Author: bedelman

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Australian study finds drivers paid below applicable minimum wage, concludes “exploitation”

Jim Stanford of the Centre for Future Work (Australia) analyzed payments to UberX drivers in six Australian cities. He found that drivers earn less than would be required under the applicable Australian wage requirements. After deducting Uber’s fees, applicable taxes, and the cost of vehicle and maintenance, the study found driver pay of A$14.62 per hour, well below the national statutory minimum wage (A$18.29) and less than half the weighted-average minimum wage including casual loading and penalty rates for evening and weekend work that would apply to similar waged employees in Australia (Modern Award #MA00063 for Passenger Vehicle Transportation). The study finds that this underpayment adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars per year in Australia alone.

The study notes that Uber’s prices are well below taxis, and asks how Uber gets the cost advantage that allows it to offer notably lower prices. Finding similar technology — drivers driving cars — the study concludes that underpayment of UberX drivers has been essential to Uber’s growth.

The study also criticized Uber’s right to change its contract with drivers at any time (which it suggested might violate Australia’s Competition and Consumer Act regarding fair contracts), Uber’s monitoring of driver performance through online ratings (which may not be reliable and are vulnerable to bias), that driver vehicles lack certain safety equipment regularly installed on taxis, that drivers work excessive hours, and that Uber seeks to provide excess capacity which can harm both drivers and congestion.

The study was particularly pointed in its assessment of who gains and who loses in Uber’s model: “The effective transfer of wealth from Uber drivers to the company’s owners (some of whom are billionaires)… is an especially galling distributional outcome.” The study’s conclusion is that Uber’s labor practices are “negative and exploitive.”

Study: Subsidising Billionaires: Simulating the Net Incomes of UberX Drivers in Australia and introduction

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Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s Tweet criticized as “insulting” and “destroy[ing] months of hard work”

Responding to a study by MIT researchers that found low earnings by Uber drivers, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi replied:

MIT = Mathematically Incompetent Theories (at least as it pertains to ride-sharing).

Inc.com criticized Khosrowshahi’s response, calling that Tweet inconsistent with a company “eager to learn from its mistakes and play nice with others” and questioning Khosrowshahi’s “mocking tone.”

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MIT researchers estimated median Uber driver profit at $3.37/hour

Four researchers associated with the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research studied Uber drivers earnings. Based on drivers’ responses to a survey, the researchers estimated that the median driver earned $3.37 per hour before taxes, and 74% earn less than minimum wage in their respective states. Net of vehicle expenses, 30% of drivers are losing money driving for Uber.

The authors also studied the impact of deductions on taxation of driver earnings. Based on IRS rules about deductability of vehicle expenses, the researchers estimated that 74% of driving is untaxes (because deductions exceed driver earnings).

Uber’s chief economist responded by questioning the researchers’ methodology, including survey questions, driver understanding, and possible errors in analysis. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi responded on Twitter: “MIT = Mathematically Incompetent Theories (at least as it pertains to ride-sharing).”

After criticism, lead author Stephen Zoepf offered a statement agreeing that alternative methods of calculating revenue and profit yield higher profit to drivers, and planning a revision of the paper with this principle in mind. Zoepf also called on Uber to provide more data about driver profits net of vehicle costs and to distinguish actual and tax-reportable vehicle expenses in order to clarify driver true economic profit versus tax subsidies.

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Settled Waymo (Google) litigation for $245 million

After four days of trial, Uber settled claims from Waymo (Google) that a former Google engineer had downloaded files before forming his own company that was later bought by Google. As part of the settlement, Waymo gets 0.34 of Uber’s equity, worth about $245 million at Uber’s estimated valuation of $72 billion.

Discussing the settlement, new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said his job includes “acknowledging and correcting mistakes of the past.” He continued: “The prospect that a couple of Waymo employees may have inappropriately solicited others to join Otto, and that they may have potentially left with Google files in their possession, in retrospect, raised some hard questions” though he continued to deny that any Waymo trade secrets made their way to Uber.

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Kalanick’s stated objectives for acquisition of Otto

In litigation with Google about alleged theft of Google intellectual property, Google counsel presented notes from John Bares, then director of Uber’s driverless car center in Pittsburgh, from a December 2015 meeting with Uber then-CEO Travis Kalanick discussing:

TK what we want
source
all of their data
Tagging
road map
pound of flesh
IP

On one interpretation, the “what we want” was what Uber wanted from a prospective acquisition of Otto — but notably, what Otto would in turn bring from Google (where key staff had worked previously). In particular, Uber had no fight with Otto and no reason to want a “pound of flesh” from Otto. In contrast, Uber’s tensions with Google were longstanding and well known. In that case, these notes would also indicate Uber intentionally wanting “all of their [Google’s] data” as well as Google’s “source [code]” and more.

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Kalanick defended Otto founder Anthony Levandowski

Against the advice of then-General Counsel Salle Yoo and without support from then-Chief Business Officer Emil Michael, Uber then-CEO Travis Kalanick pushed forward with the acquisition of Otto, a startup for self-driving trucks.

Bloomberg reports multiple reasons why Kalanick could have been concerned about the deal and Levandowski’s tactics.

One, Otto consisted primarily of ex-Google staff, and Uber’s acquisition of Otto angered Google leaders, including co-founder Larry Page.

Two, before the deal closed, Uber’s investigators learned that Levandowski had possessed five disks of data from Google’s driverless effort including “source code, design files, laser files, engineering documents and software related to Google self-driving cars.” Uber’s investigators also knew that Levandowski’s claims to have destroyed the disks could not be verified. Kalanick said he did not read the investigators’ report.

Three, Levandowski asked Uber to protect him from legal attacks from Google, and Kalanick agreed to do so.

Even when Google sued Uber over the acquisition, and Levandowski invoked the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination to decline to cooperate with litigation, Kalanick continued to support Levandowski, claiming he would eventually be vindicated.

Bloomberg further reports Kalanick calling Levandowski his “brother from another mother.”

Business Insider adds that Kalanick had vouched for Levandowski. Meanwhile, Emil Michael, then Uber’s head dealmaker, did not support the acquisition because he thought the price was too high.

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