Jack Smith

Uber Flat Fares — Ride in San Francisco for only $2

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Nicholas Sheriff
I don't know how I feel about this...why? Because a good friend of mine barely makes a living off of Uber that's why. Uber drivers are making on average like $2.50 an hour! Uber cut pay to their drivers in over 100 cities. Some cities were cut by 45%. That is a brutal demotion for many people that have stellar ratings. https://newsroom.uber.com/beatin... Uber has cut pay to drivers in Detroit to #24cents a mile and 24 cents a minute. That is crazy low. Uber is paying some of their workforce less than minimum wages for their shifts. This is a big issue because 45% of drivers have families and 48% of all driving work is done by full time drivers. Imagine telling your kids right now you're going to get paid $2.50 an hour....telling your wife! Hundreds of thousands have been offered an Uber car loan that now is up to 2x as difficult to pay off Uber has increased their take of the pie by up to 130% while cutting rates to drivers by up to 45%. There have been no reported cuts in the amount of income Uber continues to bring in. http://uberpeople.net/threads/ub... "Just saw this Facebook ad. Earn serious Mulah my ass lol. I'm sure a ton of new drivers will sign up for this lol" I know we're not drivers so we don't have to care about this we also live in one of the most expensive cities on planet earth so we don't have to care about this...but some of these people have kids they have expenses many of which have been grievously incurred because of uber and their intentional dismay and grossly manipulative practices toward the very people that are making them billions in perceived value...employees at Uber corporate aren't suffering this badly, I'm sure Travlis is still a billionaire 100 times over. All I would ask is before we all get overly excited we take even 30 seconds to also address these very real issues for other human beings that are the ones that drive you around.
Andreas Klinger
@nicholassheriff completely agree with your pov here there is "us" as customers and "us" as society needs to keep in balance
Nicholas Sheriff
@andreasklinger Yeah the only reason why I mentioned anything Andreas is because I saw 20 something comments wow their is a great discussion about what uber is doing right and the not so comfortable to talk about practices that need to change and be address that can only be changed if a discussion takes place that their even is an issue....anyone reading this would not have any idea that any of what I mentioned that can be verified, by googling and talking to your own driver is true. I like balance if just one person mentioned this I wouldn't have said anything but if Uber could have their way drivers literally would get paid $1 a year. Like what do you call 24 cents a mile? Ubers cut keeps swelling. Travis is a billionaire he's now worth $6.3 billion dollars oh wait he might have made $6.3 billion dollars driving for uber I guess.
Andreas Klinger
@nicholassheriff yes true. problem is that on a bigger arc that this is true for any kind of company that doesnt need specially trained workers for their tasks. especially "on demand jobs". labor becoming a commodity is a huge risk. i dont think this is a special thing for uber - they are just more aggressive about it. As society we are kinda learning how to manage this - similar to how we did with normal employments (union, worker rights etc)
Juil
@nicholassheriff I think they're hoping they'll have a fleet of self-driving cars before they are held responsible to the drivers who make them ALL of their money. I wonder if it would be possible for there to be a mass exodus of Uber drivers to some other rideshare service. Maybe Lyft?
Nicholas Sheriff
@andreasklinger I completely disagree...because they're is a great deal of choice and intention on so many basic levels coming from the people running things at corporate. I'm talking about a company that employs manipulative tactics to get people to quite minimum wage jobs, to work for them knowing that they will only make $3 an hour. I'm talking about a company that runs facebook ads saying you'll have a six figure paycheck like the one we pay our Uber corporate employees simply driving for us. A company that recently cut drivers pay in over 100 cities but travis is still a billionare, a company that has increased their take of drivers pie up to 130% while cutting the rates of drivers by 45%. you can't explain away that with socioeconomic and political economics with a company is affected by commoditization because especially with capitalism it really ties into can we treat people like slaves, not should we it's can we get away with it, you know what else is starting and has always been a bit commoditized education how much do teachers make, I know we're not drivers we can close our computer, leave product hunts app or website and this isn't an everyday issue, but this is a real issue for their community that as we know is everything to the uber experience. In America CEO's can make 300,000% more than their employees...that doesn't happen in Switzerland. This is what I'm addressing this greed really and inhuman nature when building not a special company, Uber isn't special, building any company doing absolutely anything, is it right what they are doing and can they do absolutely anything to offset this and make a change...yes their isn't a hard thing a complicated thing a really really tough thing to work on. They are continually working on ways to take more money away from drivers, their very real hard earned money, and that's someone's job at Uber. Someones job also at Uber is to work on exceptionally manipulative creatives for their invasive ads and if we say nothing they will think it's ok.....because at that point it is. Their is difference between a society and a private overvalued corporation that didn't even want it's employees to have rights ( even be called employees ) actually doing all that it can to literally undervalue it's workforce. That's all I see exceptional energy being used here to do just this that's what I'm bringing into question, meetings were held, emails were sent...things were approved people have jobs tied to all of this they get paid well, they can feed their families and drivers are getting screwed in a big way. some people aren't just jobless and homeless because of this now, they also are in debt. But we don't actually have to care about any of what I said, let me go hail an uber right now to go home. Let's demand answers use our influence to tweet, to put pressure on them, I'm a nobody uber isn't going to blink twice if I sneezed. But having a discussion like this out in the open will raise questions to onlookers about digging deeper and asking around. I'm not saying boycott uber tomorrow guys, I use uber not as much as I do and I always tip knowing this, but I don't even know if they get my tips have to ask my friend even about that now that I think about that...all I'm saying is do more with your voice...you're doing a lot with you voice when you say you're buying 30 packs. You probably got 100 other people to buy 30 packs, with that same breath you could also address issues and say I'm buying this but xyz....so people know they can't just dick people around and you'll be there as a consumer saying ha that's a ok. if it isn't ok speak up!
Jack Smith
This is very interesting and a big thread to Lyft. Uber are experimenting with pre-selling rides. I just bought 20x rides for September at $20; enabling me to get any Uber Pool ride in SF for $2, or an Uber X for $7; with a flat rate, not being affected by surge pricing.
Tarun Gangwani
@_jacksmith You should add the map picture on the site to this too... it covers a significant amount of real-estate!
Jack Smith
Evan Kimbrell
@_jacksmith Not a coincidence that Lyft is openly looking for a buyer? Uber always does this when Lyft enters into any major funding round.
Andreas Klinger
Seen. Bought. Just when i thought i need to break the habit of using uber all the time. Sneaky uber. sneaky!
Ghost Kitty
Comment Deleted
Jack Smith
@itsnblackburn a key benefit is that you don't get affected by any surge pricing
Andreas Klinger
@_jacksmith @itsnblackburn it's essentially a method to get people into the habit of using uber for job commute (the time with the worst surge pricing)
Ghost Kitty
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Andreas Klinger
@itsnblackburn @_jacksmith i agree but how this is structured it seems that they wanted to be save on every aspect - until end of month - maximum N rides - only in this area - maximum this distance/total cost (which makes sense on their scale)
Viktor Nyics
@_jacksmith @itsnblackburn I see you are a startup advisor. Hm. What if one of your mentored startup guy would drive uber to get some cash... You don't want them to earn money when it's extremely busy = surging ? When they're not spending their holidays with the family... should not get paid any extra?
Ouriel Ohayon
the new metro ticket
Tarun Gangwani
This means you can go from The Embarcadero Ferry Building to Parkside Tavern in Sunset for $7 on UberX (or $2 pool), vs. the $20-26 it would typically cost. That's the same as taking the bus and way, way faster. Game changer.
Viktor Nyics
Oh nooooooo. This will just create more demanding douchebag passengers.... Uber should realise that Drivers are their main users. -without happy drivers Uber has no chance!
Jack Smith
@viktor_nyics why will it make passengers more demanding?
Karan Talati
@viktor_nyics Unfortunately, I think Uber's focus on the driver is only going to go down. Especially if you consider they are providing free retirement planning packages to their drivers. Hint hint...
Viktor Nyics
@_jacksmith think about it. A simple minded person who gets angry about a 1.2 surge will say :I already paid for my ride, so I demand it rigt now and I want to play as costumer... -this is not "share economy" but rude habbit from the inhumane experience of cab services.
Viktor Nyics
@ktal90 Retirement planning? Hm. If uber behaves as a tech company the focus is clear : drivers are the paying users. If they focus on passengers that makes them an other taxi firm and they will loose in a real competition. ( imagine if facebook would launch their transportation services...) hint hint...
Jack Smith
@viktor_nyics I don't understand what you're talking about. With this the user doesn't pay surge pricing
Steven Schmatz
Bye, public transportation.
Jeremy Gardner
Wow. I went on 40 rides in the past 13 days alone, mostly in San Francisco. Often I'll Pool during stupid high surges, but this means I never have to worry about surging again! This is a total gamechanger for me. Goodbye, Lyft.
Niv Dror
"Uber rides too cheap to meter" -- aka Uber Flat Fairs
Mike Bracco
I've been waiting for Uber to start doing something for users who use the product frequently...especially for daily users like myself who use it instead of a car. I've long wanted something like "Uber Prime" where I commit to spending X amount per month or X rides per month and in return I get lower effective cost per ride or perhaps other benefits like insulation from surge pricing.
Cheng Qian
@bracco Do you get 50% off 10 rides up to $10 off per ride every week? Uber has sent me this promotion for 5 weeks straight now.
✎ Andrew Warner
I wonder if Flat Fare riders will have longer wait times. There are so many people leaving work at the same time that it's often 2X surge when I want to go home. So I often pay over $20. Would Uber really want to send their drivers to pick up Flat Fare riders who are paying $7 instead of those paying $20+?
✎ Andrew Warner
Related note from the bottom of the page: "Your flat fare purchase does not guarantee the availability of trips"
Ben Lang
Top Product
As usual, have my money Uber đź’¸
Thomas Kimura
this is crazy
Jason Hitchcock
*saw post* *clicked* *signed up* total time: 30 seconds
Pame Valdés
So smart. Will totally use it.
Sarthak Grover
I wonder if this is going to stay in place permanently or just a trial run to see if the numbers are feasible. This is 'uber cheap' (pun totally intended).
Paul Tomkinson
tried to buy via this link, did not work. Guess I have to use my phone and the app
Chris Messina
Top Hunter
@paultomkinson should work on the web. What browser are you using?
Karan Talati
This will be hugeee when it makes its way to Los Angeles
:: lawson baker ::
Already bought myself a $20 pack. VCFML at it's best.