LYFT, UBER RACE TO GIVE DRIVERS MORE SUPPORT
As a result, another driver hub opens, this one in Portland, Ore.
The on-going SAN FRANCIS CO fight between Uber and Lyft over market share has one major upside — it’s making life for drivers of both ride-hailing services better.
An example is Thursday’s opening of Lyft’s latest driver hub in Portland, Ore.
The hubs offer drivers a physical space where they can ask questions, get support and information from company representatives and find community among other drivers, said Lyft’s vice president of operations, Woody Hartman.
The Lyft opening comes six weeks after Uber launched what it calls “180 Days of Change,” aimed at repairing its sometimes contentious relationship with the drivers who make possible the rides that have turned “uber” from a prefix to a verb.
Both come as efforts to unionize Uber and Lyft drivers in Seattle continue, another piece in the puzzle over whether these drivers are employees or contractors and how they should, or must, be treated.
Portland will be Lyft’s 10th driver hub, with others up and running in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Boston and Atlanta.
These are similar to Uber’s Greenlight hubs, designated areas where in-person support from Uber staffers is available to drivers
Uber also recently upped its driver game when it began offering in-app phone support for drivers in some cities. More numbers will be rolled out in the coming months, the company said. Prior to that drivers could only message the company from with- in the Uber app.
Lyft drivers long have had phone numbers to call the company for critical questions.
Making drivers happy is crucial for ride-hailing services because happier drivers means more drivers, and a large stable of drivers means shorter wait times for riders — key to keeping them loyal.
The push for better driver perks comes as Uber has lost some market share, though it admittedly still dominates the ridehailing market in the U.S.
Lyft’s share of that market jumped nearly 3 percentage points quarter to quarter in Q1 and Q2 of 2017, from 7.7% at the end of 2016 to 9.8% in the first quarter, and to 12.5% in the second. The company’s U.S. market share in June was 24.7%.
That compares with Uber with 87.7% of the market today ac- cording to Certify, an expense management software company that analyzed data from 10 million receipts and expenses provided by 2,500 corporate clients.
Uber’s losses have coincided with its struggles over issues including charges of sexual discrimination, government investigations into possible questionable business practices and the loss of its CEO, Travis Kalanick, who took an indefinite leave of absence in June.
The biggest unanswered issue for these companies is whether those who drive for them are employees or contractors, eligible for no benefits or potentially a host of them.
An important front in that struggle is Seattle, which in 2015 passed a law giving ride-hailing drivers the right to collectively bargain. The law was scheduled to go into effect in January but two lawsuits have put it on hold.
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed one of them, a case brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that sought to block the ordinance.
Uber, which has vowed to appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was a plaintiff in the suit. Lyft was not.
Uber and Lyft argue that drivers flock to the companies in part because they can fully control their own schedules.
According to Lyft, what it termed the “poorly drafted ridesharing ordinance” could undermine the ability of drivers to chose when, where and how long they drive, the things that make the site attractive to them.
Some drivers argue a union would allow them to push for higher pay and benefits.