Drivers with the rideshare apps Uber and Lyft took to the picket line this weekend, demanding better wages and safety protocols.
A study of the apps released this month by UCLA’s Labor Center found that, while prices for rides in New York City have skyrocketed in the last four years, driver pay has not.
In April 2022, Uber and Lyft took a 30% or more cut of the passenger fare for nearly a third of all rides in the city, according to the study. In comparison, the companies took just 9% of passenger fares in February 2019.
Drivers in Pittsburgh said they have seen a similar trend.
Gregory Gent, who has been driving for Uber for nearly four years, said the company is pocketing a larger cut from each ride, leaving full-time drivers with little.
Gent said the income he has earned driving for the company in recent months was not enough to keep up with necessary expenses, like car maintenance and repairs. He said that creates a safety issue for everyone involved.
“There's going to be drivers that are going to try to continue to drive [in order to] get the vehicle fixed,” Gent said. “It causes desperation, because, for some drivers, this is all they have.”
Strike organizers said approximately 100 drivers participated in the work stoppage, with about a quarter of them in attendance at a rally held in Downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday.
It was timed to interfere with demand tied to Valentine’s Day weekend and the Super Bowl, lasting from 3 p.m. on Friday to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Gent said the apps previously disclosed to drivers how fares were divvied up. But last summer, both Uber and Lyft switched to an upfront pricing model, which allowed passengers to see what they will pay for their ride before accepting it.
Drivers, on the other hand, could only see how much they would earn rather than the total cost of the fare. But Gent said asking riders what they paid revealed big gaps; on some trips, the ride-sharing company took as much as 70% of the fare, while 30% went to the driver.
Officials with Uber disputed that, stating the company took, on average, around 20% of fares in the fourth quarter of 2022. That number, however, only accounts for revenue, excluding tolls and fees the company must pay to third parties.
“All drivers receive the fare and destination information upfront before they accept a trip. For the final quarter of 2022, drivers in Pittsburgh made more than $34 per hour of engaged time,” said Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for Uber.
A representative for Lyft said in a statement that drivers nationwide earned at least $35 per utilized hour including tips and bonuses on average.
Still, Gent said strikers want Uber and Lyft to give them a larger cut and return to disclosing the cost-share to drivers.
Strike organizers plan to ask local and state officials for legislation that protects drivers’ wages and safety, too.
In a statement last week, strike organizers cited multiple murders of ride-sharing drivers in the Pittsburgh region as examples of the dangers drivers face, which they said is due to a lack of rider verification and security checks.
They are calling on Uber and Lyft to require all riders to register with a name that matches their state ID to use the app.
In response, Uber said it has prioritized driver safety in its policies, including through a rider verification feature that requires anyone who sets up a new account with a gift card to upload a form of identification. The app conducted an audit of rider account names in 2022, resulting in the freezing of some accounts with fake names.
“We’re committed to doing what we can to help keep drivers safe,” said a spokesperson for Lyft in a statement. “While safety incidents on our platform are rare, we realize that even one is too many. Behind every report is a real person and real experience. That’s why we continue to take action and invest in technology, policies and partnerships to make Lyft as safe as it can be.”
Drivers plan to strike again this spring.
