Has The Gig Economy Reached A Tipping Point?

WELL WELL WELL, so there IS a scale they are pushing! And they talk about UBER and LYFT as if they are the ONLY ones! ******WRONG******! They are the johnny come latelys. What of the dozens or hundreds of others? You see, if I ran UBER or lyft, I would have the base price set around the base in the industry. I mean WHY set it lower, get lawsuits, possibly get yur model destroyed, and upset your drivers? And if you set it HIGHER, you get a problem like what THEY are describing.

SO, QUESTION! If they set it at the industry, and now have the problems that they would have had with a higher price, WHY? Is it because of SATURATION, as they imply? If so, it means that they are hitting a wall where they threaten to destroy established careers and possibly have still MORE lawsuits!

Steve

Maybe their normal readers don't need "tipping point" repeated all throughout the article.

I think Uber is just getting started. It might be established in the US but it's going global. For example it has only just become legal in 2 states here in Oz.

Andrew

I've only driven a cab for 13 companies in 5 cities, so I don't know as much as driving as seasoned...but I'll add my opinion any way.


There's a bit of skill to driving a cab. You don't just make money off the bat as a driver. My first month driving I was lucky if I made a $1 per hour. My best friend at the time got me started and then one night he took me out and showed me how to make money. I went from the $1 an hour to about $9-10 a hour basically over night.


A number of years later, I was in Reno. I had only been there less than a week. During training class there was another guy in class that had lived in Reno his entire life. Knowing I was new he was a little boastful he knew where everything in town was.


The cab company would post a list of what everyone booked each week. In the first week I was in the top 10 out of 120 drivers or so. He was in the bottom 10. He knew where everything was but the money. I knew how to find the money.


Over the years older drivers taught me how to work people for tips. I discovered that if I could get the passengers to laugh, it was worth an extra $2-3 dollars extra in a tip.


My favorite was from an old NY cab driver then driving in Las Vegas. He taught me to mention a celebrity and the word "tip". Something like, "I just had Wayne Newton in the cab and what a great tipper!" Or, "I just dropped Mr. T off at the Mirage and he stiffed me on the tip".


Either positive or negative, it would almost always result in an above average tip for me.


Another thing is, the cell phone started changing the cab industry starting back 20 years ago when I last drove. Drivers began getting "personals". Drivers would work out deals with profitable rides where the passenger would schedule trips with a single driver and/or use the driver's cell phone directly instead of going through dispatch.


The point to this is, I bet there's a lot of Uber drivers that simply don't know how to make money.


BTW, I know a ex cab driver in Denver that works for both Uber and Lyft at the same time.

This is probably my favorite cab story...I always asked people in Las Vegas if they liked whatever they did. One time I picked at the Mirage at the Siegfried and Roy show break (Listen up Uber drivers..a good Las Vegas cab driver knows when shows end, not when they start), and I asked everyone "How'd you like the show?".


Everyone before this guy said they really liked S & F. But this guy was angry.


I asked him why he didn't like it...he said he had a front row seat and an elephant decided to relieve itself on stage and he got drenched in elephant urine.


I replied that it sounded like Siegfried needed to get some pachyderm pampers for his elephant. I thought I was hilarious. He didn't laugh.