It’s commonly true that one has but to wait for the infamous “other shoe to drop” to know the rest of any given story. I see quite a few shoes dropping regarding Ubercab. No, they’re not called “Ubercab,” not anymore, anyway. They were once. That was their original name. Ubercab is a great service run by horrible people. They dropped the “cab” part when they decided to screw their drivers over so badly by denying responsibility for those employees. They argue the drivers are not employees but those are just words the company can string together. The short version is, Ubercab controls every aspect of the driver’s work for Ubercab when the employee is on the clock. Ubercab doesn’t make a dime without it’s employees. The drivers don’t get any Ubercab fares without Ubercab telling the driver about the fare – just like Yellow Taxi.

Several steps appeared to have been taken to try and address Ubercab’s faulty position but, darn it all, not only did Ubercab win in court, all independent contractors in the state took a major income hit and many employees lost jobs to cheaper options for the companies. A series of unfortunate events? Poorly argued case? (They got it right in the UK on the very first try…) How could so many politicians come to such an obviously anti-functional, downright stupid conclusion? In September, 2020 I wrote a piece that addressed the issue. The very simply solution was staring everyone right in the face the entire time. Still, the politicians seemed to get it wrong.

Ah, but those shoes. The Guardian is doing a series on Ubercab and the underhanded and criminal techniques they used to force their way into various markets. There were a LOT of them. Among them? Bribery. Of course. How else do politicians get such a simple thing so wrong? (Yeah, I know, one can never underestimate stupidity.) Perhaps I never received a reply to my FAR better idea because the politicians I sent it to had already cashed Ubercab’s check…