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PostPosted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 6:17 pm 
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Uber Is Running Out of Ideas on How to Save Its Own Arse

Even for regular schmucks with no background in economics or labour law, one of the glaring problems with Uber’s claim that its drivers are independent contractors rather than employees is that Uber sets the price of rides. Without the ability to set their own rates, or a contract drivers have any power to negotiate the terms of, the whole argument sort of falls apart, doesn’t it?

But, bless its heart, that doesn’t stop Uber from trying. Now, as part of its long-running scheme of evading pesky expenses like minimum wage, Uber is running an experiment on every driver in the US state it’s most likely to be regulated in: California.

As NBC reported Friday, Uber is expanding a limited pilot programme it rolled out in January that allow drivers to set their own rates* to every driver in the state. Again, the entire purpose of the experiment is to dodge a state Supreme Court ruling, a state law, and several lawsuits all of which unequivocally seek to reclassify Uber drivers as employees. (*some restrictions apply)

At least in the way it was implemented in the pilot, this new rate option didn’t actually give drivers the freedom to charge anything they wanted. Instead, they could increase or decrease Uber’s estimated fare in 10% increments, with a 5x ceiling and a 1/10th floor. “So maybe people will pay more for drivers with a better rating,” you might smartly surmise. Sorry, meritocracy is a lie, and the system instead matched riders with whoever was willing to drive for the least amount of money. Unsurprisingly, this sort of scheme seems poised to create a toxic race to the bottom. (That is, if the parameters of the rollout are identical. Uber has not responded to a request for information on this subject.)

Is it possible Uber learned something valuable about this pricing system between January and now? If it has, it certainly hasn’t been willing to share that information. Personally, I doubt any useful data exists at all, as the pilot programme only applied to trips from three airports in California; about two weeks after it was announced, the U.S. started putting coronavirus-related travel restrictions in place.

A larger cell doesn’t make one less of a prisoner, and the freedom to earn less money isn’t freedom at all. This bit of pageantry is not likely to pull the wool over judges’ eyes and, at this point, is just heaping more financial precariousness onto an already perilous class of workers struggling through a historically bad economic crash.

I know that times are hard right now. No one wants to be without an income. But I have to wonder how the rank-and-file Uber workers can continue to silently carry out the hideous machinations of their C-suite bosses knowing those same things are being intentionally and systematically denied to the people who make their incomes possible.

Yes, I do actually want to know. If you work for Uber, email me.

bryan.menegus@gizmodo.com

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 6:19 pm 
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Quote:
At least in the way it was implemented in the pilot, this new rate option didn’t actually give drivers the freedom to charge anything they wanted. Instead, they could increase or decrease Uber’s estimated fare in 10% increments, with a 5x ceiling and a 1/10th floor. “So maybe people will pay more for drivers with a better rating,” you might smartly surmise. Sorry, meritocracy is a lie, and the system instead matched riders with whoever was willing to drive for the least amount of money. Unsurprisingly, this sort of scheme seems poised to create a toxic race to the bottom.

So Uber, in a last minute desperate attempt to get around Californian law, allow some drivers to set their rates. However all that happens is that drivers undercut each other. #-o

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:48 pm 
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I wonder how UBER will get around the IR35 legislation when the tax man starts to come after them next April?

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PostPosted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:42 pm 
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grandad wrote:
I wonder how UBER will get around the IR35 legislation when the tax man starts to come after them next April?

They will try and keep that news away from the financial press by feeding them another load of old fanny about driver-less cars and how that's going to save Uber and make their shareholders super rich. :---)

Or maybe carry on their current ruse of saying how successful their food delivery services are, and will continue to be despite them never having made a penny profit.

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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 7:06 pm 
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Just gone below $30 at $29.98 a share.

Be interesting to see their quarterly numbers next week.

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2020 5:57 pm 
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Currently trading at $32.72 which is about 5% down on the day.

But still down about 30% since IPO.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 8:17 am 
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Sussex wrote:
Currently trading at $32.72 which is about 5% down on the day.

But still down about 30% since IPO.



but not collapsing AND with the purchase of autocab have guaranteed the UK market is theirs for the taking so shareholders will like that

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:59 pm 
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edders23 wrote:
but not collapsing AND with the purchase of autocab have guaranteed the UK market is theirs for the taking so shareholders will like that

I'm not that sure Uber's shareholders care that much about the UK, apart from maybe London.

If Uber are to succeed it will be in the US, and if Uber eventually fail it will be down to the US.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2020 6:07 pm 
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this got emailed to me so thought it might as well go on here

Quote:
Uber Reports Q2 2020 Earnings
• Last night Uber reported its quarterly results for Q2 2020 with much of the focus on the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the business so far.
• These are the most important numbers from the report compared to what the market was expecting for the quarter.

- Gross bookings: $10.2 bn versus $10.4 bn expected.
- Rides gross bookings: $3.05 bn versus $3.96 bn expected.
- Eats gross bookings: $6.96 versus $6.23 bn expected.
- Losses per share: $1.02 versus $0.84 expected.

• Uber’s quarter was a tale of two businesses. The ride-sharing side saw an incredible collapse of 73% compared to Q2 2019 results, as the full shock of the pandemic became clear for the company.
• But the delivery Eats service was up a massive 113%.
• For the quarter the company lost $1.8bn.
• Shares of Uber were down circa 3% following its earnings report

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PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2020 7:05 pm 
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Currently $34.46.

Been floating around there for a while despite clueless analysts suggesting $45 + for the end of the year. #-o

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:22 pm 
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Currently $35.82.

Been floating around that area for the last month.

Be interesting to see where it is in a months time after the Supreme Court judgement and the California workers rights vote.

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:18 pm 
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Shot up to $40.99.

Sadly that was down to the Californian vote to cancel out the worker's rights law.

One has to wonder about all those free thinking, lovey dovey, tree hugging, dope smoking hippies who think worker's rights are such a bad thing. #-o

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2020 4:41 pm 
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For those that might not be up to scratch with the shameful situation, the FT cover it quite well in this link.

https://www.ft.com/content/78e619f4-fab ... 1e24492263

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2020 5:48 pm 
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Sussex wrote:
Shot up to $40.99.

Sadly that was down to the Californian vote to cancel out the worker's rights law.

One has to wonder about all those free thinking, lovey dovey, tree hugging, dope smoking hippies who think worker's rights are such a bad thing. #-o



Just read the case, it is most obvious that those who voted for the near abolition of workers rights are brain dead. Wonder who they are going to turn to when their employers change their conditions which they will after receiving the go ahead from the employees with this vote.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:27 pm 
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Lose a billion dollars in three months and the share price shoots up to $44.92.

Not far from where it started 18 months ago. ](*,)

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