# Vice Article on RydenGo.



## AliciaLyftdriver (Feb 26, 2017)

Here's a great Vice article on RydenGo!

https://impact.vice.com/en_us/article/dead-end-regulators-blocked-a-car-share-app-that-aims-to-empower-drivers


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## Jaden (Apr 22, 2017)

Spidey sense detecting Uber is behind the cease and desist...


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

AliciaLyftdriver said:


> Here's a great Vice article on RydenGo!
> 
> https://impact.vice.com/en_us/article/dead-end-regulators-blocked-a-car-share-app-that-aims-to-empower-drivers


Damn, after reading the first paragraph in the article then why in the hell would anyone contract with Uber/Lyft? That first paragraph basically calls all U/L drivers idiots in a very politically correct way.


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## AliciaLyftdriver (Feb 26, 2017)

Jaden said:


> Spidey sense detecting Uber is behind the cease and desist...


You could possibly be right. It's very strange for sure. Nothing surprises me when it comes to uber.


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## u-Boat (Jan 4, 2016)

Every uBer/Lyft driver should pin this quote up on the bulletin board as a daily reminder that they're getting bent over on a daily basis:
_
"This industry claims you're an 'entrepreneur,' but you're not able to determine your worth. Drivers are told, 'You're self employed. But this is what you have to charge.' And that's a contradiction, is it not? Calling an independent contractor self employed, and then not allowing them to control their business-it's basically like telling somebody in a prison cell that they have freedom."_


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## phillipzx3 (May 26, 2015)

^^^^^
Cab drivers are self-employed as well. The city sets the rates...not the drivers.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

phillipzx3 said:


> ^^^^^
> Cab drivers are self-employed as well. The city sets the rates...not the drivers.


The owner of a franchise restaurant like McDonalds or Subway is an entrepreneur yet they can't set their own prices, they must purchase their product from specific vendors, they have to decorate their restaurant to corporate specifications, they must have operating hours approved by corporate. 
The only difference between an owner of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant that must stay open 24 hours a day every day of the year even on Christmas, that must sell his dollar value chicken sandwich for $.99, that must have all workers wear corporate approved uniforms, that must hang corporate posters in the windows and an Uber driver is that the Uber driver has way more freedoms to do with his business as he pleases.


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## AliciaLyftdriver (Feb 26, 2017)

u-Boat said:


> Every uBer/Lyft driver should pin this quote up on the bulletin board as a daily reminder that they're getting bent over on a daily basis:
> _
> "This industry claims you're an 'entrepreneur,' but you're not able to determine your worth. Drivers are told, 'You're self employed. But this is what you have to charge.' And that's a contradiction, is it not? Calling an independent contractor self employed, and then not allowing them to control their business-it's basically like telling somebody in a prison cell that they have freedom."_


Yeah that is a great quote!


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## u-Boat (Jan 4, 2016)

phillipzx3 said:


> Cab drivers are self-employed as well. The city sets the rates...not the drivers.


 Also wrong. Government should not be in the business of price-fixing and market manipulation.


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## JasonB (Jan 12, 2016)

*"The ethos of Pappas's start up, which plans to launch its Beta test this fall, 
is based on an unfortunately radical concept:

A ride-share service doesn't need to exploit its drivers for profit."*

Pretty much says it all right there.


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## Shea F. Kenny (Jan 3, 2015)

20.00 month? What kind of support do you expect out of that. If each support agent had 100 drivers, that's only 2000 a month salary. That's a lot of drivers to manage properly, with one person. 1,000 drivers? 20k in revs to pay expenses and salary. And impossible for one person to handle. And then, what about rider support? No rev from them, at all. And you have more riders than drivers. Uber in Chicago alone, does millions of rides per years. So, hundreds of thousands of rider issue. Uber and Lyft support will never work because when you reply to a support agent, you get another person, who also cannot read.

I love the part where drivers can set their own fares. How many cancels are you going to get, with riders looking for the cheapest rate driver? Oh, but the market will demand the driver lowers his/her rate, to whatever minimizes the cancel rate. Riders simply won't like it because you never know ride from ride, how much they will pay.

So, good for the regulators. They know an impossible scheme when they see one and one that will immediately injure the established market with an inferior product and it's consumer protections.


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## u-Boat (Jan 4, 2016)

SEAL Team 5 said:


> The only difference between an owner of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant that must sell his dollar value chicken sandwich for $.99 and an Uber driver is that the Uber driver has way more freedoms to do with his business as he pleases.


Therein lies the problem. An uBer ride has become the $.99 chicken sandwich of the transportation industry.


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## run26912 (Sep 23, 2015)

u-Boat said:


> Therein lies the problem. An uBer ride has become the $.99 chicken sandwich of the transportation industry.


Actually, it's a $2.10 chicken sandwich that Uber sells for $0.99.... that's how you can lose $3 billion a year and grow your marketshare.

BONG!!!


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## Ms Stein Fanboy (Feb 11, 2017)

u-Boat said:


> Every uBer/Lyft driver should pin this quote up on the bulletin board as a daily reminder that they're getting bent over on a daily basis:
> _
> "This industry claims you're an 'entrepreneur,' but you're not able to determine your worth. Drivers are told, 'You're self employed. But this is what you have to charge.' And that's a contradiction, is it not? Calling an independent contractor self employed, and then not allowing them to control their business-it's basically like telling somebody in a prison cell that they have freedom."_


This statement makes no sense. Any one of us could attempt to start a business transporting customers and determine our own worth (I mean, if riders agree to that worth). Uber doesn't prevent that. So go do it. Do it now. Be an actual entrepreneur. I happen to be driving Uber's customers around, not myh own. I don't have any clients of my own to determine my worth to. If we all "determined our own worth", it wouldn't be a platform all these people wanted to ride with. They jsut want a ride, not to haggle for prices. It's not like being in a prison cell vs freedom at all. Unless being employed is like being a prisoner to you (feels more liek being a servant to me). It's not totally liberating, but it's hardly being imprisoned. I don't have a business to control. So no one is "not allowing me to control my business". If someone believed all that entrepreneur hype about being an Uber driver, they were delusional to begin with. Uber brought the riders and they let us drive them for their price if we want. Or not.



run26912 said:


> Actually, it's a $2.10 chicken sandwich that Uber sells for $0.99.... that's how you can lose $3 billion a year and grow your marketshare.
> 
> BONG!!!


What does "bong" mean?



SEAL Team 5 said:


> The owner of a franchise restaurant like McDonalds or Subway is an entrepreneur yet they can't set their own prices, they must purchase their product from specific vendors, they have to decorate their restaurant to corporate specifications, they must have operating hours approved by corporate.
> The only difference between an owner of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant that must stay open 24 hours a day every day of the year even on Christmas, that must sell his dollar value chicken sandwich for $.99, that must have all workers wear corporate approved uniforms, that must hang corporate posters in the windows and an Uber driver is that the Uber driver has way more freedoms to do with his business as he pleases.


Yes. I used to wonder why the franchise comparison was never brought out (then I stopped thinking about it over a year ago probably). It's always independent contractor vs employee. It is very much like the fast food franchise. It kind of blows my mind cuz it's obviously very similar, but people would rather say "if they can't dictate their prices ro service quality, they must be employees".


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## Tom Harding (Sep 26, 2016)

AliciaLyftdriver said:


> Here's a great Vice article on RydenGo!
> 
> https://impact.vice.com/en_us/article/dead-end-regulators-blocked-a-car-share-app-that-aims-to-empower-drivers


Rydengo has an interesting idea, but will it work? Ride-share drivers are VERY competitive. So the guy in the waiting area at Horseshoe Casino is asking $30 for a ride to the Loop, and he has been sitting there for 2 hours. The guy that just pulled out was only asking $25. Is the app going to show various cars trip rates? Or is the fare set at the time of pickup? Is this a flat rate app or a mileage and time app? 
Too many questions, not enough information.


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## Disgusted Driver (Jan 9, 2015)

I could easily see this being a different race to the bottom, if we are bidding against each other in real time, there will always bre some jackass who will do it for a nickel less just like there are fools who drive up to the bar 5 minutes before it closes and take a nonsurge fare.


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## AliciaLyftdriver (Feb 26, 2017)

Shea F. Kenny said:


> 20.00 month?


It's been explained many times, that's an introductory price to get people to experience it. The price will go up for sure. In one of the interviews he talks about that. Hypothetically if the price was $100 a month, or $25 bucks a week, who couldn't make that. I make $25 bucks on a few rides easily at the start of the week.

This is the link to their press section, you can find the interview that talks about it. http://rydengo.com/Press

I'm just glad to see someone stepping up to the plate to help change the industry for the better. It's a good thing no matter what. Kudos to Pappas for doing so, wish we had more people like him in the world to fix things.

I'll keep driving for Lyft until something better comes along. Then I'll use both.



JasonB said:


> *"The ethos of Pappas's start up, which plans to launch its Beta test this fall,
> is based on an unfortunately radical concept:
> 
> A ride-share service doesn't need to exploit its drivers for profit."*
> ...


Agreed. Everyone can profit.

Interesting times we live in...


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## UsedToBeAPartner (Sep 19, 2016)

"This industry claims you're an 'entrepreneur,' but you're not able to determine your worth. Drivers are told, 'You're self employed. But this is what you have to charge.' And that's a contradiction, is it not? Calling an independent contractor self employed, and then not allowing them to control their business—it's basically like telling somebody in a prison cell that they have freedom."

While this makes for nice juicy wording in hopes of inciting the masses, it is completely inaccurate. Just because you are an independent contractor does not mean you get to set you own pricing. Yes, you can ask a customer to pay you a certain amount for the job performed but if they refuse the offer you either need to reduce your price to meet the consumers willingness to pay or you are not employed at all. The same is true with Uber and Lyft. You are given the option to work as an independent contractor at an agreed price or you can be remain unemployed. No one forces you to accept the drivers contract but, if you do, then you have come to a mutual agreement between parties. You are not told when, where or how often to work but you agree that when you do work, you will complete each job you agree to handle in a timely manner and you will be paid for each completed job.


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## u-Boat (Jan 4, 2016)

UsedToBeAPartner said:


> You are given the option to work as an independent contractor at an agreed price or you can be remain unemployed. No one forces you to accept the drivers contract but, if you do, then you have come to a mutual agreement between parties. You are not told when, where or how often to work but you agree that when you do work, you will complete each job you agree to handle in a timely manner and you will be paid for each completed job.


An agreed price? Who agrees on uBer's pricing? uBer management and uBer riders that's who. Drivers certainly don't. Justify it however many ways you like, uBer setting the rates is price-fixing plain and simple.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

u-Boat said:


> An agreed price? Who agrees on uBer's pricing?


The driver does every time he turns on the app and accepts a ping.



u-Boat said:


> Justify it however many ways you like, uBer setting the rates is price-fixing plain and simple.


That's not what price fixing is. Price fixing is when an event or a person(s) manipulates the outcome to increase a price. A good example would be when two different contractors are bidding a job and conspire together to increase both their bids or when Uber drivers use the pax app to increase demand so surge pricing is implemented.


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## UsedToBeAPartner (Sep 19, 2016)

Seal Team 5 is correct, every time you accept a ping you agreed to the pricing. If you do not agree with the pricing you have to work somewhere else.


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## u-Boat (Jan 4, 2016)

SEAL Team 5 said:


> That's not what price fixing is. Price fixing is when an event or a person(s) manipulates the outcome to increase a price.


Call it what you like, it's not fair pricing based on free market principles of supply and demand when:

A. uber sets rates
B. uBer sets commission fees 
C. uBer sets surge pricing using their own algorithms (to their benefit and without proper oversight).

They've got the whole ball of wax and it's clear as day. If you think that's a free market you are wrong.


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## bsliv (Mar 1, 2016)

u-Boat said:


> Call it what you like, it's not fair pricing based on free market principles of supply and demand when:
> 
> A. uber sets rates
> B. uBer sets commission fees
> ...


It is most definitely the free market at work. If the supply of drivers is too low to meet the demand, Uber will increase the pay to the drivers. If the supply of drivers is high enough to meet the demand, Uber is free to lower the pay to the drivers. If the demand from riders is too low, Uber is free to lower its fare to the riders. If the demand from the riders is too high for the current supply of drivers, Uber will increase the fare to the riders. Surge pricing is pure supply/demand.

I'm an independent contractor in my main job. I get assignment offers from dozens of different clients via email. It states the job and the fee they offer. I can take it or leave it. Same with Uber. The problem with driving is the lack of clients. There is Uber, Lyft, and ?. That's not enough. A bigger problem are the regulatory hurdles involved in starting one's own transportation company. I'd like to advertise my rates on my door and craigslist. If I did, I would eventually be assaulted, kidnapped, and thrown in a cage. Uber isn't the problem. Uber is simply a client. A client that is in business for itself, as drivers are in business for themselves. Choose your clients for your (legally restricted) business.


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## AliciaLyftdriver (Feb 26, 2017)

u-Boat said:


> An agreed price? Who agrees on uBer's pricing? uBer management and uBer riders that's who. Drivers certainly don't. Justify it however many ways you like, uBer setting the rates is price-fixing plain and simple.


Agreed! I think there's room for Uber, RydenGo and Lyft to run together. I used to drive for Uber, now only Lyft. I welcome another option on my phone. I like the moral core of RydenGo. It's a good start, and a lot more moral at the core than the others at their very beginnings. It will take some time for it to happen.

It can't hurt to shoot for the farthest stars, you might at least it make it to mars while trying. Change always happens by dreaming bigger than usually what's possible. When it all settles we get something better afterwards traditionally than what was before. It's the process of evolutionary steps in most areas of life how change comes about, not all at once.


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