Ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft have been gradually replacing taxis all over the country, but at what cost? We’ve seen the feuds between the two leaders in the emerging industry, we’ve seen taxi services attempt to stamp the services out before they could get a foothold in a new city, but how do the actual drivers feel about the latest transportation revolution?
One anonymous Uber driver shared his story with LA Weekly and shed light on some of the cutthroat tactics that the company employs to convert drivers and convince them to spend as much time as possible on the road.
After looking into both Uber and Lyft as an additional means of income, the author decided to don the pink mustache. Based on his perception of the two services, Lyft “seemed corny and fun” while Uber took itself a little too seriously. He began to drive around L.A. as a Lyft driver and found the job to be easy and entertaining.
Not long after the driver began his tenure with Lyft, a mysterious man jumped in his car and asked to be driven just a couple of blocks down the street. The man told the driver that he could get $500 by joining Uber and even more for referring friends to the service. The driver wasn’t exactly dedicated to Lyft, so he decided to follow the money.
The first night after he defected to Uber, the driver made $300 due to ludicrous surge pricing. At first, he couldn’t believe his luck — he was picking up passengers for Uber far more often than he ever did for Lyft. But the dark underbelly of the ridesharing business began to rear its ugly head in the following months. He saw Uber’s alleged disregard for ethics and disinterest in healthy competition — the “purely American” nature of the company.
“So you still want to be an Uber driver?” he writes. “Forget its F rating by the Better Business Bureau. Lyft got the same thing. Forget the infinite customer complaints and the notoriously bad customer service for passengers and drivers, accessible via email only. Forget the many technical and GPS-related issues. And forget that Uber is taking over the world while fighting off clever competitors left and right.”
Check out the full story at the source link below.
