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Comment by spullara | Hacker News Reader

I love the way Uber works and use it all the time. It is hard for me to assess whether they have a legitimate gripe though since every driver I have asked directly about the service (which is every ride I take) has answered enthusiastically positive. Maybe just trying to use their leverage to negotiate rather than being truly harmed?

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The Uber drivers I have asked have also all been very positive. I asked one whether he was dispatched by anyone else, and he said that he used to be, but no longer - now he was Uber-only and he was glad he could ditch the dispatcher model.

The guys that own their own cars are not Uber employees - they can sign up to be dispatched by traditional radios instead (or as well). So, from my sample in NYC, Uber is way better than existing models for the drivers.

I used to talk to all my drivers about this, too - an easy conversation prompt to pass the time if nothing else. But while most spoke positively, I began to get the impression that they follow the basic rule of don't bad mouth your employer to customers. Pair that with the risk of saying the wrong things to a secretshopper-type riders, and it's become difficult for me to take Uber reviews from drivers at face value.

Definitely. But the thing that convinced me that this driver meant it was that he previously was dispatched by both radio and Uber, and then chose to go Uber-only. As a sample, it's prone to survivor bias, but it definitely argues that my particular driver wasn't just putting up a front.

I haven't used it in San Francisco, but I use DC Uber all the time, and I too have had the same response. That said, I would expect most employees to say good things about their employers, even if that weren't the case.

I know I personally wouldn't ever say anything negative about my employer, even though I personally haven't any cause to.

I'd count anything neutral as negative. Something I have noticed is that many UberX drivers were formerly UberBLACK drivers. Not sure why though.

Maybe the bad drivers are the ones that are picketing, and you're only talking to good drivers? If the good drivers are pleased with the way Uber works, then maybe they're doing something right.

Taxi drivers are expected to provide a positive environment for their fares. This includes pleasant, casual conversation.

Your driver doesn't know you're deeply interested in tech startups like his employer. Almost all taxi conversations are brief, casual, on the surface. If your next taxi driver took an innocent small-talk question as a chance to air his gripes about his new, better employer, how would you feel at the end of the ride? How are you going to rate that driver? 1 star? Oh shit, now he's canned.

You're getting the only safe answer to your question. For all you know, the drivers are terrified to speak out.

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