Uber drivers gathered outside Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco and LA to protest, today BuzzFeed News reports.
Uncle Uber, a hand-made doll representing Uber's corporate executives.
BuzzFeed News
San Francisco — Outside of Uber's headquarters in San Francisco, drivers who say they are frustrated with some of the company's practices gathered to protest for what they believe are their rights as partners of the on-demand ride company. They were also joined in Los Angeles, where drivers protested outside local Uber offices with a strong representation from members of the California App-Based Drivers Association.
In New York and London, however, the networks encouraged their Uber drivers to go on a work strike in solidarity with their protesting fellow drivers. According to reports from the London Uber drivers network, in many locations there were no UberX cars available throughout the day.
The complaints, much like those of New York drivers in protests this past summer, were concerned with the now-permanent fare cuts that made UberX rides cheaper than a taxi in their respective cities as well as the company's no-tip policy and the commission the company makes off of each fare.
"UberX is said to include a 20% tip," an UberX driver and speaker yelled to the crowd. "Uber is charging a commission on those tips, this is tip theft. That's illegal. Uber black cars are not even allowed to accept tips. We're service workers, we work on tips. Uber kept prices artificially low by asking drivers not to tip."
But the list of demands from the organizers of the protest addressed more than simple differences in income between what drivers make now and how much they made before the fare cuts. Many of the demands dealt with the overall treatment and protection of both drivers and their passengers.
In addition to demanding that Uber lower its commission to 15% — "drivers bear the costs of this multi-billion dollar company," the list of demands reads — and a return to 2013 fares, the drivers demanded that the company stop changing the approved vehicle list for Uber's luxury car service Uber Black. The network also demanded that: Uber create an in-app feature that allows customers to tip; provide job security for those who participate in Uber's car financing program; develop some type of system of recourse for drivers who are facing deactivation; improve background checks; require comments from passengers who give drivers less than a 5-star rating; provide job security for those drivers who invest in wheelchair accessible vehicles and, lastly, provide coverage under Uber's insurance in the case of accident.
"This goes beyond securing the rights of drivers as independent contractors," one UberX driver who was one of the speakers at the protest and did not wish to be named told BuzzFeed News.
"They've dropped fares so low that it's not worth it anymore," the driver said. "Drivers are driving around frustrated and who are they taking it out on? It endangers passengers."
Another LA-based UberX Driver and CADA representative, Ayda Valilar said she has to work 100 hours a week to make the same amount she once did.
"When I started it was $2.50 a mile and now it's $1.10 a mile in LA," Valilar told BuzzFeed News. "We can't maintain our cars, we become like taxi car drivers, basically. Everything people didn't want, we're becoming. We're not even making minimum wage. I personally work 100 hours a week. It's very dangerous. I know many people who have crashed just because they were working so many hours just to make ends meet. The hours that people work has to be regulated. Not everyone is reasonable enough to say I really can't take it anymore this week, I can't drive."
Uber, however, refutes these statements. The company contends that, in an hour, a driver can make an average of $25.79 and that the no-tip policy actually brings more riders to the platform. "Riders choose Uber for a seamless experience–no cash, no math, no hassle. More riders means more money in drivers' pockets," a leaflet an Uber spokesperson handed out to BuzzFeed News read. Uber reports that in the past week there were more trips made than in all of 2012.
Denny Bailey, another UberX driver who didn't attend the protest, said the concerns these drivers have are legitimate, but that their energy could be spent elsewhere.
"I don't think Uber has done anything wrong," Bailey told BuzzFeed News when reached by phone.
"There are things that maybe they can do better, but it's pretty good. We're all testing the waters. There are legitimate complaints but [Uber has] addressed them in the past. It's a tricky balancing act — it's the driver versus the consumers. It sounds bad on the surface, 'oh well we were making $45 an hour, now it's 38 an hour.' To say they're inhibiting our ability to earn money or whatever is not necessarily true. I did think there's a point that lowering the fares will be detrimental...but again the market will balance itself out."
BuzzFeed News
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