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"If that's where we were right now, you would see a very different equation on the road. "When I started driving, I was guaranteed 80% of the fare," Moore said. And drivers have continued to call out the companies, saying it's increasingly difficult to make a living on the apps, especially when compared with the early days of the companies. The Washington Post reported last month that despite the high rates passengers are paying, drivers aren't getting their cut. Some gig workers have become increasingly frustrated with how the rideshare giants pay out, especially as surge pricing continues. Moore said she knows former drivers who have since gotten office jobs or switched to driving semi trucks, with no intention of coming back. Lyft is also exploring ways to reduce drivers' expenses, according to the report published Friday.īut many drivers have gotten a taste of what working outside of the gig economy is like. Uber, for example, is considering funding education and career-building programs, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, if demand continues to outpace supply, it could pressure the rideshare companies to make more fundamental changes to cater to drivers. Uber and Lyft said they thought the supply and demand problems would see recovery in the third quarter, which started July 1. The company has also heavily invested resources into getting people vaccinated, offering free rides to vaccine spots through early July, as a part of its effort to get people back on the road. According to Uber, 80% of drivers planned to come back once vaccinated. "This thing is not over yet, people can still get sick," Louis Wu, a Texas resident and former rideshare driver, told CNBC. population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Drivers are ~40% below capacity."įormer ride-sharing drivers are staying off the road for a variety of reasons.įor many it's fear of the continued pandemic, which is what made them stop driving in the first place. "Right now it's a mini debacle for Uber and Lyft in terms of driver shortages and surge pricing throughout the US," Wedbush's Dan Ives said in an email. "Drivers are in a low-key strike," Nicole Moore, a volunteer organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, told CNBC.
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