Taxi Driver Online

The Great Rideshare Crash: Uber, Lyft, and More Plan Layoffs as Drivers Flounder

https://observer.com/2020/04/uber-lyft- ... g-plummet/



With shelter-at-home lockdown orders keeping Americans stuck inside, the demand for ride-hailing services has crashed over the last two months. And while delivery services have seen an uptick in performance since the country virtually shut down in March, the industry leaders in gig-economy driving apps are hitting a brick wall.

On Tuesday, The Information reported that Uber is mulling plans to let go up to 5,400 employees, or 20 percent of its workforce, after global ride bookings plummeted 80 percent in March as compared to March 2019. Although delivery services including Uber Eats, Uber Direct, and Uber Connect saw an uptick during the quarantine, they were far from enough to offset losses in the company’s core ride-hailing business.

According to an SEC filing on Tuesday, Uber’s longtime chief technology officer, Thuan Pham, has already submitted resignation (effective May 16) for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, a significant change that may put the company’s 3,800-person engineering team at risk of severe downsizing. The Information estimated that Uber could slash up to 3,000 engineering positions in the coming weeks.

Uber didn’t confirm any of the reported layoff numbers. A spokesperson said the company “is looking at every possible scenario to ensure we get to the other side of this crisis in a stronger position than ever.”

Its ride-hailing rival, Lyft, is likely facing similar sales impact. In an SEC filing on Wednesday, the company said it’s laying off nearly 1,000 employees, or 17 percent of the total workforce. An additional 288 people will be furloughed, while salaried employees are set to take pay cuts up to 30 percent, the filing said. Lyft didn’t disclose exactly how much business had fallen since the coronavirus outbreak.

Still, corporate cutbacks barely reflect the true impact of the pandemic. Many Uber and Lyft drivers have run out of work for weeks. But since the millions of gig workers are not counted as full-time employees, they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits or even a mention in regulatory filings. Meanwhile, Uber investors are taking issues with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s $42.4 million pay package amid a company crisis, which is expected to be a key item to discuss at Uber’s upcoming shareholders meeting.

Coronavirus and the national quarantine has halted all transportation, not just on-demand taxi cabs. Uber’s and Lyft’s smaller transportation peers (and often targets of acquisition) are scrambling to deal with plummeting road traffic as well. Electric scooter startup Bird, for example, slashed 30 percent of its workforce in late March as the pandemic pushed scooters out of major cities. Its scooter-sharing rival, Lime, is planning to lay off over 100 employees, adding to a 14 percent downsize just two months ago.

On Thursday, fresh data from the Labor Department showed that another 3.8 million Americans had lost jobs in the past week, pushing the total headcount of coronavirus-induced unemployment past 30 million over the six weeks of national quarantine.

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IDFIMH

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IDFIMH

that is a tad excessive but entirely in keeping with modern day board room culture where you pay big wages to directors whose main function is to determine the pay of the rest of the board

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

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Uber announces further 3,000 job cuts

https://www.ft.com/content/991282db-e2d ... e14cedbb80

Uber has announced it will cut 3,000 more jobs, close or consolidate 45 global offices, and reduce its investments in several “non-core” projects as it deals with what chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi described as the “damn virus”.

The lay-offs are in addition to the 3,700 job losses announced earlier this month. Since the coronavirus crisis took hold, the ride-sharing giant has planned cuts of more than a quarter of its global workforce.

The company said in a filing it expected this would mean an annual saving of $1bn. Uber’s share price rose by more than 8 per cent on the news.

“You’ve heard me say it before: hope is not a strategy,” Mr Khosrowshahi wrote in an email to staff on Monday, seen by the FT.

“While that’s easy to say, the truth is that this is a decision I struggled with. Our balance sheet is strong, Eats is doing great, Rides looks a little better, maybe we can wait this damn virus out . . . I wanted there to be a different answer.”

He reiterated the impact of Covid-19 on its ride-share business, with journeys down 80 per cent globally. “We’re seeing some signs of a recovery,” Mr Khosrowshahi said. “But it comes off of a deep hole, with limited visibility as to its speed and shape.”

As part of the move, the company said it would find “strategic alternatives” for its Uber Works division, which matched people with temporary jobs, launched just only last October. It said it would wind down its Incubator and AI Labs units as well.

Instead it will focus on mobility and delivery sectors. Uber’s Eats food business still operates at a heavy loss despite 50 per cent year-on-year growth in the first quarter as communities started going into lockdown. “The business today doesn’t come close to covering our expenses,” Mr Khosrowshahi said in his email, but described Eats as the company’s next “enormous growth opportunity”.

The company is in talks to acquire rival food delivery platform Grubhub, though any potential deal has already piqued the interest of regulators concerned about competition.

The office closures include one of its locations in San Francisco, and the winding down of its Singapore office in favour of a new Asia-Pacific hub, in a location to be determined.

Following the lead of Airbnb, which announced a 25 per cent workforce reduction earlier this month, Uber said it would create a talent directory for employees leaving the company as well as severance packages.

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IDFIMH

You have to wonder exactly what all these people did?

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IDFIMH

The more uber job cuts the better,

they are cutting support staff not drivers these are the people who sorted out mistakes, overcharges complaints etc.

In the meantime they have just bought an American takeaway delivery company which is where the real money is these days

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Maybe in the years to come, but at present all the eating delivery companies lose money.

But Uber are attempting to buy Grubhub to try and take people's eyes off the mess that it vehicle hire business is in.

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IDFIMH

had an email from an organisation called Taxilaw whose database I seem to have appeared on about uber with some more details if anyone is interested

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Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Looks like Uber have been gazumped in their desperate attempt to get attention away from the dire situation in the taxi/PH market.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/10/uber- ... ean-rival/

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IDFIMH

Uber will have to up their offer and overpay for it

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Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Khosrowshahi has been cashing in his shares , while the money is available

But the shares he has been selling weren't Uber's they were of his previous employer Expedia.

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IDFIMH