Are drivers misled into believing they will make more? Is the cost per mile intentionally hidden from them?
Initially the lease looks very attractive, because you get a swanky new car, combined with bonuses and stuff that you get as a new driver.
Few months in, the incentive turns into a shackle. You start realizing that incentives are dwindling and the monthly payments are eating into most of your Uber earnings, which was masked by higher new driver incentives initially.
At this point, loss aversion kicks in, and forces the driver to drive crazy number of hours every day, just to make a decent profit over operating costs and the monthly due for the car.
With more such drivers in the market, and an ever dipping price for rides, $/Mile reduces.
That's the incentive.
update: If you think Uber/Lyft in the US is bad, talk to Uber/Ola drivers in India. Many of them are sleep deprived and driving, to make ends meet. And often barely earn enough to justify the costs.
I've started seeing "buy here pay here" auto dealerships use "Uber-ready" as a marketing message on their most expensive cars (and subsequently most insane leasing arrangements).
It's a smart selling point, because you're overcoming peoples' general aversion to spending $$$ on luxuries for themselves by allowing them to justify the nice-car purchase as a business investment. Sure man, you really NEED that F150 to ferry drunk kids around a five block radius from Duke.
One of the strangest experiences I had in an India Uber was the driver getting pulled over and borrowing 100₹ from me so he could pay the bribe. "If you don't do this, things will be very bad for me"
Work flexibility helps a lot of people in lots of different ways, which is why it's such a bit deal.
Yeah but would you rather flip burgers and smell like french fries the whole time? Driving people around is not completely unpleasant in comparison.
They absolutely are. I know someone who ended up signing one of those rental car leases with Lyft to become a driver. The numbers the company provided made it seem like it would be quite easy to pay off each week. As it turns out, it was just like the old "company store".
It's only a choice when viewed from an ivory tower. If you have to make ends meet on fast food wages you're not gonna take a massive pay cut in exchange for slightly more autonomy.
Also, the customer interaction side of things is about the same in both jobs and in fast food you'll have to do less bending over backward for customers.