Some tips for Uber drivers (but not the cash kind)

[C Moon]

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0923-lopez-moreuber-20150923-column.html
Los Angeles Times article, Sept. 23, 2015.

The driver, who feared being dumped by Uber if I used her name, didn't put all the blame on the company. Public demand for rock-bottom prices, regardless of the consequences, also came in for a good shot.

"When I first started driving for Uber in Orange County, what struck me most — other than the fact that I was operating at a loss — was the customers. I felt that Uber has created a class of entitled customers who expect a limousine service for the price of a rickshaw in India. I would, of course, realize later on that that is just the American customer — we have been conditioned to develop unrealistic expectations."

The first driver I quoted in this column called ride sharing a domestic form of outsourcing. "We have quietly been buying cheap clothes and other products made by underpaid and overworked people overseas, while raising our expectations for even cheaper and better products," she said. "And now we are riding in cars owned and driven by underpaid Americans."

She, too, is looking for other work.

[msongs]

1. uber is like the day laborers hanging around outside Home Depot nt

[geek tragedy]

2. There's no negotiating over the price--customer pays whatever Uber charges them. nt