To fight back against the lack of money made by driving people around, drivers for Lyft and Uber are creating ride-hailing cooperatives and apps to make up for the lost wages, Business Insider reported.
Cooperatives are non-profit business models that some drivers say work in better favor for them. Lee Sperry, who has worked with the advocacy group San Diego Drivers Unite to garner better treatment from Uber and Lyft, is one of hundreds of drivers who are looking at the cooperative option.
He also pushes that fellow drivers are looking to create their own app and have leaders manage it in hopes of curating transparent policies around driver-related issues like deactivating drivers. The companies and the City of Chicago were sued in November 2024 after a driver claimed her rights were violated when her account was removed from the apps due to city rules. “The co-op would be very different in the way it operates, in the way that we handle how the app works and how the pricing goes, how the driver gets paid, how the hiring goes, who makes the decisions,” Sperry said.
In major metro areas like New York City and Denver, cooperatives already exist and are thriving. The Drivers Cooperative in the Big Apple has been providing service since 2021. Drivers Co-op Colorado, which launched in September 2024, has roughly 16,000 drivers, with a 80% return of each fare that riders pay.
The wage gap has been a huge concern for ride-hailing drivers, claiming they are paid less than half of the fare on other apps. Depending on city and state laws, some drivers make even less. According to The Boston Globe, drivers in the Boston area feel they are making less money following Massachusetts adopting a new minimum wage of $32.50 an hour. Veteran drivers say their wages have been cut. “It’s getting worse and worse,” one driver, Rafael, said.
Driver Syed Hussain agreed with his colleague, claiming new rides are being offered at the lowest of low rates, so much so that they aren’t worth accepting. He said trips to Boston Logan International Airport from the area suburbs are only going for roughly under $20.
The co-op option is giving drivers a more sustainable option for greater wages over giants like Lyft, which claims to pay drivers 70% of the weekly rider payments they earn after fees. In a statement, Lyft said there is no problem with drivers taking on other gigs, since they are independent contractors. Uber has a mirroring policy, stating, “Drivers are independent contractors and have the freedom to work however and whenever they want.”
The hope is for co-ops to combat more areas other than payment and deactivated accounts. Luis Arias wants safety to become a priority as drivers and riders are prone to scams and more.
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