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back to article Speaking in Tech's Greg accepts dare to moonlight as an Uber driver

speaking_in_tech Greg Knieriemen podcast enterprise Greg, Ed and Melissa are joined by Cory Minton, Dell’s Big Data man, to discuss the on-demand economy, Oracle licensing, Platform-as-a-Service and the holographic universe. The details… (00:00) Throwing down with Smallbone (00:47) Introducing Cory Minton of Dell EMC ( …

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  1. Oh Homer
    Holmes

    "Uber driving sucks"

    More generally I'd say that "performance driven" work sucks, especially when the thing you're supposed to perform is nickel & dime stuff.

    Performance driven work with a large baseline in your comfort zone is another matter, assuming that baseline is really guaranteed, but increasingly we're seeing even menial jobs being tied to performance, with a baseline (and a realistically achievable target) that's barely equal to minimum wage.

    The "service economy" in reality translates to minimum wage drones in call centres, or in this case driving cabs.

    I'd still like to see a detailed analysis of the practical differences between being an independent taxi driver and being an Uber driver, and in particular the actual (not "potential") profits.

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    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: "performance driven work sucks"

      Yes it does. I'm currently working a somewhat comparable system right now (not a driving gig though) and the pay is erratic as hell.

      And even though I'm an independent contractor, the company still dictates my appointment times and payout.

      Over the last 6 months, pay per job has dropped, payout is taking longer, job offerings and the ability to claim a job have become unreliable and the dispatch interface has been badly redesigned.

      The Uber business model is bullshit.

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  2. cd

    You can do your own at uberpeople.net. Lots of actual experience about on-demand services.

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  3. Oh Homer
    Unhappy

    Re: uberpeople.net

    Thanks for the link.

    The first two threads from the Manchester, UK section of that forum are entitled "Very low earnings over Christmas and New Year's Eve. Disastrous" and "Take home only £150 for 40 hours work" respectively, which is pretty much what I expected.

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  4. Pliny the Whiner

    Don't remove your clothing at a "strip mall" (and other idioms)

    "The first two threads from the Manchester, UK section of that forum are entitled 'Very low earnings over Christmas and New Year's Eve. Disastrous' and 'Take home only £150 for 40 hours work' respectively, which is pretty much what I expected."

    Let's think about this for a second. Let's suppose you're an Uber driver who's making money hand over fist*. Do you:

    1. Talk up your experience so that you create more competitors in the Uber ecosystem; or

    2. Talk down your experience so that you can keep laughing all the way to the bank?

    Altruism or capitalism?

    * Go ahead. Make a fist with your left hand and then position your open, right hand over it. How does this mean "big money" to anyone for any reason?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't remove your clothing at a "strip mall" (and other idioms)

      Take the challenge... drive it for a week and decide if it makes any sense. I think Uber completely games the system by setting the market rate. If this were a truly dynamic, market-driven sharing economy, drivers would be able to plug in their own rate and riders could decide whether or not to accept that rate.

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    2. Oh Homer
      Reply Icon
      Childcatcher

      Re: "Talk down your experience"

      The problem with that theory is that being an Uber driver is not exactly inconspicuous, it's an unavoidably very public occupation, but I've yet to see or even hear about one who didn't live like a pauper.

      Hiding your finances under a pseudonym in a forum is one thing, hiding it from your neighbours in a council tenement slum is quite another.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thanks, for wasting my time

    I was curious to hear the Uber experience, then comes the tidbit that he "gamed" the system by going back home after every trip. C'mon, that's not gaming the system, it's taking an interesting experiment and crapping on it. It invalidates pretty much all of your observations, aside from the fact that people get drunker later in the evening.

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