I received a flyer in the mail the other day from Uber, asking me to call my representative to complain about AB2293. Well I went to the state's website and read the text of the bill. I suggest you follow the link and read it for yourself, it is not very long. But this is what I got from it.
It you summon a ride on your Uber app, the car arrives and you get in, you will know that the driver is insured the way any other person offering transportation for hire is insured. And if Uber has not done their job, and the driver done not in fact have appropriate insurance, then Uber's insurance will cover you. Sounds pretty pro-consumer to me.
The business model of companies like Uber, and Postmates, whom I have written about earlier, is to classify the people who actually earn the money for them as independent contractors, putting all the risk on them.
I work as an independent contractor myself, and I choose to do that. But what I charge is a negotiated fee, it is not set by fiat of my client. I am required by my client to carry certain types of insurance, and have to produce certificates of insurance to demonstrate that I have them. And my client never tells me “Say this, not that” because they are pretending to be a different business that they are.
So I called my representative and I said, “If Uber is trashing you, then you must be doing something right.”
I like to go to Reno for a weekend every now and then. I have considered putting an add on Craigslist to see if I anyone around me would like to share gas in exchange for a ride. That is ride sharing. What Uber (and Lyft) are doing is running a taxi company. They have been calling it something else to avoid the responsibility (and corresponding expense) that comes with running a taxi company.
No, they don't have meters. But I have ridden in taxis that had no meters too. Years ago, I had occasion to take a cab in Washington DC, and they looked up their rates on a printed sheet. There was no meter, just a flat rate that you knew as soon as you got into the car. Sound familiar?
The only difference I can see between them and a taxi, is that they cannot be flagged down on the street. They are tied to the app for their income.
The thing that ticks me off about this business model is the sense of entitlement, that they are just too fucking precious to have to assume the responsibility for anyone or anything other than themselves, or to follow laws that everyone else has to follow.
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