A driver fights HR, the need for tips, and Lyft is on a mission. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
A driver battles with Uber's HR. The Guardian reported:
Alexandru Iftimie, a 39-year-old who came to the UK from Romania seven years ago, was just about making ends meet as an Uber driver during the pandemic when he got an unexpected message from the ride-sharing app.
“I received a warning: ‘We detected some fraudulent activity, therefore you have to stop otherwise I have to fire you,'” he recalls.
“I received a warning: ‘We detected some fraudulent activity, therefore you have to stop otherwise I have to fire you,'” he recalls.
“I said: ‘It has to be a mistake, I know I haven't done anything.' But two weeks later, I received another one: exactly the same message, with the difference that this time they were saying: ‘It's the last warning. One more time, you're done.'”
When he called Uber's driver support line in an effort to understand why he had been flagged, it was a frustrating experience. The problem seemed to be that he had taken an unexpected route, though he insists he had not charged the customer extra for doing so.
“Can you imagine how difficult it was to explain to an Uber operator — I don't know where he was — that the Blackwall tunnel was closed during a trip, and so I had to take a long detour?” he says. He was unable to get an unequivocal explanation of why he had been flagged as “fraudulent” by Uber's systems.
With the help of Worker Info Exchange and his union, Iftimie pursued Uber — and another ride-sharing app for which he worked, Ola — all the way to the court of appeal in Amsterdam, where Uber's European headquarters is based.
The court found that he and other drivers involved in the case, based in the UK and Portugal, had the right to more information about the way automated decisions were made about them.
Just before the case came to court, Uber apologised and acknowledged it had made a mistake. Iftimie hopes the ruling will help others to challenge automated management decisions that threaten their livelihoods — though campaigners warn that legislation going through the UK parliament will weaken data protection rights.
Drivers have made it very clear: they cannot live without tips. The San Francisco Standard reported:
San Francisco Uber driver Marianna Porras said her profit margins are so thin after paying for gas she refuses to take passengers over bridges due to the toll. Porras, a single mom to four school-age kids, also said tips are essential so she can afford groceries.
“I think that we're becoming more dependent on tips because of the costs not being covered by Uber. It helps me get paid out what I should be paid by Uber,” Porras said. “$5 goes a long way; it adds up,” Porras said.
Ride costs have increased in recent years and many drivers are seeing smaller tips because of it, Moore said.
“When the rides were subsidized by investment money, tips were much better. Now these companies are charging as much as they can get away with,” Moore said.
Drivers are totally dependent on and totally unhappy with Uber. MarketWatch reported:
The drivers who contacted MarketWatch — many of whom had been working for Uber for several years and were from seven different states — said they were dissatisfied with the company's explanations, which they said were vague, confusing or both.
Based on the drivers' stories and the company's response, what's clear is that the problem is widespread and ongoing. Drivers are constantly being deactivated — with some of them telling MarketWatch that they had been deactivated multiple times — while Uber says it is scrambling to deal with fraud as bad actors adjust to the many different safeguards the company has put in place.
Though Uber has said most of its drivers work part time, many of the drivers who contacted MarketWatch said they were “desperate” to get their primary source of income back.
After logging into the app on a second phone, he said, he was asked to take a photo of himself, and was deactivated after the company said the photo didn't look like him. But footage from his dashcam helped show the company he was where he said he was at the time of his deactivation.
“I would never risk my income this way,” Shibeshi said he told the company. “My life is totally dependent on Uber.”
Lyft's new CEO is focusing on driver & rider experiences. Fox Business adds:
Risher told FOX Business on Tuesday getting the ride-share company “focused on customers, on its drivers and its rider, in a really sort of basic way” and giving them a “great experience” is a “big focus” for him.
Risher also said he has been in “full-on listening mode” on what drivers “want the most.”
Risher said he understood why combining food delivery and rides “may be compelling” as a business model but questioned it in terms of rider and driver experience. Getting in a car “that just dropped off a tuna sandwich” may not be something riders want, he suggested, and drivers could face frustrations while doing deliveries as well.
Robots have landed in Virginia. Fox5 reported:
The online food ordering company announced Thursday that through a partnership with AI-powered robotics company Cartaken, the autonomous sidewalk robots will now begin delivering food to select customers in Fairfax County's Mosaic District.
The options will be limited to start. Uber says at launch, businesses like Our Mom Eugenia, Pupatella, and RASA, will be the only local restaurants taking orders.
But in time, Uber hopes to expand its meals on wheels pilot program to include dining options from more of Mosaic's 40+ thriving restaurants.
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