Uber business model fecked

[I like neeps]

Service - very good
Business model - horrible

No one is forced to use an Uber or be an Uber driver

It's easy for qualified secure people to tell other people what they can and cannot do.

[Biffer]

Service - very good
Business model - horrible

No one is forced to use an Uber or be an Uber driver

Straight out of the neoclassical economics playbook, well parroted.

It's a line that's usually said by someone who's never struggled to find work.

[Ymx]

Ok, I think you’ve both said it fairly kindly (thankfully this is NPR).

What you’re saying is

[Gumboot]

[Cartman]

Are their competitors treating their drivers as workers? Can only think of one now (lyft) but there must be quite a few now.

[Guy Smiley]

Ok, I think you’ve both said it fairly kindly (thankfully this is NPR).

What you’re saying is

Something that popped up recently about that sort of thing...

‘It’s not so much that you made good choices, it’s the fact you had a choice to make’

[Biffer]

Just to add, people choosing to work for Uber doesn’t remove Uber’s legal obligations to their workers. They have to obey the law. And every level of the court system within the UK said they weren’t.

[Lemoentjie]

Service - very good
Business model - horrible

No one is forced to use an Uber or be an Uber driver

In the same way that young boys in Midwest USA or North England weren't forced to work down horrible mines for very low wages, they did it because they loved it so much

[Ymx]

Just to add, people choosing to work for Uber doesn’t remove Uber’s legal obligations to their workers. They have to obey the law. And every level of the court system within the UK said they weren’t.

Except they were operating as revenue sharing own time keeping contractors until, well now.

I do wonder which other equivalent business models this will break.

[I like neeps]

Just to add, people choosing to work for Uber doesn’t remove Uber’s legal obligations to their workers. They have to obey the law. And every level of the court system within the UK said they weren’t.

Except they were operating as revenue sharing own time keeping contractors until, well now.

I do wonder which other equivalent business models this will break.

Lyft and Deliveroo probably have kept their lawyers busy this weekend.

I wonder if Uber will stay in London. It's tricky, one of few profitable cities for them but the regulatory requirements are causing them all sorts of trouble.

[Mahoney]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Uber were simultaneously arguing the drivers are employees for the sake of a different (regulatory?) lawsuit. In some way Uber’s model relied on them being employees to keep some of UK law happy whilst not being employees to make the pricing work, so it was just a matter of time before the law stuffed them in the UK one way or the other.

May be a bit garbled - my 10 second google failed to find the article.

[Biffer]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Uber were simultaneously arguing the drivers are employees for the sake of a different (regulatory?) lawsuit. In some way Uber’s model relied on them being employees to keep some of UK law happy whilst not being employees to make the pricing work, so it was just a matter of time before the law stuffed them in the UK one way or the other.

May be a bit garbled - my 10 second google failed to find the article.

Yeah, that was to allow them to get a license from the m TfL to operate in London. They talked about their drivers and their customers.

Same lawyers doing the arguing in both cases, as was pointed out by the judge in the original tribunal.

[Biffer]

Just to add, people choosing to work for Uber doesn’t remove Uber’s legal obligations to their workers. They have to obey the law. And every level of the court system within the UK said they weren’t.

Except they were operating as revenue sharing own time keeping contractors until, well now.

I do wonder which other equivalent business models this will break.

Except that was illegal.

[Uncle fester]

Never ceases to amaze me the number of people who applaud a return to early 20th century employment practices just so that they can get a slightly better service or cheaper price.