[Sssssssssss]

Longtime lurker, first time poster

Article :https://seekingalpha.com/article/4257981-lyft-transforming-shareholders-bag-holders

Having read many pieces by people trying to inform on key problems with Uber Lyft et al, I think this article by Little on SeekingAlpha pretty clearly lays out the market situation as it has evolved between drivers and the TNCs.

While I could nitpick on how Little understands shared ride cancellation, he has a clear understanding of the major risks Lyft has presently and into it's future.

To my knowledge, the only other market to shut its doors to drivers has been the Las Vegas UberBlack unit. I think utilization rates are a major component as to why these companies have halted onboarding of drivers even while they remain capped at number of vehicles in NYC.

Driver regulations can move us towards the goal of lowering driver market saturation while ensuring a safe experience for all. Mandatory drug testing at onboarding and post-incident, regional knowledge tests, and utilization rate implementation are three examples of regulations that would move us towards a better driving experience.

How should DC move towards these goals?

 

[GGDaddy]

I personally prefer a Craftman hammer. I swing from the elbow, and try to minimize any wrist movement. This results in nice flat contact with the nail head to maximize effectiveness of each strike.

Just responding to the thread title as written...

 

[Sssssssssss]

I personally prefer a Craftman hammer. I swing from the elbow, and try to minimize any wrist movement. This results in nice flat contact with the nail head to maximize effectiveness of each strike.

Just responding to the thread title as written...

I mean, first you gotta go for the flip catch otherwise how can you 2k in stump?

Really though it's clear that serious players look at this forum to get an understanding of what it means to drive for these companies, I remember that WaPo guy that got it close.

I didn't find in the article what the sentiment analysis has uncovered but it shouldn't be too surprising to anyone who's read the frustrations here laid bare here.

Most drivers would agree that there are too many drivers right? If we can't push for resolutions that reduce driver counts in a way that makes sense for us, in whose interest will these decisions be made? We should recognize that there will be necessary heartbreak in order to get to a healthier ecosystem.

 

[Another Uber Driver]

I have been stating something similar for some time. The TNC sells stock. The initial investors take a payoff on their investment and cash out, bow out, whatever they do. They might even retain their stock, as they will get paid with the funds raised from the IPO one way or another. They will not care if toilet paper becomes more valuable than their stock certificates, they have been paid.

The initial investors step aside, up step the new investors. The losses mount, the company fails. The new investors are left standing in their underwear on the street in front of the HQ building in SF on whose door is an eviction notice.

This is the new way of doing business. You build up something, run up its credit, take your payoff, skedaddle and leave the patsy standing in his underwear in front of the joint. Trump does it. Icahn does it. They think that this is something new. The Mob has been doing this since the First World War era. The Mob is still doing this, except now it is on a global basis. Further, the Mob has taken on some new and some old partners, as that causes far larger a global financial crisis.

Fear not, though, ants. If Uber and Lyft crash on a Monday, by Wednesday, there will be five new TNCs' signing up drivers and two of them will have pings going out by Friday.

The DFHV already has a process in place. All that it need do is expand the licencing process to include TNC drivers. DFHV could restrict trips within D.C. to D.C. registered vehicles, or, keep it the way that it is as long as the neighbouring states will continue to extend the pick up privileges to D.C. licenced vehicles.

There should be a provision that requires the carrying of TNC endorsements on the private insurance policy and that the carriers licenced within the three jurisdictions make available said endorsements.

The licencing and insurance requirements alone will weed out many drivers, as fewer would be willing to spend that kind of money or jump through those kinds of hoops for a "side hustle".

The jurisdictions should require the TNCs to extend their opportunities to the taxicab drivers, either by offering a separate platform for them, as does Uber, or, allowing them to run the lower end TNC trips under certain conditions and with certain guarantees. This would require some co-operation among the regulators, TNCs, enforcement. Uber had a grand idea a few years back where it was going to allow the Uber Taxis to run X trips during rush or other busy hours. Uber offered a very nice guarantee that was tied to an acceptance rate. For the guarantee offered, the acceptance rate was no problem. What Uber failed to do was get this cleared by regulators and enforcement. Participation in this would have required violation of certain taxicab laws in all three jurisdictions. Had Uber actually secured a waiver, which could have been done, this programme could be working to-day. Clearly, Uber dropped the ball.


I lave long maintained that the new investors would be left holding the proverbial bag. I simply used a different image of their standing outside in their underwear; same difference.

 

[yankdog]

I have strong opinions on the quality of the source of this article

BUT...

This particular article is on point.

 

[SOLA-RAH]

Shoutout to @t5contra ...a huge chunk of SeekingAlpha's story was from his screenshots.
Thread: https://uberpeople.net/threads/is-lyft-done.314622/#post-4800601

 

[Another Uber Driver]

Shoutout to @t5contra ...a huge chunk of SeekingAlpha's story was from his screenshots.

Thank you for the "heads", Perhaps the next time that he logs onto the Forum, he will see your mention in the Alerts and post something to tell us more about this.

 

[New2This]

Great article. Will finish it as I take my morning constitutional.

I loved this quote:

And this one:

He nailed that too. Ive done next to no Lyft aside from 45+ minute notification trips that I can **** Lyft over on and Shuffling Shared because of Personal Power Zones:

https://uberpeople.net/threads/personal-power-zones.321465/#post-4939625

Lyft can, in the immortal words of V.P. Cheney "GFY"

When you make Uber look like the second shadiest company on the planet that says something.

 

[SOLA-RAH]

I mean, first you gotta go for the flip catch otherwise how can you 2k in stump?

...
Most drivers would agree that there are too many drivers right? If we can't push for resolutions that reduce driver counts in a way that makes sense for us, in whose interest will these decisions be made? We should recognize that there will be necessary heartbreak in order to get to a healthier ecosystem.

That's where you're wrong, kiddo. I'd argue that there aren't enough drivers driving at the right times when there's money to be made...low driver supply is why it regularly surges +$20 at 5am on a Monday morning, 3am on the weekends, or 11pm Sunday nights at DCA. If there were enough drivers at all times, the map would never surge. It boggles my mind to see a car out on every corner in the rider app at 11am on a Tuesday. Great for uber and the occasional mid-day pax, but terrible for those drivers. It's also great for the drivers who know what they're doing and when the best times to drive are since the mid-weekday drivers keep the service reliable (at basically no cost to uber), allowing the vets to swoop in and cherry-pick the profitable rides when they know they're gonna surge.

As long as drivers are willing to sit online waiting for a ping for hours at a time all for the price of free, uber will continue to exist. I see no signs of this ever ending at the moment. Turning a profit on Uber is a learned game...it just doesn't come naturally to someone on their first day, month, or maybe even after a year. To be successful at this, many others must fail. I know it's cruel, but that's just the way this gig works.

Oh, and @New2This, you had a credit too:

https://uberpeople.net/threads/consequences-of-lyfts-personal-power-zones.322574/

Also, @Nuke:

https://uberpeople.net/threads/new-lyft-scam-hot-spots.320791/#post-4907953

Penn Little obviously spent lots of time reading in the DC forum. Good job on the quality posts, everyone.

 

[nutzareus]

I actually read the entire article, and it’s a nice TL;DR version of UP Dot Net with screenshots from driver posts.