Uber Strike on Valentine's Day (McDonald, Lawrenceville: loan, school, income)

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by jea6321

I use them on an occasional basis, but I have never personally known anyone or talked to anyone that worked as both Uber and Lyft simultaneously. I would assume there is a non compete clause in their contracts, but maybe not, or maybe they don't enforce it. At one point uber was offering $500 bonuses to lyft drivers to switch to Uber. So with that I would have to assume you were not allowed to work for both????

Lol, that's completely wrong. You can do both and switch back and forth whenever you want.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Botev1912

Lol, that's completely wrong. You can do both and switch back and forth whenever you want.

Yeah...but it sounds like he doesn't want to.

[BarqCider]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

If you don’t like the amount of money you can make working for Uber, how about you just don’t work for Uber? No one is forcing anyone to work for them. Also, most of the Uber drivers I talk to do it as a side job for a few hours a day on the weekends just for some extra cash. Another was doing Uber after losing his job, but was only doing it until he found another.

I didn’t think Uber was designed to be a full time job, or maybe if it was, it should’t be.

driving for uber these days is quite literally making under minimum wage. in fact, a server makes same or more on their hourly (which depending where, can be $2/hr+) after you factor in all business expenses.

uber was good part-time income until ubers logic kicks in. by cutting rates 30% or so yearly and now its under a dollar a mile, i drove from them a year and a half ago when rates in my city was 1.75. now its .92/mile. Screw that. sitting in traffic, wasting gas while clocking in 20 cents a minute is a loss. Even with todays sub dollar rate a mile, it would take a surge of 3.3x or so to semi match the prices of 2014.

but most users dont know or care. they see surge and think "omg, i dont want a limo, i want the limo, but at busfare rates"

just like any type of job, the less you pay the less desirable workers you get. I used to laugh at the passengers who expected gum and water at 1.02/mile.and that was the old rate in which i quit before the new rates of 92 cents a mile. And there are cities that it costs 30 cents A MILE. tell me how one makes any money on that?

[Botev1912]

I think it's still 1.35 per mile in Seattle.

[gladhands]

I took an uber from Lawrenceville to Shadyside last night and it was under $6. I can't imagine that being profitable for drivers.

[jea6321]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Yeah...but it sounds like he doesn't want to.

Im not a driver for either. I am a user of both Apps on occasion. My main question that was not addressed, why was Uber offering bonuses to people working as Lyft drivers to switch to Uber? if you could work for both without question, they would not need to offer a bonus. This was a few years ago when both were just getting started here in pittsburgh, so it seems as though whatever rules they had in place must have been removed.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Why shouldn't drivers get paid? I thought the general consensus was that everyone should make at least $15/hr? Or is it a brand thing like Target being acceptable but WalMart isn't?

As a Postmates driver I don't even care if I make $15/hr. There are many days, however, where I don't make MINIMUM wage hourly once factoring in gasoline and wear/tear on my vehicle, let alone taxes. Because entities like Lyft, Uber, Postmates, and these other "cutting edge platforms" are structured in a way to skirt as many tax obligations as they can while reaping millions in profits they don't have to make sure their "contractors" make at least minimum wage, either, the way a server needs to be provided with at least a guaranteed minimum wage by her or his employer should her or his tips for the day fail to hit that benchmark.

I need to NET $8/hr.-$10/hr. after gasoline, taxes, and wear/tear on my vehicle to sustain myself, and besides a relatively high $400/month car payment (not going to drive an old unreliable clunker for 60 hours per week) I live frugally otherwise. Uber, Lyft, Postmates, etc. need to be regulated to the point where if and when they tally up the driver's payouts and tips and divide that by the number of hours worked and see they did NOT make the minimum wage that they kick in the difference, just like restaurants do.

By the way, I AM aggressively searching for another job before people jump down my throat. However, how does me landing a better job make the position I'm leaving any better for my successor? Americans seem to have this warped sense of present-day entitlement where we don't think much of how the decisions and (in)actions we make today can impact people down the line. Look at the massive surge in sales right now of large SUV's and pick-up trucks because gas prices are sub-$2/gallon almost everywhere. When supply goes back to normal, and prices spike again, I don't want to hear any of these people complaining about sticker shock when they knew gasoline was cyclically-priced.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

By the way, I AM aggressively searching for another job before people jump down my throat. However, how does me landing a better job make the position I'm leaving any better for my successor? Americans seem to have this warped sense of present-day entitlement where we don't think much of how the decisions and (in)actions we make today can impact people down the line. Look at the massive surge in sales right now of large SUV's and pick-up trucks because gas prices are sub-$2/gallon almost everywhere. When supply goes back to normal, and prices spike again, I don't want to hear any of these people complaining about sticker shock when they knew gasoline was cyclically-priced.

You find that person, sit them down & have a stern talking to them about getting the experience and/or education so they're not relying on a ride sharing job as they're primary source of income.

[PghYinzer]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

By the way, I AM aggressively searching for another job before people jump down my throat. However, how does me landing a better job make the position I'm leaving any better for my successor? Americans seem to have this warped sense of present-day entitlement where we don't think much of how the decisions and (in)actions we make today can impact people down the line. Look at the massive surge in sales right now of large SUV's and pick-up trucks because gas prices are sub-$2/gallon almost everywhere. When supply goes back to normal, and prices spike again, I don't want to hear any of these people complaining about sticker shock when they knew gasoline was cyclically-priced.

I think that it doesn’t and perhaps shouldn’t make it better. The wages that Postmates offers acted as a motivation for you. They temporarily filled a gap in your income, and you are now working to move up. The next Postmates driver should also work towards a more stable job. It is the same with McDonalds type jobs. They used to be filled by high school kids and a manager or two who had a higher income. The high school kids moved on to be replaced my more high school kids. Now those jobs are being done long term by people with children and other responsibilities more pressing than hanging out at the mall on the weekends. No wonder it isn’t working, as that was never the intent of these positions. There is no easy answer as we now have a large segment of the population that is under trained for better employment.

Yes I think people should get paid more, but by just amping up the pay without addressing the issues is not the right way to fix it.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

As a Postmates driver I don't even care if I make $15/hr. There are many days, however, where I don't make MINIMUM wage hourly once factoring in gasoline and wear/tear on my vehicle, let alone taxes. Because entities like Lyft, Uber, Postmates, and these other "cutting edge platforms" are structured in a way to skirt as many tax obligations as they can while reaping millions in profits they don't have to make sure their "contractors" make at least minimum wage, either, the way a server needs to be provided with at least a guaranteed minimum wage by her or his employer should her or his tips for the day fail to hit that benchmark.

I need to NET $8/hr.-$10/hr. after gasoline, taxes, and wear/tear on my vehicle to sustain myself, and besides a relatively high $400/month car payment (not going to drive an old unreliable clunker for 60 hours per week) I live frugally otherwise. Uber, Lyft, Postmates, etc. need to be regulated to the point where if and when they tally up the driver's payouts and tips and divide that by the number of hours worked and see they did NOT make the minimum wage that they kick in the difference, just like restaurants do.

By the way, I AM aggressively searching for another job before people jump down my throat. However, how does me landing a better job make the position I'm leaving any better for my successor? Americans seem to have this warped sense of present-day entitlement where we don't think much of how the decisions and (in)actions we make today can impact people down the line. Look at the massive surge in sales right now of large SUV's and pick-up trucks because gas prices are sub-$2/gallon almost everywhere. When supply goes back to normal, and prices spike again, I don't want to hear any of these people complaining about sticker shock when they knew gasoline was cyclically-priced.

Considering most every job out there pays what you need to net without doing anything close to you are with your vehicle, it's very hard to fathom why you continue to go the route of a delivery driver for these companies while using your own vehicle for so little return.

Pretty sure your SUV, pickup truck, gas issue was addressed before. The spike isn't happening anytime soon and in the meantime mpg in vehicles is going up...and since it's not too long ago when gas was $4/gallon, I really don't think many will care.