Add Higher Pay Or In-App Tips
By 6.6.16
What drivers for ride-hailing apps really want is to make more money. They’d like higher fares, or for passengers to have the ability to tip them from inside the app: really, either of those would be great. Instead, drivers for Uber are getting a suite of handy features, like being able to pick up passengers traveling in the same direction as they want to end up. Not higher fares, though. [More]
Walmart Partners With Uber, Lyft For Online Grocery Delivery
By 6.3.16
Shoppers in more than a dozen cities can already order groceries from Walmart.com then later have someone bring their order out to their waiting car. Soon, these folks won’t even have to leave home. [More]
5 Things You Should Know About Uber’s Xchange Leasing Program & Its Costs
By 5.31.16
Last summer, Uber launched a car leasing program that aimed to remedy the one big obstacle for anyone who wanted to sign up as a driver and hit the road — if you don’t have a car, you’ve got nowhere to put passengers. Nearly a year after Xchange Leasing began connecting would-be drivers with new vehicles, experts say the program may not be all it’s cracked up to be for already financially vulnerable drivers. [More]
Uber Nudging Users Toward Carpooling With Test Of “Upfront Pricing” Feature
By 5.27.16
In some cities, Uber customers can choose to get a ride with UberPool, which allows users to share a car with strangers who are traveling along (or close to) their route. It looks like the ride-hailing company is trying to nudge folks toward selecting that option, with a new test of an “upfront pricing” feature that displays prices for both UberPool and the more expensive option, UberX. [More]
Today In Automakers Befriending Ride-Sharing Apps: Toyota Investing In Uber, VW Teaming Up With Gett
By 5.25.16
What’s an automaker to do when it wants to get into the ride-sharing game, and make some money off people who might not ever buy a car but will definitely ride in one, without starting from scratch? Grab a buddy, of course: Toyota is plunking money into Uber and Volkwswagen says it’s teaming up with Gett. [More]
Lyft Slashing Weekday Rides In NYC By Half
By 5.23.16
Hitching a ride in a Lyft in New York City will be a bit more forgiving on your wallet this week: the ride-hailing company plans to cut weekday trip prices in half for a limited time. [More]
9 Things We Learned About How Few Americans Are Regularly Taking Part In The “Sharing Economy”
By 5.19.16
Though it might feel like you can turn a corner without seeing an ad for this ride-hailing app or that on-demand delivery service, Pew Research Center’s first-ever survey of how American adults interact with the new digital economy shows there’s a big difference between how many people have ever tried one of these services and the people who use them on a regular basis. [More]
