This grievance is about the Predatory Pricing practices Uber & Lyft are conducting under Antitrust Laws with full-time drivers and the five passenger vehicle platforms: UberX, UberPool, Standard Lyft and LyftLine.  Uber has been competing with Lyft after beating the Taxi Industry lowering the mileage & minute rates below the operating costs of doing business when they don’t own any vehicles using (Section 4.2 pg. 7 Local Market Factors) in their contract. The fare rates are supposed to compensate vehicle operational, depreciation and replacement costs in addition to drivers’ time and personal expenses. They take 20-25% commission from the total fare along with booking fees from riders and are not entitled to lowering fare rates. This topic focuses on Uber as they’re the predatory pricing instigators but Lyft is just as liable for not knowing better and following Uber’s lead instead of taking action as I am. 

Drivers unfortunately sought employment attorneys for overtime compensation due to lack of profit, lack experience in business practices or do nothing because they think this is normal (business as usual). Uber has more 12k drivers in Miami-Dade County alone with almost all coming from W-2 hourly or salary backgrounds and not accustomed to self-employment. When Uber announced taking a 20% commission, drivers and I in good faith didn’t read their contracts and opt-out of their Arbitration Agreement within 30 days of accepting (Section 15.3 viii – Pages 15-21). The Arbitration agreement was temporarily nullified in California’s "Employee vs. Independent Contractor" case and got reinstated after winning but can be nullified again under Antitrust Laws because Independent Contractors fall under Uber’s classification with their contract executed in bad faith in that Uber either doesn’t know how the transportation industry operates or taking advantage of drivers not knowing business operating practices. I tried contacting two antitrust attorneys with one not responding and the other declining my case because it wasn’t worth their time nor deal with class action lawsuits as they work corporate cases like Wal-Mart vs. Kmart, for example. 

I enjoy transportation and working with a new concept like Uber but cannot under the conditions explained. I’ve been self-employed using my S-Corp in transportation since 2010 before Uber existed and bought three new vehicles for work purposes. In good faith, I traded a 2013 Hyundai Elantra with 56,702 miles in November 2015 for the same model 2016 using Uber’s $2,000 rebate to work full-time knowing mileage will void the warranty on the 2013 in over a year. I stopped working full-time at the end of April 2016 when 14k miles was reached in 5 months at a loss. UberPool was implemented 11/19/2015 and its negative affects didn’t take effect until 2016. I owed $19k on my 2016 worth $10k (NADA) with 30k miles at the end of 2016 because of profit loss to overpay the loan and not able to replace my car because of upside-down financing. I have to be selective of other jobs I accept fearing additional mileage depreciation and calling Uber customers before pickup to make sure their destinations are within my area or cancelling the trip. My S-Corp forces me look at income in this way but applies to all drivers as they are responsible for their own expenses. New drivers are always in demand because the existing ones can't maintain their vehicles or realize the income is not worth it. Uber has slightly improved since CEO Travis Kalanick resigned but the damage has already been done to drivers before then and their current efforts are not enough to continue business as explained above. I am advocating for Uber to raise the mileage and minute rate in their app algorithm to more than $1.50/mile after commission and ban Arbitration Agreements from sign-on contracts as it allows them to do as they wish without fearing repercussions. ALL of the problems below can be eliminated by simply raising the rate algorithms to where they need to be and shows how they are acting in bad faith. 

1.                   COST OF DOING BUSINESS: 

a.       Standard Rates: Fares are currently $0.91 per mile and $0.13 per minute *noting Uber raised their mile rate from $0.85 to $0.91 on 06/21/2017 after CEO Travis Kalanick resigned and Uber launched a “180 Days of Change” campaign with Lyft raising theirs on 07/21/2017. Uber over-saturated the market with drivers to justify rate reductions then announce rate changes through their app before being able accept trips. Not accepting the terms leads to not being able to work which is not fair for those who financed new vehicles to work full-time. This is a breach of contract (Section 4.2 pg. 7 Local Market Factors) as they should compete for customers from their commissions and booking fees instead manipulating rates belonging to the vehicle and driver. Earnings need to be over $1.50/mile after their commission calculating time & distance algorithm.

b.      Substandard Rates: UberPool & *LyftLine offer riders lower fixed prices by sharing the trip with other possible riders heading in the same direction paying drivers $0.75 per mile and $0.10 per minute introducing the 12 hour work day to earn more than $100. 

*Lyft on 07/13/2017 raised the LyftLine pay to drivers to match Standard Lyft rates without affecting riders. 

2.                   EXCESSIVE MILES: Mileage depreciation is not taken into account allowing riders to book long distance trips between counties and farther. Highway travel requires covering longer distances in less time at a loss from the start of the trip. Finding return trips or working far from home base is at an additional loss and worst traveling back with no compensation (dead trip).  Standard short distance trips are more profitable paying around $1/mile locally and $0.80/mile using highways traveling more than 1,000/miles a week to make $700-800. It is possible to accumulate more than 30k miles a year under these platforms. Long distance trips are assigned to the nearest driver with no regard to work expectations, schedule, travel region or other obligations. Riders are required to enter their destination before pickup but drivers can’t see it until the rider is in the vehicle. Long distance trips were not mentioned when recruiting as they advertised the platform as ridesharing. The excess miles cannot be claimed during tax season to reduce the principle nor have savings from taxes owed due to lack of profit. 

3.                   WORK SCHEDULE: Uber claims their benefit is being able to work your own schedule but isn’t true with low fares. Drivers have to work at least 12 hours to earn more than $100 or when hourly guarantees & price surges are offered during morning/evening rush hour, weekend evenings starting Thursday and all day Saturday/Sunday in the areas specified. Emails are sent every week announcing which areas to drive in having to travel there with no compensation. With hourly guarantees & price surges offered at specified times, drivers work during those times avoiding other times of the day conflicting Uber’s work your own schedule” statement. In addition, long distance trips can’t be expected if working part-time for a couple of hours with no return fare. 

4.                   FALSE ADVERTISING:

a.        *Hourly Guarantees: Uber misrepresents the pay structure by lowering the minute and distance algorithm to equal around $10/hour after totaling the fare then offer hourly guarantees to cover the difference if it isn’t earned though trips. Vehicles don’t operate by the hour as mileage and depreciation factors are involved which can range a lot depending on how many miles were driven within that hour. $35/hr divided by $1.50/mile equals 23 miles that can be travelled within that hour to be profitable. A trip from your Coconut Grove office to Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Int’l Airport during rush hour takes about 55 minutes and 30.9 miles multiplied by $1.50/mi should pay at least $46.35 after commission. Furthermore, night travel from downtown can add more miles in an hour being next to I-95 making $35/hour worthless. 

b.      *Dynamic Pricing: Uber says “This encourages more drivers to get on the road and head to areas of the city where demand is high for rides”. This feature is falsely advertised because the Dynamic Pricing zone disappears when their GPS senses enough drivers in the area leading to “wild goose chases”. Drivers turn off the app in known busy areas to wait for dynamic pricing to appear to turn on the app and take the higher fares. Surge pricing would not be necessary if fares were more than $1.50/mile as drivers would profit in all areas they want to drive. Dynamic pricing also affects riders as rates are increased when services are needed most and can be viewed as predatory. 

*Hourly Guarantees & Dynamic pricing apply to the driver closest to the requesting rider and not applicable to the next rider if the first riders destination is outside of the promotion zones. These tactics would not be necessary if fares were where they are supposed to be. 

c.       UberPool Earnings: UberPool was offered on 11/13/15 as an option by watching a video and taking a quiz but in fact cannot be terminated if drivers decide to opt-out. Uber claims drivers earn money during trips and on the way to pick up additional riders at $0.75/mile & $0.10/min. which is not profitable especially when extended to all of South Florida on 03/31/2016. 

d.      Misleading Ads: Uber targets supplemental income earners when full-time drivers make up the majority of the workforce. Uber says they have drivers with no complaints but those are part-time earners who don’t notice their vehicles’ depreciation because of unrelated jobs and the vehicle parked throughout the day. Part-time drivers mostly work after business hours where full-time drivers work throughout the day during morning and evening rush hour. 

5.                   NEW VEHICLES: Newer vehicles less than seven years are required to work where there are four possibilities of obtaining and paying off the vehicle.

a.       Cash Vehicle: This is the most difficult to obtain in new condition and will come with little or no warranty on used models. 

b.      *Used Vehicle Financing: The principle will be lower but with higher interest rates as banks consider these vehicles as high risk due to little or no warranty and higher chances of breaking down. Drivers lose more if the vehicle breaks due to lack of income, repair costs and financing on a broken vehicle. 

c.       *New Vehicle - 36mo Financing: This is the most expensive financing option as the monthly payments would be extremely high but the vehicle would be paid off by the time the warranty expires. 

d.      *New Vehicle - 60-75mo Financing: This option allows making minimum payments but requires overpayments to keep up with mileage depreciation and the ability of trading-up to a new vehicle when 60k miles are reached which is within the limits dealers desire to resale as Pre-Certified. Vehicles reaching 100k miles will have no warranty before the vehicle is paid-off within three years leading to upside-down financing. 

*These options are subject to credit worthiness and may have high interest rates making monthly payments higher for the same vehicle. Uber offered rebates to finance new vehicles only to be set-up to fail. These are noncommercial vehicles and earnings need to cover personal and business use. 

Fares need to cover the ability to profit and overpay bank loans and major maintenance as financing and credit worthiness is not easy to have. 

6.                   RENTALS/LEASING: Rental or leasing options are available with conditions that payments are deducted from weekly earnings before income is received. I have not used this option but know drivers that pay $222/wk for Hyundai Elantra and Nissan Sentra models committing them to work only for Uber. Another instance is when drivers lose their vehicle to mechanical failure and switch to this platform to continue working. This is unethical as drivers are committed with Uber if they need a personal vehicle. This would not be necessary if the operational, depreciation and replacement costs could be afforded through higher rate standards. It is rumored rental and leased vehicles get trip preference to collect the weekly rental or lease payments which I can’t confirm but appear circumstantial. 

7.                   RIDESHARE INSURANCE: Rideshare insurance required under SB 340 is more expensive than personal insurance policies making their pay structure not sustainable to operate within the law. My six month personal insurance costs $1,597.57 and got quoted $2,781 for rideshare insurance. 

8.                   MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES: Tolls and cleaning fees are reimbursed through riders but the reimbursements are lost to other expenses. Tolls get deducted from SunPass accounts and when the low balance limit is reached triggers the replenishment amount which is more than the tolls taken by riders over a period of time. Cleaning fees fall under the same circumstance as other expenses get prioritized over cleaning your vehicle.