This Week In Rideshare: Service Animals On Lyft, Competitive Pay, and Uber Driver Protests.
Lyft adds service animals, states with the highest pay and drivers protest in NYC. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
LYFT ADDING SERVICE ANIMALS
Lyft is working on a service animal opt-in feature. TechCrunch reported:
A Lyft spokesperson said, “We strive to provide an inclusive and accessible platform for riders, including those who rely on service animals.” They said the company is “working directly with advocacy organizations in the community” and also pointed to an upcoming “service animal opt-in feature” that should launch by 2025.
The company mentioned the feature earlier this month in a profile of a new product manager, Shreya Shankar, who said this will allow riders to “declare that they have a service animal” (they’ll only need to do this once), so the driver will be notified before pickup.
STATES WITH HIGHEST PAY FOR DRIVERS
Which states have the best pay for drivers? Yahoo! reported:
To find the states with the most competitive pay for Uber drivers, Bader Scott found the average reported yearly earnings for Uber drivers in each state and compared this data to overall average salary figures. While Uber drivers typically earn less than the average salaried worker in each state, the difference between Uber driver salaries and overall average salaries was the smallest in these locations.
Mississippi
Uber driver average salary: $35,002
State average salary: $51,116
Arkansas
Uber driver average salary: $35,702
State average salary: $56,628
Indiana
Uber driver average salary: $38,002
State average salary: $60,892
Oklahoma
Uber driver average salary: $36,202
State average salary: $58,396
Kentucky
Uber driver average salary: $36,902
State average salary: $59,592
Hawaii
Uber driver average salary: $40,902
State average salary: $66,976
Maine
Uber driver average salary: $38,102
State average salary: $62,868
DRIVERS PROTEST NYC LOCKOUTS
Hundreds of drivers protested NYC’s lockouts this week. AM NY reported:
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) says over 1,000 drivers participated in the blockade on Monday morning, stretching along 11th Avenue from 30th Street all the way to 48th Street. Drivers traveled to City Hall and beyond, honking on the “horns of justice” to demand fair pay and the ability to work without disruption.
By locking drivers out of the apps, Uber and Lyft can effectively inflate a metric called the “utilization rate,” which measures how much time drivers carry passengers versus their total time on the road. If the utilization rate is higher, then drivers are supposedly picking up more fares, and the apps can pay lower per-minute and per-mile rates to their drivers under the city’s minimum pay rules.
Bloomberg reported that these moves have cost drivers millions of dollars in income and driven many to the financial brink. Some have said they had to take out loans and max out their credit cards just to pay their rent and bills.
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