Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Uber drivers have access to a car, have a driver’s license and are presumably citizens, pass a background check, and maintain a high enough rating to continue to drive, so their social skills can’t be terrible. The minimum wage in SF is 15.50 and in LA is 15.

My question is, if Uber is such a terrible exploitive company to work for, why do they have a critical mass of drivers? They could also drive for restaurants. I was a Dominos delivery driver in a past life and made kind of incredible money for the job (tips).

My logical mind tells me that drivers continue to work for Uber because it is more profitable than alternatives, despite what the endless barrage of negative press drills out.

Uber is also good if you have a 25 hour a week job which pays better than Uber but you need to get some extra money and those 25 hours come at unpredictable times

Most of the other jobs require the driver to get out of the car, which can be a pain if parking is limited and you have to walk into a building a find where to pickup. Staying in the driver's seat is preferable to me.

Because someone convinced them to lease or buy on finance a brand new Prius and they need to make payments? That’s where I suspect the exploitation comes in - not the actual Uber usage, but the financial decisions required to get started (eg drive late model car). Vs other apps, they’re all the same give or take a few months.

Can't they just sell the car? It will be a bit if a loss but certainly better than ongoing loss and suffering?

Not many new drivers have new cars. I don't know how many of them are leasing cars. I've never heard any complaints on any driver groups about being forced to drive to pay off the car.

The thing is, there's Kelley's Blue Book.

A driver can know any day how much his car is worth and figure out the net profits from selling it and not Ubering anymore.

There's a paternalistic view of drivers (often non-white and immigrants) as too stupid to know their costs. But really most drivers wouldn't drive if they didn't earn money.

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