How Uber Screwed You and Your Driver to Make Its First Profit

Uber wants you to think that “innovation” and “diversification” are the reason they finally turned a profit in 2023.

The real reason? The company has raised prices 65% in 5 years while taking a bigger cut from drivers.

And they even admitted their scheme 5 years ago. We have the proof.
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[tommyjones]

If your business model requires you to underpay your employees to turn a profit, your business is a failure.

[RachelTension]

I'm an uber driver and I've noticed the "reduction in incentives" for months already. It's truly not worth it most of the time anymore, they're trying to pay as little as $15 an hour which is more like $10 an hour after gas and car costs.

[amzarnacht]

That's american corporate discipline in an nutshell: F*CK the employees and consumers to turn a profit.

[FuelDropforthewin]

They undercut taxis to create a monopoly using investor money, then start screwing everyone over now they have that monopoly. Everyone saw this coming.

[Lily-cxvo]

It’s not just drivers they take advantage of. They hire A LOT of contractors on the tech side too, overwork them, and then lay them off before their contracts are over. They do this regularly.

[JustRaiHere]

As a former Uber driver I can say that they screw the drivers. 6 years working for gig businesses from driver to regional management I can say confidently that the system is rigged.

[ddlang]

Uber has found a way to pay drivers less than minimum wage, no overtime, no benefits. Stopped using Uber a few years ago and returned to using cabs. Cab service has improved, you don’t have to sign a list of terms and agreements to ride, drivers are happier and help you with your luggage, price isn’t much different.

[TheRuralUrbanist]

Contractors, Temps, Seasonal Workers, and Part Timers: Different titles with a singular purpose: screwing over workers!!!

[peopleschoice]

Fact 8- If a driver is driving a XL car, which is a a comfortable full size sedan or SUV, the Uber denies them of the XL status for the bogus reasons like cloth seats. But then Uber books passengers Uber XL in the same drivers car. Where customer is paying for Uber XL and driver is getting paid Uber X. They are screwing over both by directly lying and stealing from both.

[tkrueger]

I gave 5000 rides for lyft from 2016 to 2019. They cut the pay rate 30 days after i started and continued to cut driver pay, each time attempting to disguise the pay cut as a benefit. It's sad that neither if these companies has an ounce of integrity. Both treat their drivers as if they are a valueless commodity.

[paulhenry]

As an ex driver, I’d say neither Uber or Lyft will work in the long run. While taking 35-50% of the fairs they’ve done nothing to improve basic mapping function, which leads me to believe all the money is going to shareholders, city negotiations, and financial trickery. The drivers are now making less than they did driving cabs.

[LOBricksAndSecrets]

The title for this video should be "exactly what you would expect" not "will shock you"

[jaggillar]

Its really hard to find a taxi service in medium sized cities and small towns now. Uber subsidized fares just long enough to destroy the competition. Gaming the "free" market is now the norm.

[Alban-uxjf]

75% of a market is dangerously close to the M-word

[egx]

I drove Uber rides one time. When they offered $300 boost plus fares for 5 rides. After that, it dropped to $7 “opportunities “. Never again. Plus too many scary fares. No more. I’d rather take a bus if I have to.

[griffinemerson]

It always baffled me how uber/lyft could loose money when their only fixed cost is insurance and servers and labor, vehicle wear/upkeep and fuel are all covered by the "independent contractors".

[RoldanRR]

Don't they also pass off most of the tax burden onto drivers? I thought that was the biggest part of their scam.

[garydmercer]

The gig economy is a failure. Terrible.

[AaronMartinColby]

Misleading is such a kind term. They are lying.

[gordonmills]

Side note. Their venture into driver-less cars failed because they "relaxed" some of the safety protocols in pursuit of scaling up the service. The "safety driver" in their fatal accident was on her phone watching videos and the collision avoidance had been nerfed. They weren't even fully autonomous yet. To this day, the sole fatal accident involving a self-driving car was Uber. They almost killed an entire emerging industry in the pursuit of fast money. (source: I know people who worked there back then)