Last November, Uber acquired online food delivery app Postmates, which the company says has resulted in nearly 5 million additional consumers, 160,000 couriers and over 25,000 merchants migrating from Postmates to Uber Eats, as well as helping Uber establish itself as a category leader in Los Angeles and New York City. Khosrowshahi said there’s been a trend of Uber Eats and courier orders increasing as rides decrease. If mobility continues to take a hit, as it has recently in cities like Sydney, Australia due to persistent lockdowns, Khosrowshahi says Uber can fall back on its other businesses, like freight, Uber Eats and courier service.
PEAK HOURS FOR UBER IN DALLAS DRIVERS
“From doubling down on our app quality to targeted and personalized reengagement campaigns, to completely redesigning our onboarding flow to make it easier and faster than ever to earn safely, to rolling out unique programs like free language learning from Rosetta Stone, or free tuition with ASU, our earner super app is unique in the depth and breadth of earnings opportunities we can offer drivers and couriers globally,” he said. Uber is hoping its investments in what it calls the “earner experience” will help retain workers. You have these disgustingly out of touch billionaires running this company into the ground.”ĭespite these setbacks, Khosrowshahi - presumably one of the “out of touch billionaires” Jay references - went on to assure investors that Uber expects to achieve total company EBITDA profitability by the end of the year. They have cut the rates so low that it doesn’t make any sense anymore to work for them, and that’s why people are having such a hard time getting an Uber. “And once the incentives ran out, I stopped driving, because I’m losing money when I drive for them now.
PEAK HOURS FOR UBER IN DALLAS DRIVER
“I took the incentives that they used to get people back, and I think most drivers that have any brains did the same,” an Uber driver called Jay who’s been driving since 2013 told TechCrunch. Uber is part of a coalition of app-based ride-hailing and on-demand delivery companies that filed a petition this week to introduce a ballot measure in Massachusetts that would define drivers as independent contractors, not employees - similar to what happened last year in California with Proposition 22. Uber’s losses and attempts to attract more drivers also come as the company is back on stage as a potential threat to gig workers’ labor rights.
Lockdowns haven’t been the only things causing driver shortages: Drivers don’t want to risk their lives during a pandemic for what is often argued to be meager pay. Many computer models predict case counts will peak sometime between mid-August and early September, bringing as many as 450,000 daily cases. COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks of July.
population is fully vaccinated, and the CDC has said the highly contagious delta variant has caused between 80% and 87% of all U.S. But the thing is, the pandemic is far from over. Khosrowshahi said Uber is expecting the driver momentum that has been picking up over the last few months to continue, even as Uber tapers off its “post-pandemic” incentives for drivers. But in major cities like New York, San Francisco and LA, demand continues to outpace supply and prices in late times remain above our comfort levels.” We’re also beginning to see marketplace metrics revert to normalcy in several markets with surge levels and wait times back to nearly normal in Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix. And 90% of drivers told us they expect to come back by September. “In June, 60% of inactive drivers told us they intended to start driving again within a month. “Drivers increasingly want to get back on the road,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during the earnings call on Wednesday. Uber’s losses point to a larger problem facing the app-based ride-hailing industry: The triple threat of lagging driver supply, the cost of attracting them, and the COVID-19 delta variant looming in the periphery. For comparison, Lyft reported a positive adjusted EBITDA in the quarter at $23.8 million the day before. The company reported a loss of $509 million before EBITDA. Uber’s second-quarter earnings revealed greater than expected losses, in large part due to the company’s massive $250 million stimulus package launched in April to incentivize drivers back onto the app after a pandemic-induced shortage.