That's seemingly what OP was demanding, given the displeasure he was expressing at uber for the practice.
>but back when I worked in restaurants if things were slow I'd be sent home and know when I was expected to be back be that the next day or in time for the dinner rush. I wasn't randomly clocked off for 15-30 minutes, and expected to hang around, then suddenly told I'm back on. In fact we'd call that wage theft, (which is very common in the US). But suddenly for Uber such a thing is acceptable.
It's the difference between employment vs working as a contractor. Cab drivers, who also work as independent contractors. No fare, no pay.
>The tight margins of the hack trade can leave cabbies feeling frustrated. “Sometimes, I don’t like it, because I have the potential to lose money,” said M. D. Islam, a cabby from Queens who has been driving for six months. He often earns less than $100 a day, he said; if his cab breaks down, or he can’t find passengers, he may end up in the red.
> It's the difference between employment vs working as a contractor.
That's absolutely NOT the difference between employment and contracting. The general expectation from the IRS is that if you are setting someone's hours (and Uber is, the driver chooses to be available, but within that availability window, Uber can arbitrarily define them as unavailable), then they are an employee.
Contractors don't just hang around your job site because you tell them you don't have work for them now but "stick around 5 minutes or 2 hours, we might have some then".
Agreed. These tech companies are all squeezing the definition of contractor for their benefit.
Amazon similarly abuses on-demand contractors and we see this for example in the little popup trailer parks in their distribution center parking lots during holiday crush...
I get it, as a consumer these are nice services to have - but it doesn't mean we have to be OK with these labor conditions. Further, from a self interested point of view, its a slippery slope to Amazon & the rest figuring out how to do the same to their SWEs over time.
>the driver chooses to be available, but within that availability window, Uber can arbitrarily define them as unavailable
This is basically the result of new york's legislation. In jurisdictions without such legislation, uber doesn't cap the amount of drivers that can be online. Moreover "availability" in this context is entirely arbitrary. The amount of fares available is still the same. The only difference is that uber caps the amount of people that can be online because new york puts them on the hook if anyone is "available" but doesn't make minimum wage. This was never the case for regular cabbies, but for whatever reason decided to apply this to ride hailing apps only.
>Contractors don't just hang around your job site because you tell them you don't have work for them now but "stick around 5 minutes or 2 hours, we might have some then".
Right, because the labor required to build a house isn't spiky like the demand for drivers.
> That's seemingly what OP was demanding, given the displeasure he was expressing at uber for the practice.
From the OP
> Uber runs an algorithm which kicks drivers out of the app randomly if demand gets too low, without warning or indication of when they can get back in. It can be minutes or hours.
I think the OP makes it very clear that the issue is the lack of communication especially around when they can work next, not that Uber isn't willing to maintain a surge staff during minimal demand.
>I think the OP makes it very clear that the issue is the lack of communication especially around when they can work next
"When they can work next" is entirely dependent on supply and demand. Also, it seems like he was more upset about drivers having to wait around while not getting paid, than having to periodically check the app. From the OP:
>To avoid having to pay any difference to make up the hourly wage to drivers, Uber runs an algorithm which kicks drivers out of the app randomly if demand gets too low, without warning or indication of when they can get back in. It can be minutes or hours. So the drivers remain on the road, driving/idling, waiting to get back into the app. The "work" is still getting done, but it doesn't count against Uber.
In a later comment he also lamented about how uber was "leave [drivers] hanging by an on-call thread". I doubt that if uber added push notifications for slots becoming available, that OP would be even slightly placated. The issue is that there's more willing drivers than active "slots" available, since such slots uber have to pay for. As a result, there's still going to be people waiting around for a chance to make money, while being unpaid. Adding push notifications only means people don't have to check their phones every 5-10 minutes for a slot, but they're still forced to wait around unpaid.
> "When they can work next" is entirely dependent on supply and demand.
Are you really going to try to make the case that a company the size of Uber finds the demand in NEW YORK, of all places, unpredictable? That speaks more to incompetence on Uber's part than any unrealistic expectations elsewhere. Especially since restaurants have managed to operate in far more unpredictable conditions for all of human history.
> Also, it seems like he was more upset about drivers having to wait around while not getting paid.
Right, yeah. If they said hey, we don't need you for the next four hours, drivers don't have to wait around. If they say it'll be 15 minutes, drivers know to wait around. Instead, they conveniently tell them nothing, effectively keeping them on-call. A bit of communication fixes that.
That's seemingly what OP was demanding, given the displeasure he was expressing at uber for the practice.
>but back when I worked in restaurants if things were slow I'd be sent home and know when I was expected to be back be that the next day or in time for the dinner rush. I wasn't randomly clocked off for 15-30 minutes, and expected to hang around, then suddenly told I'm back on. In fact we'd call that wage theft, (which is very common in the US). But suddenly for Uber such a thing is acceptable.
It's the difference between employment vs working as a contractor. Cab drivers, who also work as independent contractors. No fare, no pay.
>The tight margins of the hack trade can leave cabbies feeling frustrated. “Sometimes, I don’t like it, because I have the potential to lose money,” said M. D. Islam, a cabby from Queens who has been driving for six months. He often earns less than $100 a day, he said; if his cab breaks down, or he can’t find passengers, he may end up in the red.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/nyregion/new-york-taxi-dr...