Also the big investors like the Saudis are looking at billions and billions of lost dollars.

Or just under $20 Billion.

An interesting Q&A between a political website and a writer from the FT.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/1 ... ing-money/

Well I find this stuff fascinating, so there.

Minicab drivers market their services via a minicab firm. They get the money directly from the client, and then they owe the marketeer money on the basis of whatever deal they have struck up. They are clearly self-employed. But with Uber, everything got reversed. Uber is both a marketer and an employer – not least because Uber takes cash from the client and pays the drivers.

If you’re an early employee and you got in in the right year, you operate in the right place, you bought your car when it was still cheap and you were able to secure an edge or you were clever enough to set up a syndicate with other drivers, you can and probably do make money from driving. But by and large, a lot of Uber drivers that I’ve talked to were brought in under false pretences. They were sold this story that they could work for themselves and they would be earning loads of money.

Actually, what has transpired is that they’re working much longer hours than they ever thought they would, their costs are going through the roof, and when they do the accounting, they’re actually left with a very small net sum, which in some cases is below minimum wage. There is a huge number of Uber drivers who would have come in, bought a car at far too high a cost or set up a contract that is far too expensive and have been unable to operate in routes that pay them. If you consider that a lot of Uber drivers are coming in with no experience in this game at all, they might have underappreciated other externalities and costs, like petrol costs, maintenance or tax liabilities. It’s also very hard once you’ve committed to a car to turn back.

Anyone who's read the employment status cases shed any light on this, though? Seems to emphasise the method of payment as critical to employee status.

Likewise, I don't really understand this stuff about Uber drivers. Can't really see how newer drivers are any worse off than the old hands,

You need to read it.

Summed up best on page 29....

Possibly cars that have been on Uber longer have carded more of Uber's customers.