I agree that may be an outcome. But don't put the cart before the horse (in this case, the horse is the question: "what is the nature of the relationship between Uber and Lyft" and possibly even "what should the nature of the relationship between a company and an employee and/or contractor even be").
I think it might be helpful to define what "simultaneous" means in the context of drivers. I stated that I believe it would only be simultaneous if a driver had passengers from multiple rideshare companies in the car at the same time. I agree that this would be unacceptable. I don't believe it's unacceptable for drivers to canvas multiple rideshare apps for fares as long as they drive them separately.
In the status quo, drivers are able to turn off their dispatch whenever they want. They can drive 20 hours one week, 2 hours the next, take an indefinite break, then drive 40 hours. There's no boss, there's no clocking in. There's no getting "fired" for flaking.
An employment contract would allow Uber/Lyft to enforce hours and contiguous schedules. On top of that, it's extremely trivial for Uber/Lyft to include exclusivity clauses in employment agreements. It's in their best interests to do that, since they have entire projects dedicated to handling "multi-appers".
Keep in mind that traditional taxicab drivers were able to go "off-duty" whenever they wanted because they, too, were independent contractors.
I think it might be helpful to define what "simultaneous" means in the context of drivers. I stated that I believe it would only be simultaneous if a driver had passengers from multiple rideshare companies in the car at the same time. I agree that this would be unacceptable. I don't believe it's unacceptable for drivers to canvas multiple rideshare apps for fares as long as they drive them separately.