# Ex-Uber Employee Here. Mass deactivation INCOMING for strikers, INC. ON LYFT! "Black Weekend"



## ExUberEmployee

I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.

Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.

Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:

* Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.

* Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.

* The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).

* If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.

* In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.

* Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!

This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.

You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:

"Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company’s or its Affiliates’ brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."

Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.

Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.

Good luck out there.

PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


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## itsablackmarket

Cool story bro. I'd be working hard too if I were getting paid millions to exploit others. Sounds like a fun job. Deactivate me for all I care, clowns.

Tell your buddies to read this: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws

Btw it's kinda obvious this post was prepared by Travis Kalanicks task force to strike back on protesters. Clearly they've got under his skin. That in itself makes it all worth it.


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## rcinatl

If Uber and Lyft are really collaborating as you describe, I'm pretty sure they are in for serious antitrust legal problems. I doubt their smart legal teams would permit this.


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## Digits

ExUberEmployee said:


> * If you're a driver using the riders app, *irregardless* of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.


It's *regardless*. Anyways, good job at scaring the gullible especially with your authentic user ID,and for better effect I suggest you should have the "U" as your avatar. That said,Now,let's step into the shoes of rival Lyft and see what they think about the strike...."YAY",welcome aboard drivers, screw Uber and it's policies,we care more for our partner/drivers....We need you!!! It's simple dog eat dog world and they have one and only one motive ie, "Growth",at any cost. And I doubt any of their so called minimum waged employee has the means of knowing what's going on in the conference chamber at the think-tank. Well,even my 3rd grader assumes that the strike could cause mass deactivation. Let me also bring this up,as a company both Uber and Lyft fight over driver supremacy by investing millions of $$$ in various referrals to lure new drivers to wear their dress code only to mass deactivate them.From business point of view that would be chopping the branch of the tree you're sitting on.Not so bright.. Maybe you still don't know why you're an EX. But nonetheless I appreciate your efforts.


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## Digits

1984


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## NothingLeftToLose

This is funny. I love a good conspiracy theory! Fortunately, the real world is far more mundane.


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## RamzFanz

A) I don't believe this is real.

B) I think Uber drivers who strike rather than turning off the app and moving on, are fooling themselves. You won't win. You own your business. Improve, adapt, or change markets.


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## Old Rocker

Guess we'll find out in 14 or so hours, depending on your time zone.

True or not, this was an interesting post.

I heard a rumor that Uber was planting fake posts on Uberpeople to scare drivers into not striking,

Not really. Sounds good,, though, right?


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## Pubsber

Oh my lord, what is wrong with yiu guys. He may be a troll but what if he isnt and just trying to help? You guys have no proof of either so dont go assuming the negative already. Just thank him and be on the lookout. Its no wonder why Uber takes advantage of you guys.


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## Old Rocker

Pubsber said:


> Oh my lord, what is wrong with yiu guys. He may be a troll but what if he isnt and just trying to help? You guys have no proof of either so dont go assuming the negative already. Just thank him and be on the lookout. Its no wonder why Uber takes advantage of you guys.


Read between the lines.


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## Old Rocker

rcinatl said:


> If Uber and Lyft are really collaborating as you describe, I'm pretty sure they are in for serious antitrust legal problems. I doubt their smart legal teams would permit this.


Apple has a smart legal team and they got busted big time for price fixing eBooks with publishers. They had to pay back like $60m to customers. It's not always about the law, it can be about deniability.

Anyway, I do get your point, and it would be really stupid for Uber and Lyft to collude in such a manner. Not arguing, just stream of consciousness stuff.

Oh yeah, there was the Google, Apple, someone else anti-trust lawsuit they all lost over their anti-poaching agreement to deflate salaries.


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## Pubsber

Old Rocker said:


> Read between the lines.


As I have said, you guys have no proof of whether his statements are false or true so please hold back judgement. You guys are only speculating. Thats why people have trials and court hearings to prevent the the innocent from being falsely senteneced.


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## thehappytypist

I'm skeptical but time will tell.


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## Digits

The message is loud and clear to uber that it's drivers aren't happy with their handout and I'm sure we all love doing what we do,this is just a way of asking uber to play fair.that's all.


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## Digits

Pubsber said:


> As I have said, you guys have no proof of whether his statements are false or true so please hold back judgement. You guys are only speculating. Thats why people have trials and court hearings to prevent the the innocent from being falsely senteneced.


Evidence Please or he gets sentenced


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## Super G

Pubsber said:


> Oh my lord, what is wrong with yiu guys. He may be a troll but what if he isnt and just trying to help? You guys have no proof of either so dont go assuming the negative already. Just thank him and be on the lookout. Its no wonder why Uber takes advantage of you guys.


Why would Lyft assist Uber with anything? In DC Lyfts' main objective is to steal all of Ubers' passengers. Seems this is Christmas in Oct. for Lyft.


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## Pubsber

Super G said:


> Why would Lyft assist Uber with anything? In DC Lyfts' main objective is to steal all of Ubers' passengers. Seems this is Christmas in Oct. for Lyft.


Who knows. Companies do weird shit all the time. Maybe Uber striked a deal with Lyft that possibly benefited them somewhow. Maybe he is a troll but who knows. My point is we dont know for certain so please just be civil. We are all adults here. Once his statements are reveales to be lies, bash him all you want. I will join in too, but for now, no need to bash him already


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## berserk42

Cool story, bro.


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## 331303

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


I find your lack of faith disturbing

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## Fuzzyelvis

ExUberEmployee said:


> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Funny. I just got home. It's after 4am here.


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## berserk42

Fuzzyelvis said:


> Funny. I just got home. It's after 4am here.


Not working as hard as Uber employees! Get back out there!


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## berserk42

Pubsber said:


> Who knows. Companies do weird shit all the time. Maybe Uber striked a deal with Lyft that possibly benefited them somewhow. Maybe he is a troll but who knows. My point is we dont know for certain so please just be civil. We are all adults here. Once his statements are reveales to be lies, bash him all you want. I will join in too, but for now, no need to bash him already


Haha, if OP wants to post something this ridiculous with no proof, the bashing should begin right now.


----------



## chi1cabby

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Hey ExUberEmployee, welcome to the Forum!

I guess I was completely wrong in thinking that Uber management & staff were conscienceless turds. I'm SOO sorry!


It's difficult to say if your post is supposed to be a genuine heads up to striking Drivers or just more scare tactics from the camp working overtime to deter Drivers from participating in the strike. But I have now preserved your post in quotes, and will be passing it on to the dozens of reporters who follow me on Twitter.

Thanx for stopping by!


----------



## Fuzzyelvis

berserk42 said:


> Not working as hard as Uber employees! Get back out there!


I'm just a slacker. What can I say?


----------



## UberBlackPr1nce

thehappytypist said:


> I'm skeptical but time will tell.


Coming from an ex uber employee. ...
Which one do we trust. ..


----------



## 331303

Fuzzyelvis said:


> I'm just a slacker. What can I say?


i think he thinks uber clocked hours are accurate.


----------



## chi1cabby

ExUberEmployee,
Bud here's a small sampling of journos that I've DMed about your post.










These journos cover Uber for New York Times, Reuters, Dallas News, WSJ, SF Business Journal and LA Times. Us lowly Drivers, Driver Advocates do have some resources available to us.


----------



## chi1cabby

*Please Retweet:

 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/654993896938807296







*


----------



## XUberMike

So the strike has a little more teeth than one might have thought. Reporters are covering it...interesting

X uber employee could mean current uber manager...glados?


----------



## heyscotttt

chi1cabby said:


> *Please Retweet:
> 
> https://twitter.com/i/web/status/654993896938807296
> View attachment 15764
> *


Well done, more covering it the better. Fake or not it.


----------



## volksie

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


I use the rider app all the time for REQUEST POSITIONING and nothing more. IS THIS A PROBLEM?


----------



## Dontmakemepullauonyou

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Are you sure you aren't still an employee?


----------



## merkurfan

ExUberEmployee said:


> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


awwww they had to work till 10 PM? poor babies.. Anyone puke in their car? Sorry.. you lost me with that comment.


----------



## DieselkW

So, Uber is going to deactivate a bunch of drivers by 1984-ing them using methods like those used on the show "Person of Interest"?

Here is what will happen:

Lyft will get a bunch of former Uber drivers using their platform.
Uber passengers will soon see longer wait times.
Uber drivers, what's left of them, will have longer pickup distances.
Uber passengers will become Lyft passengers, especially after the new crop of pimply faced brand new Uber drivers hit the road for $0.60/mile
Uber IPO will shrink in value.
Uber can't possibly know who is striking, boycotting, or taking a weekend off.

Prediction: No one will be deactivated.

I do like the term "Black Weekend" and that Uber is concerned enough to send their little errand boy (A member since yesterday with one post) here to do damage control.


----------



## nooneyouknowof

I'm not striking, but if I get more than a couple cancels in a row, I'm turning it off.


----------



## jfcox

Interesting. PM me if you want to talk about it further, cheers.


----------



## AintWorthIt

So basically, I could prove/disprove 1984 mode by comparing my phone which has both apps installed with someone else who simply has the passenger app installed.


----------



## Adbam

I think this is more than likely a troll. It will easily be proven or not soon. Good luck to you all.


----------



## nuggetnut

Be interesting to see how this all turns out.. I'll be off this weekend for other reasons but will be checking rider app..


----------



## pizza guy

volksie said:


> I use the rider app all the time for REQUEST POSITIONING and nothing more. IS THIS A PROBLEM?


I do the same thing and it really works. The surge zones near me (western suburbs of Chicago) are huge and useless. By looking at the rider app I can see where are drivers are in comparison to the places I often get pax. If I see a hotspot with a high pickup time I head towards that location. This helps Uber provide shorter pickup times, helps the pax recieve better service, and helps me make more money. Twice this morning I visually confirmed other drivers as listed on the rider app so I wouldn't be to worried.


----------



## M_silicon_valley

When I saw the dates for the strike I had to laugh because I have family plans this weekend that will keep me off the road (well, I'll be my families driver partner). I guess now I risk deactivation for taking the wrong weekend off, geez! Also, there is no exclusivity to my agreement with Uber or Lyft, that I know of, so I can choose to drive for whichever platform I freakin' want to at any given moment. Like a previous member wrote... You also lost me with your 'we work harder at our scooter-filled, free food, playground startup office than our 'partners' out there that we are building our valuation upon!!! (Many of whom are already working another full-time job while carting around entitleds like you until the wee hours!) The atmosphere/culture at most startups is designed to make it enjoyable for folks to want to stay 'round the clock. Heck, Facebook had folks coding for the past 24 hours for fun last night, some of whom were provided safe passage home by an Uber or Lyft driver partner! When you drive long enough (in downtown traffic, dealing with an unforgiving public, and all the other fun stuff we get to) that you could have driven to San Diego from SF, AFTER your 'normal' 8 - 10 hour office work day then you can tell me something about working harder than someone. 
I too check the rider app sometimes before I head out to see what the hot areas are; The conspiracy theorist in me has suspected that some of the hiccupy app performance when doing so was based on some higher level manipulation of the system. ALL of these behaviors... striking, using rider app or other means to try and gain some type of competitive advantage are being driven by a 'driver partner' community that is growing ever more desperate and frustrated. Personally, I feel like the economics of a middle-class that is getting squeezed ever more tightly is one contributing factor. The unfiltered greed of capitalism at play puts pressure on the little guys like me (us) out here too. What are you gonna do though? You can quit, find another avenue, or keep on keepin' on. 
Ahhh, wow that rant felt good. Anyway, happy to be taking this weekend off. 
Nothing but safe wishes for all my fellow driver partners out there whether you are Ubering on or off yourselves this weekend!


----------



## Older Chauffeur

"I have left Uber a long time ago..." ?? What kind of grammar/usage is this? Reminds me of some of the tv commercials featuring "real people, not actors" and the stupid things they say. They need an editor at Uber if this is indeed theirs.


----------



## Lepke

I can't imagine that John Zimmer would have any part of colluding with Uber.


----------



## UberXTampa

pizza guy said:


> I do the same thing and it really works. The surge zones near me (western suburbs of Chicago) are huge and useless. By looking at the rider app I can see where are drivers are in comparison to the places I often get pax. If I see a hotspot with a high pickup time I head towards that location. This helps Uber provide shorter pickup times, helps the pax recieve better service, and helps me make more money. Twice this morning I visually confirmed other drivers as listed on the rider app so I wouldn't be to worried.


I do the same thing.

i describe this method as making sure I have a large territory.

If i stand somewhere and when my app is turned off the ETA for any Uber other than me is 3 minutes, that's not a good potential area.

I move around to a spot where I can get a larger ETA - like 10 minutes or more... This means, in a 10 minute distance in all directions, I am the only one. I have a huge territory. Many times in Tampa Bay there will be more alligators in that territory than there are human beings, but that's another story. You need to knwo the area you are working anyways...


----------



## uberlift

Copied from a facebook post by a buzzfeed reporter- "If you're a driver who is striking and get deactivated after this weekend please get in touch with me- [email protected] I want to make sure we record and report any instances of this. Thanks!"


----------



## rtaatl

Hell this is probably true....I wouldn't it past them...you know you're evil when you make a George Orwell reference for your own behalf.


----------



## NachonCheeze

That would be awesome if Uber and Lyft colluded to black list someone...that is illegal and I would very much appreciate winnings from a lawsuit.


----------



## NachonCheeze

And another thing....i really couldn't give a crap if fUber dropped me....It's not like this is the best job ever....i think its closer to the worst job ever.


----------



## Lepke

NachonCheeze said:


> And another thing....i really couldn't give a crap if fUber dropped me....It's not like this is the best job ever....i think its closer to the worst job ever.


In the first half of 2014 it was pretty damn good. In my market anyway.


----------



## Gemgirlla

merkurfan said:


> awwww they had to work till 10 PM? poor babies.. Anyone puke in their car? Sorry.. you lost me with that comment.


And, I'm sure they get paid for every hour they work. Might even get free coffee too. And, I doubt they have to bring their own office supplies.


----------



## volksie

PAGING the ExUberEmployee.......It's time to chime in!


----------



## Skinny1

Strike looks like a bust folks. Major city here , app looks like ants on a hill here also like another poster noted.


----------



## UberMensch2015

It's actually been surging nicely off and on since 4 in Houston. I thought it was a bust earlier myself but this level of surge is atypical for a Friday with no big events. And select hasn't surged at all making me think that select drivers are out as normal but at least some x drivers are home. Interesting


----------



## frndthDuvel

Skinny1 said:


> Strike looks like a bust folks. Major city here , app looks like ants on a hill here also like another poster noted.


It is not a bust unless you had unrealistic expectations of unicorns and rainbows. But the reports of media coverage across the country is a benefit. And there will be more.


----------



## Sacto Burbs

I'm on Sacramento TV tonight incognito as Sacto Burbs. Said clear as a bell that I fear deactivation. I can't be traced by just turning the app off - I'm not doing fake calls, so if I get deactivated there will be a lot of play here in Sac, and you will all get to see my smiling face 

Actually the best advice from the OP is that only rider burner phones with untraceable credit card names should be used to talk up the strike, and only by voice, not text. Sound advice.

What a great game. I wonder if Uber remembers the saying "It is better to have someone inside the tent pissing out, than one outside pissing in". I'm looking at you ABE 

Oh, the OP is bogus. No way Uber would admit to itself that this podunk strike should be called a "Black Weekend".

Now where it my pink shirt.


----------



## limepro

UberMensch2015 said:


> It's actually been surging nicely off and on since 4 in Houston. I thought it was a bust earlier myself but this level of surge is atypical for a Friday with no big events. And select hasn't surged at all making me think that select drivers are out as normal but at least some x drivers are home. Interesting


Here in Miami too and surge has all but disappeared here. Today from 1pm -6pm it was a constant surge 1.5-2.8x surges that lasted over an hour at a time. Drivers were out, I think Uber was just trying to ensure drivers would be out and once they figured out the majority aren't striking stopped all surges.


----------



## haji

BS.


----------



## SECOTIME

my app stopped working at about 8pm it keeps saying no cell move your car..


----------



## Old Rocker

UberMensch2015 said:


> It's actually been surging nicely off and on since 4 in Houston. I thought it was a bust earlier myself but this level of surge is atypical for a Friday with no big events. And select hasn't surged at all making me think that select drivers are out as normal but at least some x drivers are home. Interesting


There are two big events in Houston tonight. A concert at the Toyota Center and a couple of famous comedians.


----------



## jrboy

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


the more uber deactivates the more pissed off drivers. we will have nothing to lose. you will have hundreds of ex drivers creating thousands of fake accounts. we will get more media attn and disrupt uber once again. it doesn't stop till uber treats us as "partners". btw, threats of deactivation and intimidation... are nothing new. uber off!


----------



## Altima ATL

nooneyouknowof said:


> I'm not striking, but if I get more than a couple cancels in a row, I'm turning it off.


I am so scared of getting the cancels - that I decided not to log on and take the weekend off and enjoy it with my family.


----------



## TheWhiteTiger

OP's status on the corporate ladder is in a serious trouble. He has not learned how to lie properly. Can't beat the psychopaths to the top unless you learn how to tap into your inner beast, man. I suggest you find yourself a book or a movie on successful saboteurs of the cold war era or something. In the future, try misspellings and bad formatting for authenticity. Your post looks like it was a result of a serious PR team effort. Ex-Uber employee my arse.


----------



## Altima ATL

Gemgirlla said:


> And, I'm sure they get paid for every hour they work. Might even get free coffee too. And, I doubt they have to bring their own office supplies.


And they probably have a driver drop by each hour to drop off water and mints - and to see if they want to toilet door opened for them.


----------



## UberBlackPr1nce

Ping drivers and cancel with a friends phone who is not a driver for uber. Then they can connect you...


----------



## UberBlackPr1nce

Or send text from a friends phone telling drivers to uber off or drive lyft only..


----------



## LAuberX

OP, 1 and done?

Fine fictional tale at best.


----------



## Sacto Burbs

LAuberX said:


> OP, 1 and done?
> 
> Fine fictional tale at best.


Entertaining though.


----------



## TheWhiteTiger

An NYT reporter is already making a public inquiry about the original post:

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/655116710224068608
Good work chi1cabby! And just searched twitter for "uber strike." Glorious! So much media attention. Great beginnings. This isn't just about us personally; it's the principle. I am hoping I won't *need* to drive after a couple of months unless I want to save extra $$ for travel and such, but even if I stop driving, will continue standing with drivers and will educate family and friends on the issue!


----------



## UberMensch2015

Ah you're right old rocker I missed that. That explains the early surges


----------



## Old Rocker

Seven retweets. Going viral...


----------



## Old Rocker

UberMensch2015 said:


> Ah you're right old rocker I missed that. That explains the early surges


Insane Clown Posse is at Warehouse Live tonight, too. I didn't have any Juggalo riders.


----------



## rtaatl

Between ghost cars and fake surges, you don't know what's real anymore on the Uber platform anymore.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

Pubsber said:


> As I have said, you guys have no proof of whether his statements are false or true so please hold back judgement. You guys are only speculating. Thats why people have trials and court hearings to prevent the the innocent from being falsely senteneced.


I think the funniest part of that post is how much effort Uber is supposedly putting into monitoring the text messages and phone calls between drivers... as if we ll know how to get in touch with each other and have nothing better to do than talk about a strike.


----------



## Ms J

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


----------



## Ms J

I love this....when I heard about this strike from a passenger of all people over two weeks ago I came here to confirm it. I started asking questions and such and got slammed and uninvited to strike with them, which was fine, cause I emphasized I was independent not of union and was unaware permission was needed...it just made me laugh. Especially the idiot that typed out a statement he was going to make to each person requesting a ride. IDIOTS, they are all out of their minds. I hope they do get deactivated and black listed because I have heard far too many stories from passengers that have had unpleasant experiences and it wouldn't surprise me that they are on this site. They don't like the job, then get a different one. This sense of entitlement attitude is killing this country. I read the documents I agreed to when they were given to me....apparently some did not. I agree, it was a tedious undertaking to read all that legal jargon but a responsible person reads what they sign. I know what I signed up for. AND, Uber sent me a survey, so I commented on what I would like and passenger feedback has been....the tip feature like Lyft has would be nice for the passenger but I still prefer instant green. I had every bit of confidence that Uber would be all over this crap. So the drivers that don't like the terms, call the Whambulance and go to the job clinic (employment agency) and get healed.


----------



## observer

^^^^^ figures Glados would "like" that post.


----------



## Sacto Burbs

Ms J said:


> I love this....when I heard about this strike from a passenger of all people over two weeks ago I came here to confirm it. I started asking questions and such and got slammed and uninvited to strike with them, which was fine, cause I emphasized I was independent not of union and was unaware permission was needed...it just made me laugh. Especially the idiot that typed out a statement he was going to make to each person requesting a ride. IDIOTS, they are all out of their minds. I hope they do get deactivated and black listed because I have heard far too many stories from passengers that have had unpleasant experiences and it wouldn't surprise me that they are on this site. They don't like the job, then get a different one. This sense of entitlement attitude is killing this country. I read the documents I agreed to when they were given to me....apparently some did not. I agree, it was a tedious undertaking to read all that legal jargon but a responsible person reads what they sign. I know what I signed up for. AND, Uber sent me a survey, so I commented on what I would like and passenger feedback has been....the tip feature like Lyft has would be nice for the passenger but I still prefer instant green. I had every bit of confidence that Uber would be all over this crap. So the drivers that don't like the terms, call the Whambulance and go to the job clinic (employment agency) and get healed.


I read my contract. It said 20% goes to Uber. Yesterday 38% of my gross went to Uber. SRF shit. Yet it showed up on my 1099. I do not appreciate being lied to, and standing up to the entity that is lying is not whining. Just won't someone give me an SUV so I can make $2,500 a week net instead of driving UberX in my Mazda5?


----------



## Not Me

LMAOF. I'm really going to piss in my pants.... wait for it, ...ha! You funny Mr. Uber!

OK, got my breath back. Where do I start with the OP starting in bogus mode and pulling away with this bull?! 

Uber dude, you want to know what I heard on the Uber driver (ahem, Partner) grapevine? That drivers were going to strike all weekend long. That they don't believe the ghost cars that Uber is placing on the Uber Rider app, and that we caught on to Uber's surge gig. Yeah, we know Uber plays around with the surge. We can see no cars for 15 minutes in peak time, yet no surge. Then, on an evening peak time, there will be 10 cars within a 1/2 mile radius and the surge is activated, yet, the driver cars are not being pinged! How is that possible? What, 10 cars just passing the surge ping? Ha! Guess, Uber does it when they need to meet their sales goals for the day!

And then, the drivers said that they would rather drive for Lyft, which at the moment, cares and treats its drivers better than Uber. And, drivers were going to go on a caravan to LAX on the weekend and call all the news media to warn them, so that the news media could interview them at LAX. And, that the Dallas Black and SUV drivers, yeah those that did a month long strike, are laughing they asses off, because none of them were terminated by wuzzy Uber.

Want more info? Just come to the Los Angeles board, on this forum, and we will let you know....

By the way, happy bull day to you too!


----------



## rocksteady

ExUberEmployee said:


> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


well damn, I hope they're at least getting paid more than drivers to be working harder than us (how would you know how hard _all_ drivers work?) because if they're not, they're stupid and it's no wonder why Uber doesn't know how to turn a profit with such a successful product--their employees are ****ing morons.

"Let's blow all our income on free rides, new contractor hire incentives because of our high turn-over rate and advertising when our bargain-basement "ride-share" app service is already insanely popular and advertising is already free by word of mouth via social media platforms that run on the same devices our app runs on. Let's not provide a better service through retaining our best drivers by increasing fares which would still be cheaper and a better service, so still highly preferable, over taxis. Sure, we would lose some business to Lyft, but Lyft would lose its best drivers to us because who with half a brain would want to drive for them? Then to retain drivers they would likely raise their prices to be closer to ours. Both companies would be making lots more income if we raised fares yet wouldn't lose much, if any, to taxis because their service sucks and would still be priced higher in most areas. No, lets not do any of that. Let's continue putting in these long, hard hours in our ass-backward race to the bottom with Lyft. Derp derp."

Maybe Uber employees should get more rest before their hard work lack of reasoning makes the company go belly-up?


----------



## rocksteady

Super G said:


> Why would Lyft assist Uber with anything? In DC Lyfts' main objective is to steal all of Ubers' passengers. Seems this is Christmas in Oct. for Lyft.





Pubsber said:


> Who knows. Companies do weird shit all the time. Maybe Uber striked a deal with Lyft that possibly benefited them somewhow. Maybe he is a troll but who knows. My point is we dont know for certain so please just be civil. We are all adults here. Once his statements are reveales to be lies, bash him all you want. I will join in too, but for now, no need to bash him already


If lyft and Uber were weren't as dumb as I think they are--mired in working hard at more of the same, losing money, group think, they'd both succumb to their, supposed as they need them to be, "drivers' demands." Then they could end this crazy race to the bottom. They don't want to give an inch of market share to the other by raising fare prices but raising fares would help them both out and they both need the income to survive. And even if they raised fares considerably there'd still be no competition from the shit taxis. They can't get together and do it because that would be price fixing. It's like they're playing a game of chicken. Who will flinch first and raise their fares. They don't want to give up any customers to the other even though the other would quickly follow to retain/hire the best drivers. Lyft and Uber drivers, if significantly striked in mass together, would be all the "aww shucks, drivers, you twisted our arm" excuse both companies need to justify to their customers a dramatic fare increase. If they really are in cahoots to deactivate and blacklist all "problem" drivers, they'd be much smarter for their on self interest to do the opposite--allow the dissent to happen. The problem drivers are likely some of their best.


----------



## rocksteady

volksie said:


> I use the rider app all the time for REQUEST POSITIONING and nothing more. IS THIS A PROBLEM?


I wondered that myself when reading it as I do the same but if the post is real and the purpose is to get rid of drivers who are disrupting the service, then I take drivers "using" the rider app to mean actually requesting rides simply to cancel them in order to get the word out to join the strike or to discourage scabs from crossing the picket line. I doubt just having both apps open would send up any read flags in their supposed "1984" mode.


----------



## Txchick

chi1cabby said:


> Hey ExUberEmployee, welcome to the Forum!
> 
> I guess I was completely wrong in thinking that Uber management & staff were conscienceless turds. I'm SOO sorry!
> 
> 
> It's difficult to say if your post is supposed to be a genuine heads up to striking Drivers or just more scare tactics from the camp working overtime to deter Drivers from participating in the strike. But I have now preserved your post in quotes, and will be passing it on to the dozens of reporters who follow me on Twitter.
> 
> Thanx for stopping by!


That's my guy chi1cabby will be retweeting your tweets to my followers!!


----------



## Txchick

TheWhiteTiger said:


> An NYT reporter is already making a public inquiry about the original post:
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/655116710224068608
> Good work chi1cabby! And just searched twitter for "uber strike." Glorious! So much media attention. Great beginnings. This isn't just about us personally; it's the principle. I am hoping I won't *need* to drive after a couple of months unless I want to save extra $$ for travel and such, but even if I stop driving, will continue standing with drivers and will educate family and friends on the issue!


#uberstrike rocking it!!


----------



## UberBlackPr1nce

The funny thing is that the weirdos driving still think they're going to clean up because of striking drivers. If only they knew they can only take 3-4 passenger an hour regardless. The only way they or you can get a raise is if uber gave you a raise. So if you strike today and see drivers on the road they won't be making anymore money then normal. Fight for your wants and stand firm. The longer wait times and further pick ups will discourage pax and weirdo drivers.


----------



## Realityshark

The OP is a new member who signed up on Thursday and has shared this one and only post. A warning from Uber. Nothing curious about that huh?

At least we know that the strike has gotten Uber's attention if they are willing to hit this forum with scare tactics. The part about sharing information and colaborating with Lyft was the far reach that set off my BS detector. When I saw that it was someone who made their UP Net account the day before the strike, was proof enough for me. I smell a Uber rat!

Further evidence is that the post is written like it is doing us a favor warning us, and yet, the OP does not bother to engage any dialogue with anybody commenting. This makes no rational sense. What makes more sense is that this was an Uber employee, writing what they were told and then going about his day. It's just another example of how Uber lies to their drivers.


----------



## ATL2SD

volksie said:


> PAGING the ExUberEmployee.......It's time to chime in!


Give them a minute, he/she needs to switch one of their 40 screen names. Apparently, we're all stupid & don't notice all the "new" members on the site over the past few weeks.


----------



## Neil Yaremchuk

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


They aren't deactivating anyone because that's what becomes the news story. The media is hungry for a David and Goliath story and that would it. I sent out a basic press release and I had a dozen reporters call me ALL of which said that if there was any form of retaliation against me or other drivers I know that they were a simple phone call away. A story like that is worth 100x a press release about a protest. 100x, now that's surge.


----------



## observer

ATL2SD said:


> Give them a minute, he/she needs to switch one of their 40 screen names. Apparently, we're all stupid & don't notice all the "new" members on the site over the past few weeks.


"New" members and some like Glados, that have been around a while.


----------



## everythingsuber

Just an observer but the clause in the contract regarding what you guys may say about the company I'm wondering aren't you guy's protected by the constitution regarding freedom of speech? 
You are telling the truth nothing more nothing less?


----------



## thehappytypist

everythingsuber said:


> Just an observer but the clause in the contract regarding what you guys may say about the company I'm wondering aren't you guy's protected by the constitution regarding freedom of speech?
> You are telling the truth nothing more nothing less?


No. Freedom of speech only pertains to the government limiting your speech/expression. Anyone else can mess with it as much as they want because they are not the government. It doesn't mean it's always a good thing to do or that people will like it, but they aren't precluded from doing it.


----------



## Backdash

thehappytypist said:


> Freedom of speech only pertains to the government limiting your speech/expression.


There it is. Even with that there are some limitations where the govt can determine what is excluded under "free speech"
Most people have no idea that "freedom of speech" means only that.

Outside of that yea you can say whatever you want but there may be consequences.


----------



## thehappytypist

Backdash said:


> There it is. Even with that there are some limitations where the govt can determine what is excluded under "free speech"
> Most people have no idea that "freedom of speech" means only that.
> 
> Outside of that yea you can say whatever you want but there may be consequences.


That's a huge pet peeve of mine, when people go shouting freedom of speech left and right and have no idea what it really means.


----------



## MBENZ_GUY

Deactivating drivers could result in a huge backlash...not from drivers but RIDERS. My belief is most Uber riders would not want to patronize a company that acted like an old school corporate monopoly. The riders I've encountered seem to be drawn to Uber's cool hip game changer image. They also love sticking it to the taxi mob that treated them poorly b4 Uber was an option. Here in Houston, Get Me is about to launch, so there will be an Uber alternative (if Get Me plays it right)


----------



## Neil Yaremchuk

Again, I'm not worried.


----------



## ReviTULize

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Wow


----------



## TwoFiddyMile

Read the OP, the first page, this page.
The OP story has one glaring defect- that Uber and Lyft would collaborate.

Bullshit.


----------



## ReviTULize

Digits said:


> It's *regardless*


Love it!!! It was irritating me


----------



## Jufkii

Strike a little over 24 hours old yet still waiting for the first deactivation story resulting from that evil 1984 Mode.
Crickets thus far.


----------



## Digits

*Code "1984"































































*


----------



## Fuzzyelvis

Backdash said:


> There it is. Even with that there are some limitations where the govt can determine what is excluded under "free speech"
> Most people have no idea that "freedom of speech" means only that.
> 
> Outside of that yea you can say whatever you want but there may be consequences.


Yeah if at my real job I call my boss an asshole and my coworkers ******s I won't last long. Even if it is the truth.


----------



## observer

MBENZ_GUY said:


> Deactivating drivers could result in a huge backlash...not from drivers but RIDERS. My belief is most Uber riders would not want to patronize a company that acted like an old school corporate monopoly. The riders I've encountered seem to be drawn to Uber's cool hip game changer image. They also love sticking it to the taxi mob that treated them poorly b4 Uber was an option. Here in Houston, Get Me is about to launch, so there will be an Uber alternative (if Get Me plays it right)


This is a very good point and one that needs to be looked at carefully.

How do drivers get passengers to stand up for them?


----------



## Neil Yaremchuk

Am I the only one who wonders why our insider is an ex-Uber employee?


----------



## TwoFiddyMile

Neil Yaremchuk said:


> Am I the only one who wonders why our insider is an ex-Uber employee?


No.
The user name was set up like that so it would seem less like a propaganda play from Uber itself.


----------



## Luberon

Nobody will be happier than Lyft if this strike worked.... Why will they throw Travis k a life line?


----------



## Sacto Burbs

> How do drivers get passengers to stand up for them?


Publicly oppose surge pricing-gets my vote


----------



## Altima ATL

Sacto Burbs said:


> I read my contract. It said 20% goes to Uber. Yesterday 38% of my gross went to Uber. SRF shit. Yet it showed up on my 1099. I do not appreciate being lied to, and standing up to the entity that is lying is not whining. Just won't someone give me an SUV so I can make $2,500 a week net instead of driving UberX in my Mazda5?


3 months ago the ATL minimum fare was $6 - I would take $4 after Uber cut.
Today minimum fare is $5.75 - I now take $3.20 after Uber cut.

How is this latest increase in the SRF not affecting my income?

The SRF is being used as some kind of bait and switch scheme on the drivers to increase Ubers cut.

BIG THUMBS DOWN FOR UBER


----------



## Bob White

NSA could't do what This jerk off is claiming uber is doing.
Just another troll... ahhhhh and I took the bait.


----------



## d'Uber

Sacto Burbs said:


> Publicly oppose surge pricing-gets my vote


That would be a winning strategy. Instead of "60 percent rate hike across the board" we can be more specific. "Riders and drivers deserve rate stability: $1.75 standard day/evening, $2.75 overnight" with "overnight" defined as 10PM to 4AM. This would gain support from the ridesharing public.


----------



## Neil Yaremchuk

Am I the only one that prefers this 1984?


----------



## XUberMike

chi1cabby said:


> Hey ExUberEmployee, welcome to the Forum!
> 
> I guess I was completely wrong in thinking that Uber management & staff were conscienceless turds. I'm SOO sorry!
> 
> 
> It's difficult to say if your post is supposed to be a genuine heads up to striking Drivers or just more scare tactics from the camp working overtime to deter Drivers from participating in the strike. But I have now preserved your post in quotes, and will be passing it on to the dozens of reporters who follow me on Twitter.
> 
> Thanx for stopping by!


You guys have Twitter accounts? Dang, I need to step up my game.


----------



## UberXTampa

Luberon said:


> Nobody will be happier than Lyft if this strike worked.... Why will they throw Travis k a life line?


Strike didn't work. 
No additional or noticeable Lyft requests came during this weekend.


----------



## champ.49er

Does anyone know a hacker at Anonymous to help us exploit Uber? This is definitely some unethical stuff if it's true. I know the Anonymous hackers have more important things to take care of, but if they have some free time to help us at the bottom of the food chain out, that would be appreciated.


----------



## Old Rocker

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala

Anonymous isn't like Hire A Hacker


----------



## Altima ATL

Uber does not need hackers. It already has its outsourced development team doing better than any hacker group. App is hardly able to stay up for 24 hours as it is.

But more seriously, hacking is a very serious offense, don't stoop to that level, we are better than that.


----------



## Sacto Burbs

champ.49er said:


> Does anyone know a hacker at Anonymous to help us exploit Uber? This is definitely some unethical stuff if it's true. I know the Anonymous hackers have more important things to take care of, but if they have some free time to help us at the bottom of the food chain out, that would be appreciated.


you are not the bottom of the food chain. You own a car.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

d'Uber said:


> That would be a winning strategy. Instead of "60 percent rate hike across the board" we can be more specific. "Riders and drivers deserve rate stability: $1.75 standard day/evening, $2.75 overnight" with "overnight" defined as 10PM to 4AM. This would gain support from the ridesharing public.


I prefer the opposite of what Uber and Lyft do now.
Instead of SURGE pricing, I'd like to see DISCOUNT pricing:
Set the rate at $2.50/mi with a $2.50 base fee, .25/min (or something like that).
Then DISCOUNT the rate by x% when demand is slow to encourage RIDERS to request rides at 'off-peak' times.​
I do agree that standardizing the rates for surge should be done, as you suggested - NIGHTS, EVENTS, BAD WEATHER, etc.
Make it predictable for riders and drivers.


----------



## Old Rocker

Michael - Cleveland said:


> I prefer the opposite of what Uber and Lyft do now.
> Instead of SURGE pricing, I'd like to see DISCOUNT pricing:
> Set the rate at $2.50/mi with a $2.50 base fee, .25/min (or something like that).
> Then DISCOUNT the rate by x% when demand is slow to encourage RIDERS to request rides at 'off-peak' times.​
> I do agree that standardizing the rates for surge should be done, as you suggested - NIGHTS, EVENTS, BAD WEATHER, etc.
> Make it predictable for riders and drivers.


Think on this, I must.


----------



## Fuzzyelvis

Sacto Burbs said:


> you are not the bottom of the food chain. You own a car.


Depends on how you look at it. Those with new cars who are upside down on their loan don't really "own" anything yet.


----------



## Fuzzyelvis

Well I haven't been deactivated for striking. I'm shocked.


----------



## TwoFiddyMile

Thr strike was not unsuccessful. 
Gave me a great idea.
Endless cancelled pings.

Need my computer back from Mass, buddys fixing it. Cheap printer paper.
Turban.
Then I brush up on Somalian and Farsi.
Gonna front a cabbie revolution.


----------



## Dan Dixon

TwoFiddyMile said:


> Thr strike was not unsuccessful.
> Gave me a great idea.
> Endless cancelled pings.
> 
> Need my computer back from Mass, buddys fixing it. Cheap printer paper.
> Turban.
> Then I brush up on Somalian and Farsi.
> Gonna front a cabbie revolution.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

Michael - Cleveland said:


> I prefer the opposite of what Uber and Lyft do now.
> Instead of SURGE pricing, I'd like to see DISCOUNT pricing:
> Set the rate at $2.50/mi with a $2.50 base fee, .25/min (or something like that).
> Then DISCOUNT the rate by x% when demand is slow to encourage RIDERS to request rides at 'off-peak' times.​
> I do agree that standardizing the rates for surge should be done, as you suggested - NIGHTS, EVENTS, BAD WEATHER, etc.
> Make it predictable for riders and drivers.


I should add: I think if LYFT (or any competitor) were to adopt this kind of pricing model, consumers would flock to it, leaving Uber to play 'catch-up'.


----------



## Zeus

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Looks like this was written by an actual uber corporate member, not an ex member. Don't be fooled guys. There trying to deter us from striking.


----------



## drivinindc

Michael - Cleveland said:


> I prefer the opposite of what Uber and Lyft do now.
> Instead of SURGE pricing, I'd like to see DISCOUNT pricing:
> Set the rate at $2.50/mi with a $2.50 base fee, .25/min (or something like that).
> Then DISCOUNT the rate by x% when demand is slow to encourage RIDERS to request rides at 'off-peak' times.​
> I do agree that standardizing the rates for surge should be done, as you suggested - NIGHTS, EVENTS, BAD WEATHER, etc.
> Make it predictable for riders and drivers.


This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of my life. Pax are not going to leave bars/concerts/parties early so they can save a couple bucks on their ride. Nor are they going to sit around waiting hoping the rate will drop. Unless someone is going 20 miles away, they'd rather pay a couple extra bucks and go when they want, especially since $2.50/mile is almost taxi fare.


----------



## UberXTampa

As individual contractors we should be allowed to set our rates. Surge should be eliminated 100% of the time. 
If I can set my rate, customer will be given the choice of "cheapest or closest" and they will need to decide.


----------



## drivinindc

UberXTampa said:


> As individual contractors we should be allowed to set our rates. Surge should be eliminated 100% of the time.
> If I can set my rate, customer will be given the choice of "cheapest or closest" and they will need to decide.


"Should?" Says who? The agreement you made with Uber specifies that they set prices, not you.

Franchise operations (e.g. your local McDonald's) are independent businesses from the corporate parent chain. That doesn't mean they get to whatever they want: they sign a deal where they specify what the franchisee does and doesn't have control over. Same thing when a subcontractor signs onto a job underneath an umbrella contractor, and same thing with Uber.


----------



## Old Rocker

drivinindc said:


> "Should?" Says who? The agreement you made with Uber specifies that they set prices, not you.
> 
> Franchise operations (e.g. your local McDonald's) are independent businesses from the corporate parent chain. That doesn't mean they get to whatever they want: they sign a deal where they specify what the franchisee does and doesn't have control over. Same thing when a subcontractor signs onto a job underneath an umbrella contractor, and same thing with Uber.


Yep. In my former staffing business, I set the rates for my ICs. The client had nothing to do with how much the IC was paid.

Can you imagine the race to the bottom if we could set our own fares individually?


----------



## frickinnuts

Wait Travis could work for the NSA in his spare time and have access to all their phone bugging gizmos!


----------



## Bart McCoy

wait......................so where's the mass deactivation at?


----------



## Old Rocker

Almost zero in the media today about the strike. I found this.

http://recode.net/2015/10/18/the-fl...st-shows-how-hard-it-is-for-them-to-organize/


----------



## TwoFiddyMile

Old Rocker said:


> Yep. In my former staffing business, I set the rates for my ICs. The client had nothing to do with how much the IC was paid.
> 
> Can you imagine the race to the bottom if we could set our own fares individually?


Pax would never wade through a bog of individual pricing plans.
The collective ADHD of Muricans is too jaded for that.


----------



## Old Rocker

I sure wouldn't. Do I pick the ride that is ten cents cheaper per mile but will take five minutes longer to arrive?


----------



## Old Rocker

Pubsber said:


> As I have said, you guys have no proof of whether his statements are false or true so please hold back judgement. You guys are only speculating. Thats why people have trials and court hearings to prevent the the innocent from being falsely senteneced.


How we doing on that judgment thing?


----------



## UberHammer

drivinindc said:


> "Should?" Says who? The agreement you made with Uber specifies that they set prices, not you.
> 
> Franchise operations (e.g. your local McDonald's) are independent businesses from the corporate parent chain. That doesn't mean they get to whatever they want: they sign a deal where they specify what the franchisee does and doesn't have control over. Same thing when a subcontractor signs onto a job underneath an umbrella contractor, and same thing with Uber.


Franchise laws are governed at the state level. Even with 50 different legislations, not one of them categorizes an Uber driver as a franchisee of Uber. And for this to even happen, Uber has to register with every single state as a Franchisor selling franchises to drivers. Uber doesn't want this hassle at all, for many different reasons.

Also the Uber/Driver contract establishes the price Uber publishes in their app as nothing more than a "recommended fare". Uber does NOT set the price. All they do is recommend a price.


----------



## frickinnuts

Kinda funny all this and the drivers are the product, neither uber nor lyft has a car on the road. They have an app that's all. Seems to me they would want to make their product happy.


----------



## UberHammer

frickinnuts said:


> Kinda funny all this and the drivers are the product, neither uber nor lyft has a car on the road. They have an app that's all. Seems to me they would want to make their product happy.


The CEO of Uber sees no difference between a driver and an MP3 file. He has as much contempt for the owner of the car as he had for the artist who made the song he was selling. He won't stop until the judicial system forces him to stop. I'm convinced he's a high function autistic. A genius with computers, but his ability to relate to others is moron level.


----------



## Old Rocker

UberHammer said:


> The CEO of Uber sees no difference between a driver and an MP3 file. He has as much contempt for the owner of the car as he had for the artist who made the song he was selling. He won't stop until the judicial system forces him to stop. I'm convinced he's a high function autistic. A genius with computers, but his ability to relate to others is moron level.


Those of us with HFA appreciate your compassion.


----------



## Samename

Just saw Steve Jobs movie, perhaps he is channelling the legends supremacy. Maybe every great leader needs a hint of authoritative, know-it-all, socially ineptness.


----------



## Samename

Michael - Cleveland said:


> I prefer the opposite of what Uber and Lyft do now.
> Instead of SURGE pricing, I'd like to see DISCOUNT pricing:
> Set the rate at $2.50/mi with a $2.50 base fee, .25/min (or something like that).
> Then DISCOUNT the rate by x% when demand is slow to encourage RIDERS to request rides at 'off-peak' times.​
> I do agree that standardizing the rates for surge should be done, as you suggested - NIGHTS, EVENTS, BAD WEATHER, etc.
> Make it predictable for riders and drivers.


Please give me the option to deny your cheap pings, but I like the idea. When demand exceeds supply though will PAX simply wait 30mins for their flat-rate surge? Or should they have the option to pay more to ditch others in the queue?


----------



## Sacto Burbs

Old Rocker said:


> Almost zero in the media today about the strike. I found this.
> 
> http://recode.net/2015/10/18/the-fl...st-shows-how-hard-it-is-for-them-to-organize/


Dave Sutton, a spokesman for the Who's Driving You? campaign started by the the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, agreed.

"Uber's ability to frame itself as a job creator is key to its legislative power. This strike belies the idea that Uber jobs are good jobs," Sutton said. "If the protests continue with increased driver participation they could meaningfully erode Uber's political power."

Cabbies are the key to meeting our demands.

WE ARE ALL DRIVERS HERE.


----------



## EcoSLC

Anybody else getting texts from Uber about a "special luncheon"? Maybe it's only a Utah thing... but the timing is suspicious and the message reminds me of that bait-and-switch they did with the drivers in NYC years back.


----------



## TwoFiddyMile

EcoSLC said:


> Anybody else getting texts from Uber about a "special luncheon"? Maybe it's only a Utah thing... but the timing is suspicious and the message reminds me of that bait-and-switch they did with the drivers in NYC years back.


Sir, don't eat the Clam chowder.


----------



## Old Rocker

EcoSLC said:


> Anybody else getting texts from Uber about a "special luncheon"? Maybe it's only a Utah thing... but the timing is suspicious and the message reminds me of that bait-and-switch they did with the drivers in NYC years back.


Nothing here.


----------



## Neil Yaremchuk

UberXTampa said:


> Strike didn't work.
> No additional or noticeable Lyft requests came during this weekend.


Not sure that was an official litmus test of the protest anyways. Lyft drivers in Detroit reported higher than usual ride requests. We set out to help drivers not hurt Uber or fatten Lyft. A rousing success in my book.


----------



## Neil Yaremchuk

Old Rocker said:


> Nothing here.


Uber touted past glories when the rates were substantially higher in Detroit last year claiming drivers "could make $500" on Saturday like they did a year ago. Still waiting for a single Metro Detroit area driver to tell me "told you so."


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

drivinindc said:


> This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of my life.


Really - the DUMBEST?
You must not get out much!


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

drivinindc said:


> "Should?" Says who? The agreement you made with Uber specifies that they set prices, not you.


I'm afraid you are mistaken.
READ YOUR PARTNER AGREEMENT which states that Uber fares are only "default" fares in the event a fare is not negotiated between the rider and the driver.

4.1 Fare Calculation and Your Payment.
*You are entitled to charge a fare for each instance of completed Transportation Services provided to a User that are obtained via the Uber Services *("Fare"), where such Fare is calculated based upon a base fare amount plus mileage and/or time amounts, as detailed for the applicable Territory ("Fare Calculation"). You are also entitled to charge User for any Tolls, taxes or fees incurred during the provision of Transportation Services, and, if applicable. You: (i) appoint Company as your limited payment collection agent solely for the purpose of accepting the Fare, applicable Tolls and, depending on the region and/or if requested by you, applicable taxes and fees from the User on your behalf via the payment processing functionality facilitated by the Uber Services; and (ii) agree that *payment made by User to Company shall be considered the same as payment made directly by User to you. In addition, the parties acknowledge and agree that as between you and Company, the Fare is a recommended amount, and the primary purpose of the pre-arranged Fare is to act as the default amount in the event you do not negotiate a different amount*. ​Now apologize to UberXTampa !


----------



## AintWorthIt

So how do you negotiate a fare? Text? I just don't see that going over very well


----------



## Einstein

Michael - Cleveland said:


> * In addition, the parties acknowledge and agree that as between you and Company, the Fare is a recommended amount, and the primary purpose of the pre-arranged Fare is to act as the default amount in the event you do not negotiate a different amount*.


What is their motive to structure the contract this way?

They have the client's credit card. The only way we could get paid in an alternative manner would be to cancel (or not begin) the ride and drive the Pax off the meter.

Uber would deactivate the driver for doing this.

So the contract is contradictory.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

Einstein said:


> What is their motive to structure the contract this way?


It was supposed to protect them from claims that they are a transportation company that employs drivers
(as opposed to a Technology Company that only 'facilitates transportation between consumers and independent contractors').

That's the big issue in the federal courts.
If Uber is actually a transportation company, then it will fall under the jurisdiction of local regulatory authorities for transportation services.
If it's "just" a Tech company facilitating communication between individual, independent drivers and consumers,
then the regulators can't really lay a hand on it -
because then it is all those rouge drivers who are providing the transportation service, not Uber.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

Einstein said:


> So the contract is contradictory.


And ambiguous, that's correct.


----------



## UberHammer

AintWorthIt said:


> So how do you negotiate a fare? Text? I just don't see that going over very well


The app is not programed to execute the contract. Uber ignores contract law established in its own contract just as much as it ignores legislated law.


----------



## UberHammer

Einstein said:


> What is their motive to structure the contract this way?


Because if Uber establishes the right in the contract to set the price, then drivers would employees.



> They have the client's credit card. The only way we could get paid in an alternative manner would be to cancel (or not begin) the ride and drive the Pax off the meter.
> 
> Uber would deactivate the driver for doing this.
> 
> So the contract is contradictory.


Yes, it is.


----------



## AintWorthIt

Sounds about right.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

Samename said:


> Please give me the option to deny your cheap pings, but I like the idea. When demand exceeds supply though will PAX simply wait 30mins for their flat-rate surge? Or should they have the option to pay more to ditch others in the queue?


What queue?
If the 'normal rate' is what people know and expect, then there are no surprises - no angry riders feeling cheated and down-rating drivers.
If they want to wait for normal demand to drop down to low demand to try to get a discount - good for them. Who cares?
If they want to get to where they're going sooner rather than later, they'll go with the flow.
It's still less expensive and, more often than not, faster than a taxi.

It's about confidence in the system and predictability of cost.
No one likes to get burned with an unexpected high cost -
and everyone loves a discount.

The difference between what Uber & Lyft do now
and what I have been preaching here for months
is the difference between greed and 'marketing'.


----------



## Michael - Cleveland

AintWorthIt said:


> So how do you negotiate a fare? Text? I just don't see that going over very well


Technically, you would submit a 'fare adjustment request' after the ride.
But every CSR here in UberPeople has said that if you do that you will get deactivated.
So, for all practical purposes you can't execute a negotiated fare, as permitted by the partner agreement.

And that is another reason Uber is facing a federal class action lawsuit from drivers.


----------



## KeJorn

ExUberEmployee said:


> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Full time drivers put in well over 40 hours per week.. some as much as 70 on the road.
Part time drivers work full time jobs AND then drive.. sometimes close to full time hours...

How do you figure Uber employees work harder?
They sit at a computer... while we are driving on the roads, dealing with traffic, weather, obnoxious riders, flat tires, angry pax, road rage, the possibly of getting in an accident and NOT being covered by Uber or our personal insurance... all with far less pay or benefits than an Uber Employee...

We are literally where the rubber meets the road. Without drivers, Uber is a useless app.
But you say Uber employees WORK harder????

SMH


----------



## yoyodyne

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


Fanfiction rocks!


----------



## JaxBeachDriver

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


I don't think you're an ex employee. I think this is some uber employee (or PR hack) being told to quietly spread the word about blowback from striking.


----------



## MiddleClassedOut

As per negotiating fares - I routinely text over 10 mins/3 miles away a request for a pick-up fee, which varies depending on the time and mileage ($6 for 10 minutes away and up). They usually cancel, but I did get one in the middle of nowhere willing to pay it. There's no reason not to - I've written Lyft about this and they suggested I cancel but didn't say I couldn't do it. I don't drive for Uber anymore but I'd be interested in hearing their response.


----------



## Samename

Michael - Cleveland said:


> What queue?
> If the 'normal rate' is what people know and expect, then there are no surprises - no angry riders feeling cheated and down-rating drivers.
> If they want to wait for normal demand to drop down to low demand to try to get a discount - good for them. Who cares?
> If they want to get to where they're going sooner rather than later, they'll go with the flow.
> It's still less expensive and, more often than not, faster than a taxi.
> 
> It's about confidence in the system and predictability of cost.
> No one likes to get burned with an unexpected high cost -
> and everyone loves a discount.
> 
> The difference between what Uber & Lyft do now
> and what I have been preaching here for months
> is the difference between greed and 'marketing'.


Argument being that surge removes the need for a queue. No surge and there would be a queue when it's busy.


----------



## UberRey

I didn't read every post here, so this may have been addressed already... Uber and Lyft don't work together. Ever. The OP mentioned that Lyft lowers their rates a lot.... Umm... no. They don't. They lowered the rates ONCE to match the first drastic Uber cut. OP is talking out of his ass, however he gets style points for coming up with a very well thought out piece of fiction. It's fun watching gullibles rant and throw fits. The OP had a good laugh, now lets just move one.


----------



## ColdRider

Hmmm what's harder? Driving a car (something I learned before I was sixteen), or programming software, crunching numbers etc? 

Most people can drive. Not a lot of people can write code. Simple


----------



## KeJorn

ColdRider said:


> Hmmm what's harder? Driving a car (something I learned before I was sixteen), or programming software, crunching numbers etc?
> Most people can drive. Not a lot of people can write code. Simple


Most Uber Employees are NOT software developers.. LOL
Nice try though.


----------



## ColdRider

KeJorn said:


> Most Uber Employees are NOT software developers.. LOL
> Nice try though.


Thanks 

What do the rest do then?


----------



## Older Chauffeur

ColdRider said:


> Thanks
> 
> What do the rest do then?


Cut and paste generic replies to emails from drivers.


----------



## ColdRider

Older Chauffeur said:


> Cut and paste generic replies to emails from drivers.


I just checked their site. Looks like they're hiring a bunch of account executives, applications engineers, business management, data analysts and the list goes on and on. Seems pretty hard to me LOL


----------



## ATX 22

Older Chauffeur said:


> Cut and paste generic replies to emails from drivers.


Devise devious ways to screw over drivers.


----------



## FlDriver

I have no idea if the first post is legit, but it makes perfect sense that Uber would try to detect drivers who are screwing with the system as part of some "strike" (which it's not, because strikes are done by employees) in order to get rid of them. As well they should. If you don't want to drive, don't drive.


----------



## ATX 22

FlDriver said:


> I have no idea if the first post is legit, but it makes perfect sense that Uber would try to detect drivers who are screwing with the system as part of some "strike" (which it's not, because strikes are done by employees) in order to get rid of them. As well they should. If you don't want to drive, don't drive.


You obviously miss the point of the work stoppage, walkout, app off, strike, whatever fits best. 
People want to work, and they want to be compensated fairly. I can't help but notice that you have been a member for about as long as the OP, which throws a bunch of skepticism towards a post of this nature. Spend some time going back through a few hundred threads before passing judgement.


----------



## KeJorn

ColdRider said:


> I just checked their site. Looks like they're hiring a bunch of account executives, applications engineers, business management, data analysts and the list goes on and on. Seems pretty hard to me LOL


Sure it's up for debate...
WHO works harder?

The original claim was that because they were still in the office working that they worked harder than drivers.
Thus the claim was: they work longer hours = they work harder.
That in itself is misleading and likely untrue, based on the number of hours many drivers put in, even the part timers.
As I stated.

Now, you chose to go into the skill-set side.
OK.. so you are saying: Higher technical skillset = harder worker (defining work based on mental work, aka knowledge workers)
Again misleading and inaccurate.
After 20 years in the IT field, I have dealt with people from MANY different departments within a business.
And from what I have seen, technical skillset DOES NOT equal harder worker, though certainly, depending on their work ethic and responsibilities, this could be true.

Someone could say that the more physical your job is, the harder you work.
That could be valid to one degree.
A construction worker is doing far more physical work than someone that sits at a desk or even drives a car.
So that certainly can be true to some degree.
But work is not solely defined as physical.

Perhaps a better way to gauge hard work, is the stress level associated with someone's job.
Then physical stress and mental stress can play a role.
Drivers, as I described, deal with a lot of stress. Mostly mental, though certainly when a pax gets agitated, physical stress levels can rise.

In the end. to say one group or another works harder is guesswork at best, as it really depends on the individual.

But the jokes were good.


----------



## Txchick

ATX 22 said:


> You obviously miss the point of the work stoppage, walkout, app off, strike, whatever fits best.
> People want to work, and they want to be compensated fairly. I can't help but notice that you have been a member for about as long as the OP, which throws a bunch of skepticism towards a post of this nature. Spend some time going back through a few hundred threads before passing judgement.


Yep!


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## chi1cabby

ExUberEmployee's post may have been a scare tactic, but his threats made it into an article about the strike.

*The Flop of Uber Drivers' National Protest Shows How Hard It Is for Them to Organize*
_Some Uber drivers who considered unplugging from the app this weekend worried about retaliation. *A rumor circulated on uberpeople.net *that those who participated in the strike could be deactivated from the service._


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## KGB7

KeJorn said:


> Full time drivers put in well over 40 hours per week.. some as much as 70 on the road.
> Part time drivers work full time jobs AND then drive.. sometimes close to full time hours...
> 
> How do you figure Uber employees work harder?
> They sit at a computer... while we are driving on the roads, dealing with traffic, weather, obnoxious riders, flat tires, angry pax, road rage, the possibly of getting in an accident and NOT being covered by Uber or our personal insurance... all with far less pay or benefits than an Uber Employee...
> 
> We are literally where the rubber meets the road. Without drivers, Uber is a useless app.
> But you say Uber employees WORK harder????
> 
> SMH


A clear example that Uber employees think they are better then drivers.

No wonder they got a free multi million $$ vacation in Vegas.


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## Gemgirlla

chi1cabby said:


> ExUberEmployee's post may have been a scare tactic, but his threats made it into an article about the strike.
> 
> *The Flop of Uber Drivers' National Protest Shows How Hard It Is for Them to Organize*
> _Some Uber drivers who considered unplugging from the app this weekend worried about retaliation. *A rumor circulated on uberpeople.net *that those who participated in the strike could be deactivated from the service._


Good point made in this article re: one possible reason less drivers participated in the strike:

"Even if the Teamsters organize Uber and Lyft drivers, there's other challenges for their collective bargaining. The drivers are independent contractors and therefore have less rights than employees in the eyes of the National Labor Relations Board. For example, if contractors strike they could lose their positions, whereas employees are legally protected....
Some Uber drivers who considered unplugging from the app this weekend worried about retaliation. A rumor circulated on uberpeople.net that those who participated in the strike could be deactivated from the service."

Makes Uber look even worse. Basically, Uber has contactually "tied the hands" of the drivers classifying them as I/C and having the arbitration provision. Drivers may not be able to fight the misclassification issue in court if the arbitration provision isn't thrown out (we know they are very likely to lose in Uber controlled arbitration) and if they are I/C, they don't legally have the right to organize. Bottom line: the drivers have no rights. Seems Uber controls drivers more than companies control their employees given that employees at least have the protection of labor laws. Lose - Lose for drivers.


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## Uber 1

JaxBeachDriver said:


> I don't think you're an ex employee. I think this is some uber employee (or PR hack) being told to quietly spread the word about blowback from striking.


On a more sinister level, do you think this ENTIRE site is an Uber construct designed to get a "feel" of the sentiment towards Uber itself?...

PLUS they get to learn what we are THINKING and can probably start making countermeasures BEFORE we can even implement our programs!.....DEVIOUS!!!

Heck, THEY probably hacked into my web cam and they are probably watching me type this in right now....RUN! while you can!..... :-O

Andy


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## Uber Kraus

Uber 1 said:


> On a more sinister level, do you think this ENTIRE site is an Uber construct designed to get a "feel" of the sentiment towards Uber itself?...
> 
> PLUS they get to learn what we are THINKING and can probably start making countermeasures BEFORE we can even implement our programs!.....DEVIOUS!!!
> 
> Heck, THEY probably hacked into my web cam and they are probably watching me type this in right now....RUN! while you can!..... :-O
> 
> Andy


Time for your meds!


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## ColdRider

KeJorn said:


> Sure it's up for debate...
> WHO works harder?
> 
> The original claim was that because they were still in the office working that they worked harder than drivers.
> Thus the claim was: they work longer hours = they work harder.
> That in itself is misleading and likely untrue, based on the number of hours many drivers put in, even the part timers.
> As I stated.
> 
> Now, you chose to go into the skill-set side.
> OK.. so you are saying: Higher technical skillset = harder worker (defining work based on mental work, aka knowledge workers)
> Again misleading and inaccurate.
> After 20 years in the IT field, I have dealt with people from MANY different departments within a business.
> And from what I have seen, technical skillset DOES NOT equal harder worker, though certainly, depending on their work ethic and responsibilities, this could be true.
> 
> Someone could say that the more physical your job is, the harder you work.
> That could be valid to one degree.
> A construction worker is doing far more physical work than someone that sits at a desk or even drives a car.
> So that certainly can be true to some degree.
> But work is not solely defined as physical.
> 
> Perhaps a better way to gauge hard work, is the stress level associated with someone's job.
> Then physical stress and mental stress can play a role.
> Drivers, as I described, deal with a lot of stress. Mostly mental, though certainly when a pax gets agitated, physical stress levels can rise.
> 
> In the end. to say one group or another works harder is guesswork at best, as it really depends on the individual.
> 
> But the jokes were good.


Thanks  but I wasn't joking.


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## Cherries_JUberLee

I canceled on a rider that was 17 minutes away and had trouble with the uber app the rest of Friday. I assumed uber was messed up and I logged off for the evening. I picked up two different riders later that evening and the app went out on me. I delivered them anyway and they paid cash. I didn't find out until much later that there was a strike going on. The error read "no cell reception try another area" or something like that. My point is that something was going on with the app on their end whether the driver was taking part in the strike or not.


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## ATL2SD

JaxBeachDriver said:


> I don't think you're an ex employee. I think this is some uber employee (or PR hack) being told to quietly spread the word about blowback from striking.


You sir, are probably spot on. Problem is most of the drivers' on the this site can't tell the difference between a fellow driver & some of these Uber lames trolling the forum. Oh & let's not forget some of the vets on here, flat out denying that Uber even monitors this site.


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## EcoSLC

Cherries_JUberLee said:


> I canceled on a rider that was 17 minutes away and had trouble with the uber app the rest of Friday. I assumed uber was messed up and I logged off for the evening. I picked up two different riders later that evening and the app went out on me. I delivered them anyway and they paid cash. I didn't find out until much later that there was a strike going on. The error read "no cell reception try another area" or something like that. My point is that something was going on with the app on their end whether the driver was taking part in the strike or not.


Like people have pointed out already, Uber already does a good enough job of glitching and crashing their own system without our "help" being needed. Lol


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## big A

F### uber they're not the only job in the world I'm supposed to be scared because uber wants to deactivate us because we want to strike I hope they do see you in court f### uber employees and the management


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## KMANDERSON

ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


scared I might get deactivated where will I find another job that .85 cent a mile


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## Old Rocker

There's an article on Bloomberg today where TK is saying that an IPO is years away. What makes the article notable is the mention that only 10-15 current Uber employees have been with the company for four years or longer.


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## BobCarlyle

Please. The overseas reps don't know where to find your phone number, let alone any of this info.


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## Cherries_JUberLee

Be assured that Uber monitors this forum more than I do. When it comes to their lively hood, they would be foolish not to do so.


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## Agent99

Could you give us an update regarding Uber's plans for a "black weekend" of mass firings of drivers? This important thread has been dead quiet for two months...



ExUberEmployee said:


> I have left Uber a long time ago, however the office grapevine never leaves you (especially at Uber). We ex-Ubers have access to a room on Hipchat. Uber employees are preparing for a "Black Weekend" where they plan on deactivating as many drivers as necessary in order to get anyone who strikes off the platform, permanently. Lyft is also possibly collaborating with Uber to blacklist striking drivers.
> 
> Uber management and employees think that ungrateful drivers are a liability and should not drive for Uber. They are seeing this strike as an opportunity to weed out as many drivers as they need to.
> 
> Here are changes to the partner apps in 3.57:
> 
> * Twilio voice recording has been activated. All calls are now retained, and Uber is using the Twilio speech-to-text transcript feature to detect any mentions of "strike", "uber freedom", etc. Matching snippets are sent to a CSR for an immediate review. Uber is bringing on board additional CSRs (through ZeroChaos) to handle "Black Weekend". Most aren't told they're working for uber.
> 
> * Texting a driver with the word "strike" will automatically reject the message (it won't be relayed to the driver) and lock your abilities to call/text any driver until a Uber CSR reviews your texts.
> 
> * The rider and partner app now uploads the IMEI / MEID of the device and matches it. A special "1984" (that's really what they call it!) mode is activated if you are using the riders app as a partner. They're also detecting this through numerous other ways, though I do not know the specifics (I am an ex-employee, after all).
> 
> * If you're a driver using the riders app, irregardless of how many drivers there actually are it will appear full. In fact Uber will actually be replaying historical data for the PREVIOUS weekend in 1984 mode.
> 
> * In 1984 mode, if you cancel on your first ride your driver AND rider app is waitlisted for the weekend. Uber's CSRs will review it and determine if you're trying to communicate to other drivers about the strike.
> 
> * Any driver found to be advocating for the strike, or promoting the strike will be permanently deactivated. Here is the kicker: Uber is in discussion with Lyft to build a blacklist of drivers they will not onboard. I do not know how discussions are going, but if you get deactivated from striking Lyft can also view you as "high risk" and reject you. Lyft cuts rates all the time and they don't want trouble-causing protestors!
> 
> This may come as a surprise to you, it did to me but I have confirmed that negotiations are indeed ongoing. As far as I know this is a very limited partnership in scope and Uber / Lyft still competes with each other fiercely otherwise.
> 
> You may ask, how can Uber deactivate you for this? It's simple, they have talked to their legal team and found a clause in the contract:
> 
> "Company retains the right to, at any time at Company's sole discretion, deactivate or otherwise restrict you from accessing or using the Driver App or the Uber Services in the event of a violation of this Agreement, your disparagement of Company or any of its Affiliates, your act or omission that causes harm to Company's or its Affiliates' brand, reputation or business as determined by Company in its sole discretion."
> 
> Section 2.4 of the Partner Agreement.
> 
> Many Uber employees read this forum and I know after posting this post they won't be discussing any of it on the Hipchat room. I have non-terminating NDAs with Uber and I cannot risk compromising my identity or my current job, so I am not going to screenshot any of the chat logs for you. But you've been notified.
> 
> Good luck out there.
> 
> PS: Uber employees work harder than you, drivers. It's almost 10 PM here in SF and the majority of people are still online and working.


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## yoyodyne

Agent99 said:


> Could you give us an update regarding Uber's plans for a "black weekend" of mass firings of drivers? This important thread has been dead quiet for two months...


It has been quiet because it was obviously nonsense.


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## Cooluberdriver

DieselkW said:


> So, Uber is going to deactivate a bunch of drivers by 1984-ing them using methods like those used on the show "Person of Interest"?
> 
> Here is what will happen:
> 
> Lyft will get a bunch of former Uber drivers using their platform.
> Uber passengers will soon see longer wait times.
> Uber drivers, what's left of them, will have longer pickup distances.
> Uber passengers will become Lyft passengers, especially after the new crop of pimply faced brand new Uber drivers hit the road for $0.60/mile
> Uber IPO will shrink in value.
> Uber can't possibly know who is striking, boycotting, or taking a weekend off.
> 
> Prediction: No one will be deactivated.
> 
> I do like the term "Black Weekend" and that Uber is concerned enough to send their little errand boy (A member since yesterday with one post) here to do damage control.


He said little errand boy haha (Bevis and butt head)


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