Lyft and Uber say they will leave Minneapolis after city council forces them to pay drivers more

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 488 points –
Lyft and Uber say they will leave Minneapolis after city council forces them to pay drivers more
apnews.com

Lyft and Uber said they will cease operations in Minneapolis after the city’s council voted Thursday to override a mayoral veto and require that ride-hailing services increase driver wages to the equivalent of the local minimum wage of $15.57 an hour.

Lyft called the ordinance “deeply flawed,” saying in a statement that it supports a minimum earning standard for drivers but not the one passed by the council.

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Good. Get the fuck outta here and let someone who can run a functioning company take your place. Functioning companies pay their workers enough to live on.

You mean taxis?

Well at this point the old "taxi" model is (from the consumers perspective) basically the same as Uber. Use an app to get a ride, pay for the ride, (maybe) tip the driver. Call them whatever you want, but it just needs to be another Uber, but better.

Yes, taxi, the thing Uber and Lyft and many more company rebranded into something fancy like "Ride-hailing" or "ride-sharing".

They threatened the same with Seattle and surprise surprise they're still here. They did pass the entire fee onto the consumer though, which sucks ass but at least gig workers are being paid.

As a consumer visiting, I'd see that and think "Uber is too expensive now, I guess." Then I'd not use them in other cities.

I'm already avoiding them right now, though, so no changes here.

It just means you're guaranteed a single $15.57 drive per hour if you haven't had one the entire hour. That's unlikely so it'll probably be split up making it a little more expensive.

At least Seattle has a decent rail and bus system. In some smaller cities and rural areas, you are fucked AND Uber/Lyft is expensive af (if available)

They did the same thing for UberEats in NYC. "New York Courier Fee" of $2 on every order with the explainer text "Due to new requirements put in place by the City of New York, workers are guaranteed a minimum hourly pay rate while they are delivering orders to customers. Customers will now see an additional fee on all delivery orders to help cover this pay rate. Tipping remains optional."

Reminds me of when my employer put a separate line item for "Obama care cost increase" on my paycheck

Good

Yup. If they refuse to pay minimum wage, they’re exploiting your citizens who drive for them. Let them leave.

Minimum wage is still exploitation given that the drivers provide all their own equipment, cover their own costs, and get no sick leave or holiday pay. Typically, self-employment is paid at an hourly rate 2.5x the salaried rate because of all the extra costs the employer is not covering.

Minimum wage for 'self-employed' gig workers should be $35-40. Pass that law.

If your business cannot exist with paying employees appropriate wages then that is a failure in the business and the business does not deserve to exist. That's what these capitalists love, right? Oh they're only upset when the system works against THEM, that's right.

Call their bluff. There’s a lot of money for this kind of service in the metro. Big rideshare is just trying to maintain the status quo.

How the fuck is Lyft still a company?

They don't deliver food, how did they survive the pandemic?

How many dumb billionaire venture capitalists put way too many eggs in that basket?

Something tells me that would be an easy stock to short.

Lyft’s reputation as a company is slightly less bad than Uber’s …

Yeah, on the rare occasion where I need to take a ride-share, I go for Lyft over Uber just because they are the lesser evil, not because they are better.

Fun thing- the drivers in this town have both Uber and Lyft stickers on their cars.

the lesser evil is just evil

Never said they weren't evil. All I said is that if those are the only options I have, I choose one over the other.

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Really? I recall a South Park episode showing the exact opposite, lol.

Also, all of my friends use Uber EXCEPT one who uses Lyft because their job gives them a better deal.

Stob believing South Park you doughnut.

Jesus Christ ppl think South Park is news now???

We're fucked

What do you mean "news"?

We're talking about the company's reputation.

you doughnut.

So sad when people like you think you're smart.

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It’s lost 80% of its value in the past few years. I think you’ve maybe missed the boat on shorting.

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Everytime I read anything about lyft and uber I can't help but wonder what would happen if the drivers could get organized and form a non profit coop.

Get a new name, app, insurance, a board that runs the day to day operations.

Would it even be profitable then? At least it might be equitable.

They're not technically a non-profit, but there is a co-op doing exactly this named, very creatively, The Drivers Cooperative. They're only in Colorado and New York (and I think specifically NYC) right now, but it's exciting to see that happening.

I don't use either service very often, but the last time I tried, I ended up taking a taxi as it was cheaper. This was at the airport.

Again, rarely use these types of services period. But I've also never had a taxi not show up and almost make me miss my flight. Happened to me with Uber.

Uber or Bolt(an Uber clone) I've found to be good for avoiding getting scammed.

The good news is they all have apps so it's easy to check which one's cheapest. I'm not sure any of them are scamming outside of the dynamic pricing that Uber and Lyft do

I'm saying local taxis will scam a lot, especially foreigners. Using Uber/Bolt you can avoid that

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If all cities enforce this, then what? Close up shop?

They'll do what Uber Eats/Door Dash does and charge the customer for it.

They would just charge WAY more to compensate then take 20% of the drivers tips

What?? You mean licensed taxis with unions and accountability will suddenly get business again?