Sarah Lacy Doesn't Seem To Get It -'Drivers Want To.Get Paid

Sarah Lacy's publication, Pando, charges readers to read. Makes sense. They write about technology to make their livings over at Pando, but to bring readers/customers in they offer free samples, that's to say they unlock articles for limited time frames. The idea's not so freeloaders (such as I could be called,) get to take advantage of their work without paying. The idea's that people who find the articles interesting, or useful will decide to pay their fair share. After all the writers and other people at Pando have bills to pay. So do taxi drivers and Uber drivers too.

Now Uber drivers face serious problems in earning enough to pay their bills and keep their cars in running condition, since the base fares are lower than taxi fares are in most markets. Uber exempts itself from the legal and financial obligations of a taxi owner, pushing all costs and downside problems and obligations onto the drivers, who don't get to set the fares they can charge their customers , except for one loophole. Surge prices.



Surge prices are multiples of the rock bottom base prices set by Uber, and with which the drivers either eat or take care of their cars, rather than do both. Sarah Lacy knows this on an.intellectual level I don't doubt, but it seems that in her heart of hearts the drivers appear at her beck and call just to serve, and serve selflessly.

It isn't so! And so when Uber drivers (half of whom are college graduates,) discovered how to "rainmake" surge prices, and someone among them developed an app that helps them make rain more certainly, the app and the practice of rain making started to spread. In Lacy's heart of hearts this has to be simply a reflection of drivers hostility to Travis Kalanick and an adaptation of Kalanick's ethical and moral standards. It might be so, but it's safe to say that the "false surges" that so trouble Ms Lacy are a survival tactic and that they have to do this does say that Uber (and Lyft) customers are exploiters who the drivers are resisting by their wits and their obvious growing solidarity.

An Uber driver who goes by the monicker Uber Man makes YouTube videos about the ins and outs of Uber. He's saying that in recent days Uber passengers have been charged surge pricing but the drivers are not getting their contractually due share of this money they've worked for and earned. More to come.