[tc4me]

Uber ban in Vienna - taxi takes next small step


Actually, Uber is no longer allowed to offer his app in Austria - but as soon as a final judgment has been issued, the US mediator finds some nooks and crannies to put off the consequences of the judgment again.

[Darth-Apple]

Ahhh that's interesting. I was unaware that they banned it. How long has the restricting been in place?

[tc4me]

The bulky name "Occasional Traffic Law" hides a small revolution that can be fatal to the business model of the US travel agent Uber: Uber drivers are treated like taxi drivers - they have to charge the same tariffs, combat prices are prohibited and Uber- Driver will soon need a taxi exam. This closes a legal loophole that allows the company to cut wages.

The US travel agent Uber has been active in Vienna since 2014 and works with numerous rental car companies and over 2,000 drivers. The ride service can be booked via smartphone, the fare is not fixed in contrast to the taxi: it is determined by yourself. And there is one thing above all else: the price war with other taxi services. But that is at the expense of the driver.

UBER: COMPETITORS COMPETE WITH MARKET PRICES FROM THE MARKET
Capital injections from Goldman-Sachs and from Saudi Arabia make it possible for uber to offer competitive prices. The aim is to push competitors out of the market with extremely low fares. The initial losses are accepted or compensated for by the poor pay of the self-employed drivers.

UBER DRIVER ON DUMPING WAGE
Dinko drives for over. He gets between 2.50 and 25 euros for a trip - 25 percent of it goes to uber. He has no influence on the fare itself, which is determined by himself.

When he started, he had to advance 400 euros rent for the approved uber car. He drove eight hours a day for ten days - and had just earned 1,000 euros. 700 euros of that went for the car rental and the tank. As a self-employed person, he also has to pay his social security from the money.

Dinko drives at least 50, rather 60 hours a week to make ends meet - without entitlement to unemployment benefits or sickness benefits.

[Darth-Apple]

Wow, that's interesting. I never knew about that.

In America, Uber pretty much completely succeeded at pushing competitors and taxis out of the market. Lyft is still a thing, but Lyft is basically the same concept as Uber. Nobody here would ever consider taking a taxi nowadays. Uber does it for about 1/5 of the cost.

That being said, very few Uber drivers really do it fo a living here. It's mostly just part-time side money that's easy to make. The problem that most Uber drivers have here is the insurance. You are required to get commercial insurance (which is very expensive) in order to be properly insured in the event of an accident. Most drivers cannot afford such packages and simply forgo them. If I recall, Uber does have some umbrella insurance to cover these cases, but their insurance has a lot of loopholes and isn't sufficient.

All in all, Uber completely changed the market here. Taxis are pretty much almost completely gone except for big cities such as New York. Drivers who do Uber part time love it, but drivers who attempt to do it full time strongly disagree and think it is very insufficient to pay their bills.

[SpookyZalost]

Back when I managed the pizza hut I knew a few of my delivery drivers who worked Uber and a similar food to go service grub hub. I can see the latter being very popular right now because most restaurants are working with them to bring food to customers despite the quarantine.

[Darth-Apple]

Yea grubhub and instacart are huge in my city right now. I'm gonna start doing some orders here in about a week. Some people are making $30+ an hour. That's an insanely good pay right now.

[tc4me]

Amazon did not have its own delivery and delivery service until January 2020, but already, earlier the packages were delivered by DPD DHL UPS POST, so Amazon makes money again