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Uber Banned in Germany and France, and Faces Lawsuits in Multiple States (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes that Uber "has suffered double-losses in Europe, as both France and Germany continue to reject the company's validity in their regions." Meanwhile, a Boston Uber driver filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday accusing Uber of illegally classifying drivers as independent contractors to avoid providing full employee benefits. An Indianapolis driver has filed a similar suit, which also complains that Uber won't let them accept tips, and keeps any tips that customer's pay them through Uber's app. And remember when Uber and Lyft left Austin after losing a local election which would've required all their drivers to be fingerprinted? Now two lawsuits charge the companies were required to give 60 days notice to all their employees, and is demanding back pay and benefits.
But an anonymous reader quotes this column from the Los Angeles Times arguing that a federal judge's ultimate question is just "how sleazy" Uber really is. We're familiar with the Uber that talked about responding to bad publicity by digging up dirt on reporters following the company. Also the Uber that allegedly stalked passengers using its service, following their travel routes for the amusement of its party-goers... What about the Uber that secretly investigated a lawyer representing an adversary in a lawsuit, and then lied about it? That's the Uber that Federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff of New York wants to hear a lot more about. On Thursday he ordered Uber to turn over to the other side a pile of documents related to the investigation.
Slashdot reader chasm22 points out that the high-powered investigator hired by Uber is apparently a retired senior CIA officer -- a former chief strategy officer, chief of cyberthreat analysis and chief of counterintelligence.
But an anonymous reader quotes this column from the Los Angeles Times arguing that a federal judge's ultimate question is just "how sleazy" Uber really is. We're familiar with the Uber that talked about responding to bad publicity by digging up dirt on reporters following the company. Also the Uber that allegedly stalked passengers using its service, following their travel routes for the amusement of its party-goers... What about the Uber that secretly investigated a lawyer representing an adversary in a lawsuit, and then lied about it? That's the Uber that Federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff of New York wants to hear a lot more about. On Thursday he ordered Uber to turn over to the other side a pile of documents related to the investigation.
Slashdot reader chasm22 points out that the high-powered investigator hired by Uber is apparently a retired senior CIA officer -- a former chief strategy officer, chief of cyberthreat analysis and chief of counterintelligence.
And by bribes, you mean licensing fees and driver qualification tests that Uber cheerfully ignores despite the regulations predating both this Web company and the Internet itself. As a German citizen who cares about rudimentary quality control, good riddance.
Please. Uber is an overhyped taxi service. They have all this PR horseshit that says they are revolutionizing personal transportation with "ride sharing" and a bunch of very stupid people invested waaaayyyyyy too much money in it.
It's gotten to the point where I hear Silicon Valley and IPO in the same sentence, I just ignore it as bullshit. I haven't been wrong yet and I doubt I ever will. There's too much "stupid money" there.
On your own private road, you might have a point. But chances are you'll be a on public road. You need permit, insurance, and to pay any applicable toll and/or tax.
this may be true in the state, but in Germany everybody can be a taxi driver. All you need is 1) a taxi driver license (it is different exams to the normal one) anybody can take the exams, 2) an insurance on the car which makes it a commercial car 3) if you do pay per kilometer a counter which is verified to be working and properly counting kilometer/seconds of wait by a german institution ("geeicht" - calibration) and 4) no prison sentence for certain crime IIRC.
That is it. there is no medaillon no other artificial limitation by existing companies and . In fact one of the driver which I used to take (before he switched of job) was a normal person which had a normal car, and just a official distance table (he had no counter).
Basically Uber does not want to respect those minimal alws NONE of which are to protect local non-existant monopoly, all of which are to protect the consumers. But Uber feel it is "über alles" (pun intended) and now Germany told him "get out". Look possibly your taxi are bad in the state, but in Germany I have only very good one, since everybody can go into the business, those who don't do a good job simply get less and less fares.
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Uber is not banned in France, and it most probably won't be. Uber was fined because of UberPop, a service that connected "drivers" with no training and no business license with customers. UberPop was illegal from the get go, I have no idea what went through the mind of the executives in charge when they launched this service. The regular Uber service (with professionnal drivers) works just fine.
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As far as I know that's exactly the dividing line between contractor and employee.
No. There is no "exact dividing line" between an employee and a contractor. Rather, there is a 20 factor test. Almost no worker relationship is going to match all twenty, or exactly zero. So it is subjective, which is why so many of these cases end up in court.
According to the IRS If you hire a maid, then it's an employee if the employer supplies the tools and otherwise its could be claimed to be a contractor.
This is one of the twenty criteria. There are 19 others.
Now the part about Tips is intriguing.
When I use Uber, I do not tip, and the drivers don't seem to expect a tip. The listed price should be the full price.
All of them? When I contract, I tell my prospective customers my rate and they can either work with me, offer a different rate, or look for a different contractor. Uber drivers don't have this flexibility.
-Chris
You could also not be a cheap fuck and toss these suckers who are tearing up their personal vehicles for basically nothing a dollar once in a while
If people tip, then drivers will accept lower wages, driving down the market price, and their earnings will be erratic. If nobody tips, in order to attract enough drivers, Uber will have to pay them more, and raise prices. Either way, the drivers will be paid about the same. Many other countries do not have the "tipping culture" (and resulting lower base wages) that America has. Workers are generally happier with higher base wages, customers appreciate avoiding the hassle and uncertainty of knowing how much to tip, and I have seen no sign of lower quality of service.
Tipping is stupid. Workers should get a fair wage, and the listed price should be the price.