
Can Uber Ever Deliver? Five Part Series Examining the Economics of Uber - ForHackernews
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-uber-ever-deliver-part-five-addressing-reader-comments-and-questions.html
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ForHackernews
> To simplify just a bit, the Uber strategy was to (1) jumpstart rapid growth
> with driver pay premiums that would get lots of drivers to switch from
> traditional operators; these premiums were real but not as large as they
> seemed because drivers hadn’t figured out how to properly deduct vehicle
> costs to determine true take home pay, and by willful falsehoods (our
> drivers make $90,000) (2) gradually cut back driver pay once Uber was
> clearly a large established play by eliminating incentive programs and
> increasing the percentage of fares Uber retained; but drivers can’t do
> anything about pay cuts because they’ve locked themselves into car payments
> (3) At some point—and according to the study quoted in the second article in
> the series, it may have already happened—true Uber take home pay (after
> vehicle costs) is no better or slightly worse than what Yellow Cab paid
> before (4) Uber achieves industry dominance, drivers have no alternatives,
> and take home pay falls to (or even below) minimum wage level.

