Uber Banned in Germany and France, and Faces Lawsuits in Multiple States (nbcnews.com) 218
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.
Problem (Score:4, Insightful)
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If Uber's drivers think Uber is bad for them, why do they continue to drive for Uber? If Uber's customers think Uber is bad for them, why do they continue to use Uber?
Uber must actually be pretty good for both of these groups.
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All of us out here are individual trees. We're not interested in being sacrificed for your idea of what makes a utopian forest.
Uber benefits from Uber. Uber riders benefit from Uber -- else they'd stop using Uber. Uber drivers benefit from Uber -- else they'd stop driving for Uber. Add the phone makers and credit card companies and that's literally everyone involved in the transaction. Everyone involved benefits.
Who is "the forest" then? Corrupt politicians? Rich taxi medallion owners? People who im
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The problem with capitalism is that a company can be successful even if it's bad for everyone.
No it can't. If the company is bad for everyone, then no one will do business with that company and they will fail.
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The problem with capitalism is that a company can be successful even if it's bad for everyone.
Utter nonsense. The fundamental strength of capitalism is that if a company isn't sufficiently good for its customers and suppliers, it will fail (barring government interference to prop it up).
There are negatives associated with capitalism, mostly around its tendency to ignore any costs it can externalize, but the one you claim is absolutely not one of them.
Re: Problem (Score:2)
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Anybody can be a taxi driver in germany (Score:5, Informative)
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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In America a Taxi also needs a dispatch service. A number the customer calls to get 'a cab', not a different cell# for each cab.
Many cabbies will give you a better rate if you call their cell phone, obviously the dispatch company isn't taking a piece. But then you have to chase one that's available.
Not every city has a medallion system like NYC. Truth is, I'm surprised the big German cities don't have a problem with too many cabs. Does it work as you describe in Hamburg?
I once knew an old drunk who b
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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.
It's basically the same in Sweden. Well the car has to be registered as a taxi. The taxi registration number plate is a different colour (black/yellow) so that the customer can be certain that it is indeed a taxi, i.e has insurance etc. Total cost to turn a car into a taxi is about $2500. You also need a taxi company, but that would be Uber in this case, and it's not onerous, the same as starting any other company/business basically. Then you're off.
But of course that was too onerous for Uber, so they tried
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Yes, competition is bad and you're much better off with a monopoly that abuses its customers with high prices and poor service.
You say this like you're being sarcastic, but at the same time, you seem to be supporting a company that's well on its way to establishing a taxi monopoly by abusing the shit out of capitalism...
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Replacing someone you practically own and pay next to nothing with something you actually own and don't need to pay at all is a big step?
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Frankly, I don't see how Uber can survive once we enter the era of autonomous cars..?
By developing their own self driving cars (already in process), firing their drivers, and renting out their own cars instead?
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Well, they've already asserted that their end goal is to be the place that rents out all the autonomous cars. Getting people relying on paying fees each time they borrow a car (with an 'autonomous' driver) is just step 1 towards that goal.
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The small city where you apparently drive a cab is not indicitive of most locations. Uber provides ME with lower prices and immediately available drivers. Yellow Cab abused its position, and they're paying the price. It's a shame that short sighted local governments are accepting bribes and trying to shore up prices.
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And why shouldn't he be selfish vs a corporation? Because that's what we're really and truly talking about here. This is not some David vs Goliath situation. It's more like Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Yellow Cab, Luxor Cab, Checker Cab, and so and and so on, are every bit the same sort of soulless, faceless, profit-above-all-else, corporations that Uber or Lyft are. The latter have simply "built a better mousetrap" and have been more successful of late. No corporation has an inherent right to my busin
Uber and "competition" (Score:5, Insightful)
Uber has nothing to do with "competition", let alone a "free market". It deals in "unfair competition", in which it maintains a monopoly on apps and servers, appropriates inflated fees for their electronic service, and uses (underpaid pseudo-entrepreneur) part-timers as throw-away employees to actually drive (and drive out ordinary taxi companies and ordinary taxicab drivers).
The only thing Uber did was to find a regulated market, determine it could make money by an end-run around the regulations, and offer unregulated services by offloading most risks to their pseudo-entrepreneur drivers. In addition they use (apparently successfully) of dog-whistle PR techniques to sell their business model.
Oh, and they also have a standing policy to price-gouge the public as soon as there is any situation that leads to higher than normal demand. Free play of demand and supply they call it. Only ... all of it is hidden within their servers.
And they have a policy to threaten price-comparison sites with legal action (their "terms of service" forbid you to publish any price quotations they make you). They're only pro "free-market" if they stand to make money from it. Not if it brings genuine competition.
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I've never used it, but (Score:3, Funny)
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It's just a situation of a great idea being brought down by terrible implementation.
In many countries Uber could be legal, if only they bothered to follow local legislation.
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Uber only would need to hire drivers with a passenger transport license and they would be legal in Germany.
WTF (Score:2)
I'm curious. What thing that the customer owns gives tips?
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That claim is horseshit. the app doesn't even allow tipping. you have to tip the driver cash.
rules about employees / 1099's need to reworked (Score:2)
rules about employees / 1099's need to reworked.
The thing is uber clams there works are 1099's but uber sets the prices can kick people off for not taking X # of open calls / etc. Ban's tips.
Others have really pushed the limes of 1099's like fedex, handy, cable co's, and others.
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rules about employees / 1099's need to reworked.
Some policy wonks believe that the solution is to create additional categories of workers. So instead of just "W-2 employee" and "1099 contractor" we would have a third category for people that are not quite independent contractors, but not really employees either. They would then have some of the benefits of employees, but some of the flexibility of contractors. People working for Uber, Lyft, Task Rabbit, Fivver, Mechanical Turk, etc. might fall into this category.
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If the farmers market was dictating at what price the farmer could sell his cabbages... Yes ;)
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Who sets the price is one of the least important aspects of determining who is a contractor or employee. Contractors rarely get to arbitrarily set their own prices. Sure they can ask whatever they want but once they decide to take a contract they have to agree to the terms and conditions of the person who they are contracted with and that will usually involve the price of the good or service they provide.
Often at places like farmers markets or sporting events the price of the sold good is at least partial
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Uber sell taxi services - they are a taxi company. Full stop. They find the customer and they set the price. If it was a marketplace then there would be a negotiation involved.
But then you known that.
Uber is not ride sharing (Score:5, Insightful)
Uber is a cab service. So either we cancel all cab services laws, or Uber complies to them. Having two different rules for similar services, just because one happens to be using a smartphone application and is billing from a foreign country is not a valid reason to have two systems.
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The situation here in Hong Kong is a bit different. There are taxis, clearly marked so, which all need a license (which US generally calls "medallion" - and indeed they're in short supply) to operate. Drivers need to have undergone certain training. Licenses are linked to vehicles, and drivers generally rent the vehicles on a per shift basis. That's pretty much the same all over the world.
Other than that, there is the "hire car" permit. Everyone can register their car as "hire car", and then start picking u
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That's exactly how Uber works in the US too, at least Uber Black does. The cab vs limo service (hired cars) is pretty much exactly what you describe, with similar advantages and limitations.
Uber X just ends up in a weird messy gray (dark gray I guess) area.
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In London, I think the way it works is that the drivers are licensed and the requirements to get a license act as a limit on supply.
It takes approximately 2 years to get
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People will always choose option A if it's cheaper than option B, all other things being equal.
So if Uber is cheaper by not paying taxes, of course people will use it. It doesn't make it anymore acceptable. I pay my taxes, I expect Uber and drivers to do the same.
Wrong headline: Not banned in France (Score:5, Informative)
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.
The culture of this company is toxic. (Score:2)
They deserve to die. I am happy to use other ride-share services, and I used some long before there was Uber. But I won't give Uber any of my business.
In the United States (Score:3, Insightful)
Uber is either a race to the bottom, a huge subsidy for the 1% or both. Either way it should be stamped out. There's nothing good here.
So don't work for them? (Score:2)
this madness has got to stop (Score:2)
Uber is a company that matches drivers with riders. The idea that consenting adults can't give each other rides for money without government permission, or one or the other person becoming an "employee", is absolutely ludicrous.
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Yeah, that doesn't work out too well in reality. Then snowball driver A picks up a ride, but they haven't taken their car in for maintenance, and haven't paid their insurance. Oops, car accident. Well, looks like driver A can't pay for your hospital costs... enjoy your life now.
EU Commission warning (Score:2)
It is nice to see France and Germany courts standing by their opinions, after EU commission warned them against banning Uber.
It was obvious intimidation tactics by EU commission, and now the EU court of justice will have to settle the thing.
Why Johnny can't have nice things (Score:2)
We just can't do anything anymore. Since when can a contract worker dictate that he must be an employee? Since when can a government tell a company it can't do business b/c it will hurt someone else's business? The capitalist system is about to collapse under it's own crony-ism.
Here in Florida we were about to get the first true high-speed rail, until Rick Scott, our King, unilaterally said "nope". And that was the end of that. Now his crony's are starting their own slow-speed rail (and lie calling it high-
Bean Hill (Score:2)
Uber, "Okay okay. We'll make them all employees." ... a few years ... "Sorry, you're fired. We just automated your job."
The world has much bigger problems and the government is croning around with taxi companies.
This shit is wrong (Score:2)
Totally anti-progress, and anti-sharing economy protecting old fashioned business plans and State revenue streams. Take the assholes that did this apart.
Re: Thank goodness (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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As a German citizen who cares about rudimentary quality control
...this seems redundant ....
Re:Thank goodness (Score:5, Insightful)
Keep the status quo. It is good. Politicians need the bribe money from the taxi cab owners.
Status quo? You mean like paying for proper insurance(commercial and liability), required first aid training, proper drivers licenses, mandatory vehicle inspections, and background checks. Sounds good to me, you don't have a problem with any of that do you? Because Uber sure does, all the while it tries to say it isn't a taxi company because it dispatches taxi's just like a taxi company does.
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I hate to break it to you, but the taxi industry doesn't do any of those things, except for the insurance.
They don't? You should let them know, because they're mandatory requirements in most of north american and europe. I'd also suggest calling your local vehicle inspection office or the head of it, since in most places mandatory vehicle inspections for vehicles used for commercial use is a mandatory requirement to get your insurance and plates renewed.
Re: Thank goodness (Score:2, Informative)
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.
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I agree totally. I'm pretty sure the only reason there is any question about what Uber is, is because Uber are paying lots of money to try and keep the question open..
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They need the money. This sort of propaganda doesn't pay for itself.
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Uber/Airbnb/etc exist because arbitrage around the law allows for lower priced products and increased profits. Never mind that not all laws were created to protect incumbents.
As a side comment: The reflexive anti-government attitudes of many is particularly puzzling in a democracy: you are getting exactly what you voted for; the reason we have such corrupt government is because we keep electing people that explicitly tell us that at the outset! We also elect people that explicitly tell us that they want to
Agree (Score:3)
Yes it's this arbitrage around the law that is exactly the issue. it shows up in other ways. The pure Food and drink act, pharmaceutical quality, and other protections are circumvented when vendors outside the country can mail their products into the country.
Aliexpress and Ebay would lose a lot of sellers if there were a way to enforce the accurate marking of Customs duties on the outside of the millions of e-packet shipments from china direct to consumers.
It's a puzzle whether one should give up enforcin
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Somehow I doubt any of the the "large entrenched" taxi companies have as much of a market cap as Uber.
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Uber/Airbnb/etc exist because arbitrage around the law allows for lower priced products and increased profits.
Yes. Lots of mostly pointless laws raise everyone's costs. Thanks for noticing.
As a side comment: The reflexive anti-government attitudes of many is particularly puzzling...
Really? The government mistreats people sometimes and makes life worse for people sometimes and it's "puzzling" that this leads to anti-government attitudes?
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As a side comment: The reflexive anti-government attitudes of many is particularly puzzling in a democracy: you are getting exactly what you voted for; the reason we have such corrupt government is because we keep electing people that explicitly tell us that at the outset! We also elect people that explicitly tell us that they want to break the system and/or do not believe in it. Why are we surprised at the outcomes?
Who is "we"? For example, for US President, the last person I voted for who got elected was Bill Clinton in 1992. So tarring me with the bad choices since is just guilt by association. Then there is the odd assertion you make about people who "explicitly tell us that they want to break the system and/or do not believe in it". Nobody like that has been elected to the level of US President in living memory.
Sure, there's some such people in lower offices. But they aren't that numerous or that harmful. I don
Uberdrivers of the world unite! (Score:3)
The hell with capitalism it only brings greater and greater misery to the people! The hell with the bosses and their governments and their wars! Long live Lenin and Trotsky!
Yes commrade, after Ubergate the mechanisms of the state will melt aways and we will all become Uber comrades. Everyone will be required to drive and to be a passenger.
The very Model of a Modern Major Contractor (Score:3)
Reading TFA on the indianna contractor who sued the basis of his suit is that
1) Uber requires him to bring and maintain his own tools
2) expects him to work a certain number of contracted hours.
As far as I know that's exactly the dividing line between contractor and employee. 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.
Now the part about Tips is intriguing. I wonder why drivers don't tell their passe
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Reading TFA on the indianna contractor who sued the basis of his suit is that
1) Uber requires him to bring and maintain his own tools
2) expects him to work a certain number of contracted hours.
As far as I know that's exactly the dividing line between contractor and employee. 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.
Now the part about Tips is intriguing. I wonder why drivers don't tell their passengers that. Thus I'm skeptical.
The Uber app doesn't handle tips (or it didn't when I last used Uber). The Lyft app does handle tips. This is why I use the Lyft app. Most of the drivers I've encountered when using Uber and Lyft seem happy to be able to earn money driving because it's a side-job, not their primary job and the barriers to entry are low, and they can choose the hours that they do the work so they can fit it into their schedule.
Re:The very Model of a Modern Major Contractor (Score:5, Informative)
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 [angelo.edu]. 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.
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Unless it's possible to be 37.2% contractor and 62.8% employee then there totally is an exact dividing line; you're either on one side or the other.
Now it might not be easy to determine where the line is, but that's not the same thing as it not existing.
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Exactly.
The problem here is that it is in the interests of the corrupt government and the established players to keep the determination criteria murky so as to be able to do just as they are doing now. Use it as a weapon to prevent competition by innovative upstarts.
Can't let competitive capitalism rock the corrupt crony-capitalist boat. Too much corrupt money, power, and control at
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The listed price should be the full price.
You seem not to know what a tip is (outside of the USA).
It is a voluntary extra you give to the person fulfilling the service. It has nothing to do with the price.
Re: The very Model of a Modern Major Contractor (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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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
Last time I checked, Uber drivers received 80% of the fare. That's hardly "nothing".
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they don't make quite as much as you'd think.
My sister drives for Uber several afternoons per week to make some extra cash. She earns about $18/hr. That is not a bad wage for a flexible low-skill part time job. She thinks it is a good deal, and it sure beats working at McDonalds. Most Uber drivers are part timers, and Uber is not their main source of income.
Re: The very Model of a Modern Major Contractor (Score:2)
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this is the same as they've been doing around here since like forever...except apps...
There is another slight difference: The drivers don't have to buy/rent a $500K taxi medallion as part of a government enforced cartel limiting access to the market.
Re:Right to Freely Associate (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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Public maintenance of roads didn't start out as a justification for government bullying road users. We don't need to agree to be bullied to use our own public roads.
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Public maintenance of roads didn't start out as a justification for government bullying road users. We don't need to agree to be bullied to use our own public roads.
Luckily it is a privilege, revokable upon abuse. If you want to live someplace where drivers aren't required to be licensed or insured, vehicles don't have to meet safety standards, and all problems will be solved with libertarian fairy dust (civil law suits), please tell me about places where this has been tried and how it is working out.
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That's just it though. We don't need to agree to an arbitrary amount of bullying to have some basic safety and responsibility rules. The government has a responsibility to serve us, not the other way around. And "safety" isn't a magic word that justifies mistreating the public or creating corrupt carve-outs for insiders and government cronies to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense.
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What you are describing is Blablacar, which is very popular in Europe, and is legal. Unlike Über, it is an actual ride-sharing service. If you are a driver, you log in, put details of your journey, and if other people want to go the same way, they can join you and pay a proportion of the petrol money.
Re:Right to Freely Associate (Score:5, Insightful)
If I want to pay my neighbor a few bucks to drive me to the store, that is my right, and his. I don't see why government has any authority over private agreements like this.
Scale
If you want to sell a few of your extra tomatoes to your neighbor, same thing. If you want to plant 1000 acres of tomatoes, get some friends to bundle up the ones you can't eat, and offer them in the grocery store parking lot, then state and federal regulators are going to get interested.
Uber drivers may be 'independent contractors' and 'just doing favors for a few friends,' but Uber itself, as an aggregator of those transactions, is functionally indistinguishable from a taxi company. It's in society's interest that for-hire ride companies maintain high standards for their drivers and vehicles, otherwise known as taxi regulations. Nobody's going to get to bent out of shape if you give your neighbor a ride to the grocery store. They'll get bent out of shape if you claim you have 50 neighbors in different parts of the city who all need rides, today, to different places.
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Funny how AC Uber supporters are always out in force.
Re:Alas for the poor driver (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it's rather the reverse. If you're going to classify us as contractors, you need to give us all the benefits that independent business men have. Uber drivers should be able to set their own price, accept tips for their work that don't go to uber, etc.
The only interaction at that point between uber and the driver should be "Uber: we're going to charge you a finders fee of $x per mile for a passenger; Driver: Okay, I'm willing to pay you that".
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If you're going to classify us as contractors, you need to give us all the benefits that independent business men have.
What type of contractors get to set the price to the end user?
Re:Alas for the poor driver (Score:5, Informative)
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
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OK, so tell uber your price and work out a deal. After all, your customer is uber and they hire you to be a driver.
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YES! Someone finally got it!
Uber is trying to merge different ways of doing business, cherry-picking what laws and practices they want to follow, call this "the new sharing economy" and are raking in profits. That it is illegal, immoral and bad practice doesn't matter, as long as they are making money.
Of course no one will use Uber if they were adhering to the laws. It is because they are skirting laws that they can dump prices, set the prices themselves, not pay benefits and expect poor unemployed drivers
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Interestingly enough, if you talk to anyone who actually knows what they're talking about a work schedule set by the employer is actually a minuscule bit of the IRS's three tests [irs.gov]. Tenured college profs, for example, only actually have a set schedule on when they have to teach classes. Their office hours, when they're doing research, etc. are their own damn business. Even the much abused Associate Prof is an employee [unr.edu], and they don't even have to be in the state except for class time (which is negotiated with
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I'm likely sleeping till 9:00.
Then driving to the site, depending on distance I'm there between 10:00 and 11:00, and if the problem is like in all such cases, I'm either done around 13:00 or have to order parts for replacement which wont be available before in two days.
What would you do? Obviously you are there from 9:00 till 17:00 and charge the customer for being idle, telling him next day you need spare parts and give him a list, while I have ordered them already.
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You seem to be being paid hourly. That's actually one of the big things the IRS looks for: hourly pay = increased likelihood of being declared an employee.
You remember that "at-risk amount" I mentioned that is necessary if you're gonna be declared a contractor? At-risk amount is much higher if you get a set amount for the job, with performance bonuses and performance penalties, rather then the ability to pad the bill by taking extra time.
Because if fixing the door takes weeks rather then a day you probably
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(if Uber's lawyers are right, and they aren't a transportation company this indicates contractor; if anyone sane is right and they sell cab rides it indicates employee).
This is actually a tricky business.
What if I have 40,000 licensed, independent cab services all comprised of one sole-proprietorship cab driver in New York City? Nobody knows to call 1-800-one-of-40,000-cab-drivers. I create a sort of portal that not only lists all of them, but will locate one, hail him via a smart phone app, and connect the passenger (buyer) with the cab operator (seller). Am I *also* a cab service, or am I supplying the service of locating a cab service?
That's kind of like Traveloci
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The point at which market forces begin to correct for congestion is well after the point of gridlock. It doesn't cost much for the taxi to sit in traffic, especially if they have a fare. There are relatively hard limits to how much we can afford to incentivize cars being on the road. Medallions have been one solution to this. Since I'm sure you have a good handle on the drawbacks of those, perhaps you can give me your thoughts on an alternative solution.
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Wha?..
Huh? It costs two (or more) human's their time — the most precious resource we have in life... But you must've meant something else here — just what, I do not know...
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And yet their market cap is?
It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. Dotcom 1 all over again. I even saw a TV ad for a website that sells dog food. Those of us that went through this before should remember that business model...how did it get funded...again?
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What? Pets.com? I'm still waiting for Webvan.com to show up.
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Don't remember the new one's name. Ad must suck.
The basic idea of buying TV time to promote a website that will ship cheap bulky products requires two or three business acumen disconnects. Unless the ads are really ads for the stock. (e.g. 'I got a Nortel network' never sold a _single_ switch, clearly it was an ad for the stock.)
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Some old fashioned cabbies are independent contractors too, in that they get use of the vehicle, medallion/permit and despatching service for either an hourly fee or a percentage of the take, and then what's left is theirs.
Uber is different because disruptive apps! On the interwebs!
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The fascination is that a simple web-based communications platform has gotten sucked into a black hole of government regulation, in large part because powerful lobbies want it so and reframe what Uber is doing as some kind of system of corporate enslavement.
And you better pay attention, because what's happening with Uber might well happen with many other web based platforms and voluntary exchanges of goods and services.