Uber drivers want what Taxi drivers once had
Everyone wants security, opportunity, respect
I do not know one single happy Uber driver, I realized this weekend.
I used to have at least one Uber driver I could count on to be happy: my brother, who lives in Los Angeles and really enjoyed his driving days. Sadly, Uber de-platformed him two months ago. The reason given was that he had “violated community standards.”
“I have no idea what standard I violated,” he told me in despair. At 73 years old, he supports a family of four and being thrown off of the platform has sent him into a tailspin; he is still making hefty payments on the vehicle he purchased last spring specifically to drive with Uber. He is not a happy Uber driver any longer.
Closer to home in Ontario, I hear frequently from Uber drivers who are actively involved in organizing labour protests and working hard to secure drivers’ rights: the men and women who invest time in and energy in the attempt to understand how Uber calculates fares and how much they take from drivers. No one knows exactly how Uber’s algorithm works, and it appears to change frequently. A recent YouTube demonstration by seven Uber drivers shows the same ride being offered to different drivers at different rates as part of “up front fares.” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently admitted to shareholders that Uber changes its drivers pay based on their “behavioural patterns,” after years of denials of the controversial policy which has been called “algorithmic wage discrimination.”
Image: RDAO
Last spring, I began getting calls from Uber drivers who said that despite having filed all documentation with Uber, the City of Toronto did not have it, and drivers could not get their VFH licenses renewed.
“I have not earned any income in almost two months,” one man told me mournfully. “I’ve been driving with Uber for nine years, and have never had this problem. How could they lose me after all this time? I have a perfect record.”
I have recently had in-depth conversations with professionals in the field of insurance for Vehicles for Hire (VFH), and I can tell you, NO ONE knows how insurance works for Uber drivers.
“There is the initial payment for the time-phased ‘wrap around’ policy the driver pays to Economical,” one broker told me, “but then what Uber takes per-mile after that, no one knows. No one knows how it is calculated – and we can’t tell you exactly what it covers, beyond the $2 million liability when they are on the app. For example, what is the driver’s deductible in an accident? What are they getting for all that money?”
Realizing that I can’t find a single happy Uber driver with whom to speak actually made me really sad – for so many Uber drivers, especially my brother.
The gig economy or precarious employment business model introduced by Uber and increasingly adopted by other industries (now including nursing) may be attractive to corporations, but it’s a disaster for workers.
It’s no surprise, then, that an estimated 50 to 70 per cent of Uber drivers quit within the first year. Uber’s business model requires a constant churn of new drivers – hopeful, naïve new drivers who have not yet realized how much of their revenues Uber will take, or how quickly they can be deplatformed.
I recall fondly my early years writing about Toronto’s Taxi industry for Taxi News in the 1990s. Happy, busy, enthusiastic Taxi drivers were the best part of the job: these men LOVED driving Taxi and took pride in their work. Toronto’s Convention and Visitors Association worked directly with the industry to help promote the city to tourists; the City of Toronto sponsored a “Taxi Driver Appreciation Day” every year and celebrated “Taxis on Patrol,” a program which saw Taxi drivers support city safety.
Certainly, I met cabdrivers with complaints; but they were the minority.
Taxi drivers were encouraged by the city to invest their time and money in the industry, in order to secure a plate which Toronto promised would be their “retirement fund.” By 2012, about half of these plates were owned by individual owner/operators. Each Taxicab (consisting of a plate, a vehicle, and owner/operator) was considered to be a small business. Owners had an asset to will to their wives or their children, or to sell or lease out. They were skilled, trained, police-approved and an important part of the City of Toronto. New drivers or fleet drivers had a career and investment path to pursue.
Listening to the speakers from both Taxi and rideshare sectors during the 2024 Vehicle for Hire review public consultations, I don’t hear any of that pride of ownership any longer. Taxi drivers have lost it, and Uber drivers have never had it.
Actually, if you watch and listen to the rideshare drivers who have been organizing, campaigning, and launching lawsuits for a decade now, it becomes clear that what they really want is basically what the Taxi drivers used to have, ironically, before the advent of Uber:
–predictable revenues and calculations which are transparent and understandable;
–a livable wage and a reasonable hope of job security;
–something to show for their decades of sweat equity;
–acknowledgement and respect from their corporate regulators, public sector or private.
The desire for fair earnings, security, opportunity and respect are not unique to any industry. All human beings want and deserve these as compensation for a job well done; so it should not surprise anyone if Toronto’s policies for Taxi and rideshare including end up to be very similar, if not identical.
No matter what the specifics or the minutia of the November report recommend, none of the hoped-for improvements can occur without a cap on the total number of Vehicles for Hire cruising Toronto streets. Without a cap, no one can earn enough money to be happy: ask any Uber driver.
Drivers continue to face increasing precarity of income due to swelling numbers of new drivers on the road while the pie is NOT getting bigger. @fairwagesnow @WorkersAC @OFLabour @UniforTheUnion @Lanampayne @springmagca @richochet_en @labourcouncil1 @ctv_jon @veenadubal
— Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario (@RDAOSocial) August 13, 2024
BREAKING
— RideFairTO (@ridefairTO) October 4, 2024
Uber’s Controversial Surveillance-Pricing Scheme Set to Launch in Canada
New pricing model raises red flag for drivers and consumers, says coalition
Toronto, ON, October 4, 2024 – Today, #Uber Canada announced in an email to drivers … #Cdnpoli #surveillance #Uber pic.twitter.com/gljutL2gDR
Upront unfair. Algorithmic Wage Discrimination (AWD) has been a plague on the driver community. Guaranteed pay & transparency are a must! https://t.co/M5wQtmLZ0x
— Drivers Union OR (@driversunionor) October 5, 2024
