The Age – 29 July 2018 — 9:57pm
Uber drivers say their take-home pay is being cut as the taxi industry disruptor responds to pressure from new entrants in the increasingly crowded “ride-share” market.
The Silicon Valley giant has this year introduced “upfront pricing”, which gives passengers the exact cost of their ride ahead of the journey, and launched a service called UberPool in Melbourne and Sydney, which allows passengers travelling in the same direction to share a ride for a discounted rate.
Uber says the two initiatives are intended to grow its user numbers, which will help its “driver partners” to be successful. But drivers said the result has been they take home less pay for doing the same amount of work and have announced a two hour strike on Monday morning as part of the push for better conditions.
“Rates are already too low and unsustainable, leaving drivers with very little profit and well below minimum wage take-home pay,” said Max B, an Uber driver who runs the advocacy group RideShare Drivers United.
“Now they have this to boot, a system that exploits them even more.”
The group is calling for drivers to log-off the Uber system en masse from 7am until 9.30am on Monday, August 6.
Max B, told Fairfax Media the shift to “upfront fares” saw drivers’ pay rates drop between 10 to 30 per cent, while drivers were losing up to 40 per cent on UberPOOL trips.
Unlike a traditional taxi meter, Uber now calculates the fare before it has started, based on the trip’s distance, expected time it will take, and… [Click here to read the full article]
RSDU announcing Uber Log-OFF strike, Monday 6/8/2018
announcing a national Uber drivers’ LOG-OFF strike, Monday 6 August 2018– 7am until 9:30am in Melbourne,Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
This following Uber’s introduction of “upfront fares” and UberPool, both features designed to further shortchange and underpay drivers, eroding even more their already poor working conditions. All under a false “independent contractors” pretense.
We are calling on all drivers to switch OFF their Uber driver app and refrain from taking Uber bookings between the hours of 7am until 9:30am on that day (Monday 6 August 2018– 7am to 9:30am).
What are drivers demanding… [click here to read the full announcement]
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