Posts by BenWilson
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I draw the line at getting involved in chasing people up for their taxes. This really is someone else's job. Similarly with chasing up whether this car crash has been properly investigated. If this country has reached the point where neither the IRD, nor the police are prepared to go toe-to-toe with a company because, um, fuck knows, well I can't do everything. I actually personally don't really care that much if people aren't paying their GST or are ripping off insurance companies. These organizations have billions to look after themselves. If they're giving Uber a free pass, then it's way above my pay grade.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
To answer any such questions requires engagement from someone who knows what they are talking about. It is quite literally impossible to ever get that from Uber. They do not have front line staff who understand tax law or obligations at all. None of them have ever been drivers or show any understanding of the business at all.
There is no second level support. You can't escalate problems. In fact, just getting someone who knows where NZ is takes several frustrating contacts if you try to deal online. There is no generic telephone number for general inquiries, nor any email address. You have to raise your issues via their app's robo-choices or the same on the website, or go down to the office and hijack some kid. If your question does not pertain to one of their preselected choices you have no other recourse, you just have to give it to the wrong person, argue for days until it gets eventually to the right person. This is every single interaction with Uber, btw. You start all over again on the next question.
There is no official management that can be contacted here. In a recent court appearance, they sent the most senior staffer that we know of in NZ, and he claimed not to have the "power to authorize and bind" which is required for him to even present at that court. This suggest that there actually is no one in NZ who has that power. They either can't make choices or they are pretending they can't. Either way it deliberately leaves all the drivers in limbo.
If you go down to the office and try to escalate your issue with the staff who are uniformly useless on all but the most obvious of issues, you will eventually be asked to leave the premises.
This is how Uber does business in NZ. There's a reason they so seldom get interviewed in the news - the journalists literally struggle to find a way to contact them.
This has been designed in. We have to assume everything about this mature and large predatory corporation is designed around their boilerplates for disruption around the world. They have situated their office in one of the hardest places to find a car park in all of Auckland. There is no reason whatsoever, given what happens in that office, that it could not be situated more cheaply and conveniently in an industrial location with excellent motorway access and untold parking. But they don't want drivers lingering. You can't pre-book a meeting, you have to turn up and take pot luck. You don't know if you will be 10 minutes or 2 hours.
The staff themselves complain about the inconvenience of the location. It's hard for them to get to and to park too. This is all intentional. It's an office designed to sign up drivers and give the bum's rush to everyone else. It's not even permanently manned - they literally set it up each day and clear it out each night, as if the need to suddenly move locations might fall on them any time. I think that this is probably because that's happened elsewhere. Few drivers have ever ventured beyond the big locked doors at the back, where there seem to be office staff doing office things. It could, quite literally, not be where they are actually located, and none of us would even know. Their official headquarters are a law firm, and all of the directors do not live in NZ.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to Ben Austin,
We have very similar problems with GST here. AFAIK, IRD is still trying to get their heads around what to do about it, which isn't helpful to all the drivers who have to fill out GST returns every couple of months.
Pretty sure ACC is not being paid by pretty much anyone. Which makes Ubers pushing of the guys back at ACC who got injured in the crash described above particularly egregious. As an organization they put one of the major causes of premature injury and death on the road in great numbers but the bill for all the injuries is on the taxpayer.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to goforit,
But isn’t amazing how the information around this crash has been hushed up.
I'm not one to be overly conspiratorial about that. I'm sure Uber would like it to go away but police inquiries are not things conducted in public for good reason.
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I respect the truth. Some of my best friends tell the truth. No one has more respect for the truth than me. I love the truth. Sometimes twice in a night. All the truth.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to BenWilson,
If they’re a fully uncompliant driver (we’ll probably know soon enough) then no, they will not.
I'm now certain (from inquiries made) that the vehicle was non-compliant. This story is certainly going to grow.
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It's worth noting that Uber driving is probably more tiring than regular taxi driving too. In a busy night I don't get to stop at all until I actually log out. The system is efficient enough to give you back to back jobs right through 5 hours. So working that long feels like driving to Taupo without getting out of the car for a rest at any point, because it actually is exactly like that. I'm usually sore and drained.
Taxis get a longer mandated time before they need to take a break. This is a recognition that they do actually spend a lot of the time not driving, and can get out and walk around. This simply does not apply to Uber, particularly since the price drop made people taken endless small discretionary trips. They have predicated your ability to make nearly as much as you did before the drop on you literally working 30% more. Considering that they were already pretty hard working drivers, now it's pretty much a job of being sweated.
So when a passenger asks if I've been busy and I say yes, it's been completely relentless, the response that this must be a great thing has certainly worn thin. No, it's not a great thing, it's a necessary thing to make doing it worthwhile at all.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to linger,
There are quite a few guys doing what I would consider excessive hours. The law mandates no more than 70 in a week driving passengers and Uber does claim to enforce this one. But the other mandated parts of work time are completely ignored by them. That includes the 14 hour a shift maximum, the mandatory 30 min breaks at least every 5.5 hours, the 10 hour gap between shifts, and (very importantly) the logging of work on any other jobs. You're not allowed to do 70 hours of work driving and any other paid work.
But this is the precariat we're talking about - everyone has multiple jobs. I certainly would be pushing it to have gone to a 9am Friday lecture, and worked on assignments all day, then looked after children until about 7pm, after which I jumped in the car and drove until 4am, taking only one 30 min break at midnight. Just because I don't get paid to be student or a Dad doesn't mean it isn't mentally taxing.
And any time I log out of Uber, it gives a nag screen urging you to just do a little bit more work to round out the hours or the money earned to some arbitrary multiple of $10. Seriously: "You're logging off after 5 hours and 25 minutes, why not make it 6 hours? Our passengers need you!!" Um...because it's illegal, dangerous, and I'm tired, is why.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to Alfie,
Is this New Zealand’s first serious Uber crash?
I think we can be pretty damned sure that it is not. Statistically, that is extremely unlikely - Uber drivers have done over a million trips in NZ.
But we have not heard about them. I suspect this is because the drivers are encouraged to commit insurance fraud and hide the fact that they were Uber driving at the time. A non-compliant driver is not actually that easy to spot.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to goforit,
The reaction from the insurance companies should be secondary to the Transport Act as after all the insurance companies liabilities will be covered in policies held by the driver of the Uber vehicle.
If they're a fully uncompliant driver (we'll probably know soon enough) then no, they will not. The insurance company will know that it was an Uber trip and refuse to pay out, and we'll be back to the unknown limbo of relying on Uber's supposed contingent liability policy that no one has ever actually seen.
So I think it's likely that actually it will be insurance companies following this one up since otherwise they'll be paying for it.
Of course what you say about how the NZTA and police should be doing more is true. But I'm not holding my breath.