This Week In Rideshare: California, Minnesota, and London.
Prop 22 is on the line, Uber decides to stay, and drivers see through the pricing. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
PROP 22’S FINAL TEST
The fight against Prop 22 has hit its final test. SF Gate reported:
On Tuesday, California’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of the 2020 law that classifies Uber and Lyft drivers as independent contractors rather than full-fledged employees. In a courtroom in San Francisco’s Earl Warren Building, the justices listened to and questioned three lawyers — one representing drivers, one representing a coalition of gig companies and another representing the state of California.
Hector Castellanos watched it all from the middle of the courtroom. The Antioch driver is the lead plaintiff for this yearslong bid to overturn Prop. 22, and his litigation is now finally reaching an end. Wearing a tired but hopeful expression and a “Gig Workers Rising” shirt, Castellanos spoke with SFGATE on the front steps of the building after the arguments.
“The drivers, we are suffering,” he said, arguing that Uber and Lyft lied to the public about how the initiative would affect gig workers. Drivers for gig companies don’t have adequate sick days, pay or workers’ compensation benefits, he said.
UBER STAYS IN MINNESOTA
After a new deal was reached, Uber decided to stay in Minnesota. Yahoo! Finance reported:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has said he will sign into law a bill that ends the threat of Uber and Lyft leaving the Twin Cities area and sets statewide compensation rates for ride-hailing services.
In Minnesota, Walz announced a deal with lawmakers over the weekend that he said would give drivers statewide a 20% raise from current compensation levels, which are not set by law.
According to the analysis, the per-mile rate under the city ordinance would have been set at $1.40 plus a 51-cents-per-minute charge. The analysis said hourly take-home pay after expenses and taxes would have been $28.35, with pre-expense earnings at $43.73.
The news service said the final agreement in the state law calls for minimum compensation of $1.28 per mile and 31 cents per minute, yielding pre-expense average compensation of $34.58 an hour and post-expense compensation of $19.89 an hour.
UBER SURGE IS ALL THE TIME
Driver’s in London are claiming Uber’s surge pricing never ends. 9to5 Mac reported:
But drivers protesting outside Uber’s London headquarters claim that so-called “dynamic pricing” is now in effect 24/7.
Additionally, they told Wired that where Uber used to take a fixed and transparent 25% commission on the amount paid by riders, with drivers receiving the balance, the company now sometimes takes much higher percentages — and doesn’t allow them to see the split.
To prove the point, they have been logging in as riders to request rides, seeing how much they are quoted, and then how much the driver is offered. In one example, the rider was quoted £46 ($58) while the driver was only offered £26 ($33). That meant Uber was taking a 43% commission.
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