5,000 signatures reached
To: Lyft CEO, Logan Green and Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi
Uber & Lyft: Reverse the Rate Cut
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Uber and Lyft are the two largest rideshare companies -- making millions of dollars off the drivers who work for them. Drivers spend countless hours behind the wheel, earning crumbs in comparison.
For years, drivers have seen their earnings decrease despite putting in longer and longer hours behind the wheel. Earnings are decreasing because Uber and Lyft keep changing the rates - keeping prices the same for passengers, lowering pay for drivers and pocketing the difference.
As Uber and Lyft continue to make more, drivers continue to make less.
So it comes as no surprise that Uber slashed mileage rates in California. This cut has many drivers reporting up to a 50% decrease in their earnings - leaving them high and dry with bills to pay, mouths to feed and no control over what they earn.
We’ve had enough.
Gig Workers Rising is an organization by and for drivers and other app workers. We are rising up to demand an end to Uber and Lyft’s greedy business practices.
These are our demands:
1. Reverse the mileage rate cuts.
2. Create a process for including drivers in decisions about rate changes.
3. Deliver transparency on surge pricing.
4. We demand a minimum wage floor for drivers equal to or greater than New York City’s one of $26.51, which creates an after expenses income of $17.22 per hour. (Drivers would keep any earnings on top of the minimum wage, but would never earn less than the wage floor.)
Why is this important?
More and more drivers are living in their cars. Unable to afford housing based off earnings as a driver, or unable to travel the distance home.
More and more drivers are spending less time with their families, seeing their children, or taking care of themselves, because they cannot afford to turn their app off.
What once was a reliable way to make income has become a cycle of driving as many hours as possible to barely scrape by.
As Uber and Lyft prepare to go public this year with IPO offerings, they are doing everything in their power to show the profitability of their business. And they are doing this by taking more and more money from their drivers.
Uber just reached a new low - cutting drivers’ mileage rates from $0.99/mile to $0.68/mile.
Not only did Uber decrease the overall mileage rate, they changed the way drivers receive surge pricing - which is an incentive pay that drivers rely on to make a living.
Prior to the change, surge pricing was based on a multiplier of the total trip (i.e 1.8x surge would earn the driver an additional 80% on the overall trip). The current change in surge pricing places a flat dollar rate such as $2.50, with a note that claims “you may earn even more than this amount on longer rides.” The key wording here is “may.” Driver experience has shown us that while some trips have added additional surge, others have not. Uber’s lack of transparency on how they formulate and determine surge payouts leaves drivers guessing what their fare will be.
Gig Workers Rising is taking action against Uber and Lyft’s unyielding greed. Reverse the rate cuts and give drivers a voice! Join us by taking action and signing our petition.
