Tag Archives: tnc

Mayor’s ‘Fare Share’ plan would add minimum wage for drivers and 51 cent fee to every Uber and Lyft ride in Seattle to pay for streetcar, housing, and industry regulation

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(Image: CHS)

Seattle is preparing to target one of the most lucrative — and easily the most traffic-bloating — corners of the city’s “app” economy to raise more money for public transit, affordable housing, and, yes, further regulating and monitoring the industry.

Mayor Jenny Durkan has rolled out a 2020 “Fare Start” budget proposal calling for new legislation that would add 51 cents to the cost of every Uber and Lyft ride in the city and set new minimum wage requirements for the industry’s freelance drivers.

“Economic models really vary from app to app,” Mayor Durkan said Wednesday in a media briefing outlining the new proposal and explaining why the “transportation network company” industry tax and regulation ended up in Seattle’s fast lane. Continue reading →

Seattle making plans to set a minimum rate for services like Uber, Lyft

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Ride sharing has faced a few bumps in its approach to the rider-rich streets of Seattle

Having already led the way on the $15 minimum wage, Seattle is poised to set a minimum rate for car services like Uber and Lyft. The Seattle City Council approved Monday a resolution that will put City Hall on a crash course studying the so-called “transportation network companies” industry in an effort to better understand the possible impacts of forcing a minimum pay rate for drivers.

Monday’s resolution sets a proposed price point of $2.40 for a minimum base fare for TNC rides in Seattle — the companies currently charge a $1.35 minimum. Before Monday’s vote, Uber and Lyft drivers and customers spoke against regulation and what they said was union-driven interference in the industry. Council president Bruce Harrell went off script to forcefully deny that the Teamsters Union is driving Seattle’s effort. Continue reading →

City Council votes to give Seattle for-hire drivers union rights — UPDATE

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A night in the life of a Capitol Hill driver: James Jackson has been driving Uber and Lyft for about 8 months, he tells CHS. “The best time for any driver is weekends, Friday-Sunday, or at night. Anytime after 6 is a good time to drive. Myself, I get off at 3, I go pick up my kids and drop them with my wife, and I start driving after 6. After 6 the roads are more clear, it’s easier to pick up riders without the hassle of traffic jams. I usually go to 11pm, 12pm five days a week.”

A night in the life of a Capitol Hill driver: James Jackson has been driving Uber and Lyft for about 8 months, he tells CHS. “The best time for any driver is weekends, Friday-Sunday, or at night. Anytime after 6 is a good time to drive. Myself, I get off at 3, I go pick up my kids and drop them with my wife, and I start driving after 6. After 6 the roads are more clear, it’s easier to pick up riders without the hassle of traffic jams. I usually go to 11pm, 12 five days a week.”

Seattle could become the first U.S. city to allow drivers for rideshare services like Uber and Lyft to collectively bargain with the app-based companies. The City Council is scheduled to take its final vote Monday afternoon on a controversial measure to allow independently contracted drivers to unionize in order to negotiate wages and working conditions with “transportation network companies.”

The vote will be closely watched nationwide and beyond as rideshare services have rapidly expanded, taking on hundreds of thousands of drivers worldwide.

UPDATE 3:45 PM: The City Council voted 8-0 Monday to allow Seattle’s for-hire drivers to unionize. The bill’s passage makes Seattle the first city in the nation to attempt to give drivers the right to collectively bargain with app-based ridesharing companies. Council members still have the difficult task of shaping the mechanism by which unions can represent drivers in Seattle, not to mention responding to all-but-certain legal challenges from TNCs and other for-hire driver companies.

Council member Mike O'Brien was the bill's primary sponsor.

Council member Mike O’Brien was the bill’s primary sponsor.

Council member Kshama Sawant said the bill was necessary as increasing numbers of workers are employed on a freelance basis. “Ever since sharecropping, the sharing economy has meant sharing in one direction. That is, workers have the privilege of sharing what they produce with their bosses,” she said.

After many committee meetings on the issue and an unusually in-depth analysis from the City’s law and finance departments, the council spent relatively little time discussing the bill. Drivers and representatives from the taxi company Eastside for Hire spoke against the measure during public comment, saying they were not given adequate time to learn about the bill. “There are ways to help drivers that are immediate and within your authority,” said Eastside’s Samatar Guled.

Following the vote, Mayor Ed Murray said in a statement that he would not sign the bill, but would not veto it either, paving the way for it to become law. “I remain concerned that this ordinance, as passed by the Council, includes several flaws, especially related to the relatively unknown costs of administering the collective bargaining process and the burden of significant rulemaking the Council has placed on City staff,” he said.

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Uber test of ‘carpool’ service includes Capitol Hill stop

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book_device-484x1024The 14th Ave parking lot across from Porchlight Coffee will be part of a small experiment from big transportation network company Uber.

Thursday morning, the first Capitol Hill pick-up for the company’s newest test program is scheduled for sometime after 7 AM. It’s like a carpool for people who don’t have cars and who are willing to pay $5 for a ride. It’s like a bus for people who don’t want to ride a bus and who are willing to pay $5 for a ride. It’s uberHOP.

uberHOP is a new service we’re piloting in Seattle beginning Thursday, December 10. It will be available along select routes during commuting hours. Here’s how it works:

  • Open the app and select uberHOP. Choose a route and request an uberHOP.

  • We’ll pair you up with a driver as well as other commuters traveling in the same direction. You’ll then get directions on where and when to catch your ride.

  • Using those directions, walk to your pickup location where a driver and your fellow commuters will meet you. You’ll need to be on time as your uberHOP driver will leave promptly.

  • At the end of your journey, you’ll be dropped off at a pre-destined stop so you can walk the last few blocks to work.

The Capitol Hill stop in the parking lot next to the First AME Church is part of three routes Uber is planning to test in Seattle: Capitol Hill-downtown, Fremont-downtown, and Ballard-South Lake Union.

uberHOP will cost Capitol Hill riders $5 flat for a ride to the designated downtown stop or back. The service will use the company’s ranks of freelance drivers. CHS reported earlier, by the way, that independent drivers were District 3’s top new business in 2015 based on new business licenses in the city.

Uber already has an existing carpooling service called UberPool operating in “several cities worldwide,” Geekwire reports. UberPool does not require riders to walk to pre-determined locations but does not use a flat rate like uberHOP.

That flat rate and the use of specific stops make the new pilot one of Uber’s most Metro-like services for the company often accused of being as erosive of public transportation as it is complementary. Perhaps someday soon, you’ll be answering surveys about moving an uberHOP route from Pine to E Olive Way.