I'll be honest with you. You can't imagine the pleasure I get to be able to come home and have the opportunity to sit down and write these little articles against Uber and Lyft.
I believe that the most hated companies today are no longer mobile phone companies, home Internet companies or banks. I think Uber and Lyft earned the awards of contempt.
Remember that this page is to talk about all the problems that drivers face on a daily basis, but I am also going to include customers, as they are a key part of this business.
Uber and Lyft have been creating a culture of chaos for years. Yes, as you read, chaos. Why? Since these companies have no limits and regulations of any kind on their actions, they feel free to do whatever they want, even if their actions cause collateral damage to their customers and drivers. It's no secret that these companies seek to increase their revenues gradually, and to achieve this they only need something they already have, absolute control. As I mentioned in another article, the day they say they will pay their drivers $0.25 USD per mile, we have nowhere to go to complain, there is no one to complain to and there is no authority to stop or sanction them.
By having the power to do and undo, they can unfairly deactivate as many drivers as they want, they can add hundreds of thousands of new drivers to the platform daily. To be deactivated, you just have to find a customer who has had a bad day or who is cursed enough to want to get reimbursed the cost of their trip because they found it too expensive. This shows that we are not essential or indispensable to them, even if you are a 5-star, Diamond-level driver with 20,000 trips made. In other words, we are the nail, they are the hammer. If any customer says we're half hunchbacked, the hammer pulls us out.
Now, how does Uber and Lyft abuse customers? In several ways. Uber and Lyft sell customers our resources (car, time, gas, risks) at a price they determine. This price varies according to the current demand in the area. They can sell us the same thing at the price of a piece of chewing gum or at the price of a dinner at a Salt Bae restaurant. The thing about this is that Uber and Lyft always try to offer as little money as possible to drivers, as they already have hundreds or thousands of drivers willing to grab whatever appears on their phone without hesitation. "What's the point of paying well when we know that out there are drivers willing to grab anything" (that's what they say) making fun of us on a daily basis. The saddest thing of all is that we are going around in droves, killing each other to grab whatever garbage falls. If by some chance a large part of those masses of drivers feel tired of receiving so much garbage and refuse to take it, Uber and Lyft are putting customers time at stake. Imagine that a customer sometimes has to wait 10, 15 and even 20 minutes for a driver to catch their ride and many don't because Uber and Lyft are paying extremely low. They are not able to even increase the offer to drivers after a certain amount of time in order to keep their profit margin high. They know that, eventually, a driver who doesn't value their resources and work properly will take it, but in the meantime, they sacrificed the customer's time and need. This is seen on a daily basis, where passengers must wait longer than normal for a driver.
Customer service for passengers. Many passengers are suffering from problems such as extra charges on their bills, double charges or more than they should have paid. At least at Uber, I've heard from many passengers that Uber doesn't respond to their messages in time. When they respond they are not helpful, sometimes they refuse to return the funds, they do not know how to explain why the extra or duplicate charges were charged. Thus, in this way, the Uber giant continues to generate great discontent among its customers. So, when customers get tired of Uber and prefer to make their rides privately and offer to make the trip by paying cash, whose fault is it? From the driver, NOT UBER, you screwed over and served your customer badly.
Another problem is that sometimes (more frequent now) Uber and Lyft charge customers extremely dearly and when the service arrives the car is full of shit, with a stench of marijuana, cigarettes, tobacco, no air conditioning, full of packages, with mechanical problems, with a drunk driver, drugged, with a bad attitude, annoyed because they don't make money, stressed, driving like hell, etc.
Why does all this happen? First, because these companies have the freedom to do whatever they want. Because they're prioritizing money. Because they don't try to create a culture in the service they offer. Because they don't control who drives and what they drive. Because they don't care about customer satisfaction. They don't care about driver satisfaction. Just the money. Because they function like dictatorships, they benefit from chaos to generate wealth. Because investing resources to generate a quality service does not increase their profits.
I keep saying it, learn to know who you work for. Learn how they work. Learn not to be an exploitable tool of manipulation. You are worth more than the value they give you.
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