MIAMI RIDESHARE UNION
admin@miamirideshareunion.org / (305) 766-2509
Topics to discuss
Questions before starting the meeting
- Are any of you aware of HB221-2017?
- Do any of you have knowledge of business operation and administration?
- What is the difference between taxis, limousine services and rideshare drivers?
- Would you know what could happen if taxis and limousines were not regulated?
§ Do you know if Uber and Lyft show the numbers of
- Accounts deactivated due to identity fraud since their beginning in business in this state. This information allows you to see the scale of increase in fraud
- The number of car accidents in the state of Florida caused by drivers while offering their services. This information allows you to see the scale of the increase.
- Do any of you know how much these companies charge and how much they pay for commercial insurance?
- Do any of you know if Uber and Lyft's systems are audited to verify their compliance with strict standards of protection against abuse and labor exploitation?
- How can rideshare drivers protect themselves from any abuse by these companies?
- The only support tools we have are the driver service department through the app and the physical office in Wynwood. Who guarantees that this department is really created to help drivers? We have seen cases where they do not read and interpret emails and messages properly. They use pre-written responses to respond to problems. There are sometimes arbitrary attitudes in their decisions.
- We are almost certain that Uber uses artificial intelligence (AI) systems to always study the behavior of drivers. We believe that this system can be weaponized against us and for the benefit of the company. Who controls and prevents this from happening? Is this legal? Should it be allowed?
1. The problems
- The HB221-2017 gives them full freedom to do what they wish
- We drivers have no protection.
- They add risks every day to this business. The risks are new drivers on the platform without limits. This impacts the cost of commercial auto insurance and personal auto insurance in every city and every state.
- 95% of drivers do not have the Rideshare Endorsement added to their policies. By not adding the Rideshare Endorsement, insurance companies translate this into risk. The risk means that both commercial and personal insurance policies must increase their costs. Why, if the Rideshare Endorsement is mandatory by auto insurance companies, is it not required by companies like Uber, Lyft, InDrive or any other rideshare company?
- There is absolutely no control over alcohol and drug use while driving on Uber, Lyft, InDrive, or any other ride-sharing platform.
- There is absolutely no control over the condition of cars on Uber, Lyft, InDrive or any other ride-sharing platform.
- There is no strict control over people trying to work on Uber, Lyft, InDrive, DoorDash, Spark, or any other rideshare and food delivery platforms. This leads to an increase in massive identity theft, which in turn increases the creation of fake accounts to function temporarily, where Uber and DoorDash benefit from their failures.
- How can Uber, Lyft, InDrive, DoorDash, GrubHub, Spark, or any other rideshare and food delivery company prevent people from providing their accounts to family, friends, or renting them out?
- How can the government or any government entity know if Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and any other rideshare company and food delivery company are stealing tips or not? There are many complaints from people where customers have shown them the tip left and have never received it. Is there any government entity where we can complain about this problem?
- Uber, Lyft and InDrive are keeping their doors open to new drivers. This prompts many people to buy cars to drive for these companies thinking they can access to generate money when the driver market is oversaturated. This only benefits those companies.
- Market oversaturation allows companies like Uber, Lyft, InDrive, DoorDash and many others to destroy the true value of this work. It also allows them to eliminate older generations of drivers and bring in new generations who accept the low pay. This is because they take advantage of the ignorance and lack of knowledge of many drivers.
- The oversaturation of drivers is causing economic damage to many drivers, an increase in accidents and even causing fatalities.
- Who controls Uber, Lyft, and InDrive comply with their own policies? Uber, Lyft, InDrive and many other companies constantly violate their own policies by allowing drivers to use software tools such as BOTS, Fake GPS, Antennas to block signals, among others and the accounts of these users are not deactivated as they stipulate in their own policies (who they know perfectly well who they are using those tools).
- They manipulate all the information of time, travel distance, bonuses, everything to deceive drivers
- They use coercive mechanisms and psychological mechanisms against drivers to generate fear of losing access to their accounts.
§ 95% of drivers don't know anything about
- Pros and Cons of driving in Rideshare Services
- How insurance coverage works and that they have a $2500 deductible in case of accident and damage caused by passengers
- What are the types of coverages they have?
- What they can and cannot do without harming access to the system to be able to work. These companies use this as a mechanism of manipulation for their own interests.
- Drivers are not properly educated to know if the work they are doing is economically beneficial to them or not. These companies take advantage of the ignorance of many people and exploit them.
- Companies such as Uber, Lyft, InDrive, DoorDash, and other rideshare and food delivery companies are taking advantage of the large flow of immigration to work irregularly for them. This generates serious security problems in every city and state of the USA. Miami is one of the cities most affected by this problem.
§ Many people of Colombia, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Honduran, Nicaraguan, Mexican nationality among other nationalities who reside in their countries are coming to Miami for seasons of 3 and 4 months to work in these companies. These people are
- Renting cars to work in different places. Some of those places are non-legal car rental businesses where the cars do not have the necessary conditions and the required inspections to perform this work.
- Many of them sleep in cars
- They join in rents between 6, 8, 10 people or more to minimize expenses
- They have no permanent place of residence in the city or the country
- They do not generate enough records in this country due to the short stay of time they spent here. However, in their countries they may have certain violations such as drug use, robbery, sexual abuse, child abuse, among others
- They damage the true value of the business by accepting all the trips these companies offer. They are only raising money to return to their countries for 3 and 4 months without the need to work when they return.
2. Disadvantages
- Uber and Lyft have direct connections to local government entities, lawmakers, politicians, and other city departments that they can easily influence. Meanwhile, those of us who are trying to create a balance sheet to stop the abuse we are being subjected to are not receiving responses to emails. How do we fight back?
- If we have any kind of problem with these companies, there is no way to solve it. We must stay with the problem.
- Uber and Lyft can suspend drivers' accounts at will, need, and interest. This greatly affects the economy of many people. We know people who have purchased new cars for work and have been unfairly suspended shortly after getting their cars. Their appeal service does not work 100% and their biggest problem is the freedom of disposition they have in the offer.
- If Uber and Lyft decide to increase the cost of commercial insurance, they can do so freely. How can we know that the cost of commercial auto insurance is really increasing?
- If Uber, Lyft, InDrive and any other rideshare company in the market decide to pay us at $0.25 a mile and $0.00 a minute for the rideshare service, they're free to do so. How can we prevent this from happening?
3. Our requests to correct problems are
· Amend the HB221-2017
§ The amendment would be statewide granting limited powers to each city in the state of Florida to
- Obtain a Rideshare driver's license (each city should create this license)
- Pass a background check (like the one used for taxi and limo)
- Take a drug and alcohol test (every 6 months, 1 year or when a report is made on the app. We are aware of drivers who have had their accounts temporarily suspended due to reports made by customers. These drivers have not been sent by Uber, Lyft, InDrive, or any other rideshare company to take a drug and alcohol test and within a period of 3 days have had their account reactivated again.)
- Perform car inspection
- Certify for transportation and list cars with numbers assigned so that they can be properly identified.
- Verify car insurance and require the Rideshare Endorsement to obtain the license and for renewals.
- Limit the number of rideshare licenses. Limit the number of cars to avoid oversaturation of the market through car rentals. The market must be studied, and a number assigned that can meet the demand of each city. Each driver must have the possibility of making a minimum number of trips.
§ This process is intended to be done to
- Eliminate fraud by at least 95% and risks by at least 80%.
- Remove the absolute power of Uber, Lyft, InDrive or any other company over drivers
- Stop abuse by deactivating and acquiring new drivers at their will. We estimate that approximately 70% of each city is a potential market of drivers for these companies.
- This business is for everyone, but not everyone can do it. There must be regulations and limits to prevent the value of the business from being damaged.
- Giving drivers protection
- Giving value to the business
- Provide the ability for drivers to negotiate their contracts with these companies in a more honest manner
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