Saturday, April 25, 2015

Uber's strange New York numbers. (someone is full of something)

Uber now claims some 17500 Cars on the streets of New York and these cars make around 44,000 "legitimate" trips a day, i.e. they use the app, giving the company and the tax collectors their cut. I see Uber drivers hustling at clubs and hotels though by the nature of this criminal activity there aren't reliable figures. There is nothing new about hustlers splitting with club and hotel doormen and not with Uber or the government.  17500 drivers making 44,000 trips a day is not a lot. Less than three trips each. Now, Uber does have actual ex yellow taxi drivers and livery drivers who make their living and not just spare time money driving. These drivers logically must be a relatively small core who do most of the driving for dollars. Anyone who does four trips in a month is counted as an Uber driver. These drivers may never work for Uber again but they'll be counted till they return the Uber issued phone. Hailo used to play the same numbers hand. Remember Hailo?

gu.com/p/3hytpUber drivers in New York supposedly make $30 an hour. This number is skewed upwards by the number of drivers who only work the best hour or two. Uber does not count as "working" a driver who has no customers in his car, even if he has the app on and is nowhere near his home.

Yellow cab owners have lost drivers to Uber but I suspect most of them were part timers, as many yellow taxi drivers have been for ages  in New York. I suspect that many of the phantom yellow drivers have gone green, an entirely other ball of wax.


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