Ride-hailing in Metro Vancouver: Uber, Lyft, Sidecar - emerging technologies

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

It's not about the insurance people, it's about the government settings rates, and number of vehicles. It's just another cab company now.

Let the market sort it out. If people want to be stuck in gridlock, all the power to them.

I think the free market has already shown us what would happen. spoiler alert - the majority of the cost of rideshare would be transferred to the most disadvantaged people.

In other words, the true amount that the average Uber driver makes, net of all costs, is probably about $10 an hour. That varies by location, of course. But there are relatively few places in the U.S. where you can live a decent life on $10 an hour. You certainly can’t support a kid on that -- working 40 hours a week for that amount would put you right around the federal poverty line for a family of two.

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In the short run, people are subject to all sorts of behavioral biases. In the long run, they wise up. As of 2017, about 96 percent of Uber drivers stopped driving for the company within a year. Some of these were probably using the ride-hailing app as temporary work in between more formal employment, or as a side gig. But surveys suggest that drivers are simply not able to make as much money as they expected. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission accused Uber of misleading drivers about how much they could earn, and Uber settled for $20 million in early 2017.