Question

Discuss if Uber drivers should be independent contractors or dependent employees. Why yes, why no.

Answer 1

• Uber is huge. The company operates in 58 countries and 450 cities. 40 million people used Uber just last month.
• There were 327,000 Uber drivers as of October 2015 however only 4 percent of the staff will be with the company one year after they began.
• The company grossed $6.5 billion, $2.1 billion and $1.1 billion in sales in 2016, 2015 and 2014 respectively.
• Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was worth approximately $6.3 billion approximately in 2014. Kalanick joined the Trump administration as an economic advisor in December 2016. After Mr. Trump issued an executive order which banned international travel from 7 Muslim majority countries, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance staged a strike at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Uber then tweeted it would increase surge prices at JFK. Kalanick was criticized for this move and stepped down from the administration in February 2017. He later resigned as CEO in June 2017 after “a slew of executive departures and sexual harassment allegations” had “raised concerns about the company’s ability to recruit female talent.”

  Employees:- If a driver is to be an employee, he needs to have a bond with Uber and he needs to work just with Uber. There are a lot of instances where a driver uses devices from multiple cab hailing companies. Such drivers cannot be employees with Uber. An employment with uber will also have to be more of variable pay than fixed pay as drivers need to be motivated to undertake more and more rides

  Independent contractors:- If drivers are going to be using applications from multiple cab hailing companies, uber is better off keeping them as independent contractors as it avoids creating a liability towards them through formal employment. I understand that a driver uses multiple apps secretly. I believe there is no need for it to be a secret. If these two ways are shown to a driver and if he sees merit in being an employee than an independent contractor, he will shun other apps and become an employee.