NYC Votes To Set Minimum Pay For Uber, Lyft Drivers (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Tuesday, New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to set a minimum pay rate for Uber, Lyft, and other on-demand ride-hailing drivers. The new rate will be set at $17.22 after expenses, or $26.51 per hour gross. New York is believed to be the first city in the nation to implement such a pay floor. Four months ago, the Big Apple also imposed a cap on the number of such vehicles in the city. The Independent Drivers Guild, a local affiliate of the Machinists Union, advocated for the change. Meanwhile, Uber has already put out a statement saying that increased driver earnings "will lead to higher than necessary fare increases" and that the new rules do not adequately take into account "incentives or bonuses forcing companies to raise rates even higher." "Today we brought desperately needed relief to 80,000 working families. All workers deserve the protection of a fair, livable wage and we are proud to be setting the new bar for contractor workers' rights in America," Jim Conigliaro, Jr., founder of the Independent Drivers Guild, said in a statement.

Comments

NYC Votes To Kill Uber, Lyft Drivers

[sexconker]

Uber and Lyft are dead if their drivers actually get paid. Currently, drivers for both Uber and Lyft make negative money if they have to pay for fuel or vehicle maintenance.

Re: NYC Votes To Kill Uber, Lyft Drivers

[Iwastheone]

These 'ride sharing' "apps" are skirting all local cab companies requirements, such as having fingerprinting/approval by local town codes to ensure no one with a felony are allowed to pick up area residents. Uber's plan is to destroy all cab companies worldwide hoping that auto-drive cars appear, then all the drivers will be out of work. Uber's bleeding investor money, about $1.50 for every $2.50 that they take in. Unless a driver is quite methodical and determines all costs long term, the drivers barely make enough money to be profitable. Uber constantly needs more investor cash yearly, and IMO, won't survive the next year without more billions. Auto-driving cars are at least a decade away, ones that can safely handle all of the conditions humans can mostly handle.

Many cab drivers have been forced to find alternate work, it's just not profitable enough to risk a late model vehicle, as required, to earn a living wage. These are interesting times (an ancient Chinese curse), and the entire cab industry has been broken.

Re:Higher than necessary pay incnreases?

[ShanghaiBill]

This isn't about helping the drivers. It is about limiting competition with the taxi racket.

Why lie about this?

[SuperKendall]

Currently, drivers for both Uber and Lyft make negative money

How do we all know you are lying? Two ways:

1) What idiot would work for a day for negative money? Yes there remains tons of Lyft and Uber drivers. Therefore, you are lying.

2) Every Uber or Lyft driver I have talked to (and I talk to all of them) make a fair amount of money, most of them love the job because it's a way they can make extra money and they get to choose when and how often to work. They can easily control for higher rates by choosing to work mostly during peak times where surge pricing nets them a lot more. Therefore, you are lying.

Drivers make not make much at times but all of them are savvy and now how to work the system so they are doing much better than "negative money".

If you want something approaching negative money, try being the owner of.a once valuable taxi license...

Re:Why lie about this?

[sexconker]

1: There are plenty of idiots who work for negative money. They do so because they don't realize that they're paying for the increased maintenance and wear on their car. The cost is externalized to the point that they don't realize it exists.

2: They are stupid and / or lying. Go ahead and look up any internet article on the subject. Further, taxi medallions are hugely profitable. Buying into one after Uber / Lyft came into the scene and eschewed all the laws would have been moronic and a huge loss. But actual owners of those medallions are still making obscene amounts of money.

The only way to "work the system" is to get a ton of tips (Uber didn't even let people tip via the app for the longest time, and were shamed into allowing it), or drive for both Uber and Lyft at the same time and pickup double / fake fares when Uber / Lyft are handing out free rides to customers. This was a huge scam recently, and it was reported even here on Slashdot.

As usual, you don't know shit. Now I see why that AC troll goes around posting all that shit about you.

Of course they did.

[Gamer_2k4]

So ride-sharing companies pull out of New York, and taxi companies are back in business. It's no surprise to me why they voted for this.

Re:Of course they did.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarily. It might just cause an increase in rates that customers still pay because they prefer it to taxis. It might cause a decrease in riders and therefore a decrease in drivers.

If they did cease operations, it might actually reduce congestion.