The Drivers

The Drivers ?Michael Patrick Murphy 2022

by Michael Patrick Murphy,

Vampire Slayer,

August 5, 2022

Like anyone else, rideshare drivers are not perfect people.?Sadly, too many are sketchy with poor hygiene and big bellies.?A few are even murderers and potential sex offenders.?Fortunately, many are good looking, well groomed, and will bend over backwards to be generous and kind.?Formed from many races and backgrounds, they have chosen to join a challenging sub culture, one with laws written from an omniscient corporate duopoly called Lyft and über. Their laws amount to hundreds of pages that few drivers will ever read, let alone abide by.?Like the lonely people in the Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby,” we can easily ask, “Where do they all come from??

Some drivers can destroy a porta-pottie faster than you can say Mr. Magoo—a middle fingerless name I use to describe too many Lyft and über drivers who try to reach for the brass ring at the expense of their own health and safety, not to mention that of their unsuspecting passengers and fellow drivers. ?

Drivers are a mixed box of chocolates.?As Forest Gump might add, “You never know what kind of driver you’ll get—a reason why so many passengers hire the better drivers they trust for private early morning rides to the airport in the growing uninsured black market industry, a black market that is no more black than that controlled by the under insured duopoly of Lyft and über and the all but useless and ineffective states that lazily and arbitrarily try to regulate them. A type of un-American anarchy and chaos was sure to follow and it’s here now, in your face, and surrounding almost every city and suburb in the United States and around the world.

Mr. Magoo was a cartoon character from the 1950’s, a period that also holds my birthdate (and that of Disneyland).?Leslie Nielsen also played Magoo in a 1997 movie version produced by Walt Disney. Now that I think about it, Nielsen definitely looks like a lot of rideshare drivers Ive interviewed and run into, not with my car, of course, but in airport staging areas all over Northern California.

Too many Magooboos are performed by drivers working for über and Lyft., Lyft and über drivers can lay claim to being among America’s most dangerous drivers—happenings waiting to accident. The really sick thing is that they are incentivized to be this way by the “unapologetic duopoly,” a nickname I use to describe the deceptively predatory and deadly Lyft and über. Inc, perhaps the most dangerous companies to work for on the New York stock exchange.?Their stocks are constantly falling, if not falling fast enough for the public’s welfare.?

Albeit, there are more dangerous jobs than rideshare, to be sure, but you are usually amply compensated to do them.?The stunt driver, Craig “Evil” Kneivil comes to mind.?Some drivers almost seem to drive like Craig, but definitely aren’t compensated for the risks they take and the bones they break. Stupid is as stupid does, right??Problem is that that they are not alone in their accidents, sometimes accidents with each other in airport staging areas.

In fact, what drivers sense but don’t know, might kill them.?Much like a casino, the game is rigged against them to the extent that probably about sixty percent of the drivers lose money driving for the duopoly. Surely, the casino would be a lot safer and for some, more profitable.

Still, the duopoly’s version of taxis based on some added layers of technology and some subtracted layers of visible advertising, does appeal to potential drivers.?It’s easy to get started—most of the time, there’s no scary interview.?That said, it’s like becoming President of the United States of America, almost anyone can become President—or even an über driver.?In über’s case, you don’t even have to be born here. ?But that begs the other darker side of the coin—for better or more probably worse, “anybody” can become President of the United States (with enough Chinese or Russian backing) or a Lyft driver with no backing at all.

Similar to Ahmad Fawad Yusufi, an Afghan driver who lost far more than just money, what you don’t consider or what has been hidden from you, can kill you.?Yusuf was an interpreter for US troops at war in his Afghan homeland.?Many immigrants have a hard time understanding corporate contracts that they must sign to work for Lyft and über and the devil really lives in the details “bigtime.” ?

Like most Americans, most rideshare drivers at least figure out how to click the “accept” button. If you don’t click it, there’s no money at all. In Ahmad’s case, it was perhaps his worst decision. Mr. Yusufi, a father of three, ended up dead after a botched robbery attempt while he was resting in his car between rides in San Francisco.?Many California Central Valley drivers opt to go to San Francisco, primarily because there’s little to no money when they drive nearer to home. ?

A problem in exposing the duopoly’s deadly policies that can lead to such events is that the driver’s accounts get deactivated.?The truth is hidden from a very curious public, as well as from family member’s like Yusef’s seeking to understand what really happened.?Lyft and über make little to no attempt to be there for injured drivers or their families. There will be no sympathetic visits to your hospital bed, pandemic or not. No wonder they are sued so much.?Doing something wrong and being callous about it is no way to keep a driver and his family from suing you.

It’s really a big mistake for most drivers to try and make a living from such predatory companies that offer drivers carrots on sticks to push for them to accept more rides than would be safe in order to earn the badly needed ride quantity based streaks and bonuses.?Understand that most drivers are pretty broke or close to it.?Unless you own the company (and I don’t mean own the stock of the company), you won’t become anywhere near rich.?

Those bonuses come in many deceptive constantly changing shapes and sizes, from “Three ride Streaks to Weekly bonuses.”?Those deadly incentives push drivers to drive way too much. Too many accept the challenge and pay the deadly consequences, leaving behind loved ones wondering exactly what happened. Those folks might find some solace here.

Algorithmically, it would appear that a corporate ideal would be for the average driver that strives for a bonus, to get close, providing über and Lyft with more revenue, but not close enough that the duopoly actually has to pay out the bonus. ?

For example, you might be trying to finish an $18 three ride streak at 11 pm at night. You’re tired, but you must accept any and all ride requests until the third ride is complete, that is if you want the $18 extra. So, the baby needs formula, and many drivers push themselves to try to beat the $4 per hour average driver profits. You perform the first two relatively local rides, plan on doing the third, but find out it’s a 100 mile ride away from home.?Smart drivers realize that it’s a losing ride because they have to return for their real job, or to watch the kids while their spouse goes to their real job.?Sad thing is, that if you don’t get a ride back home (and you usually won’t), you’ll lose money trying to do the streak.?Or you simply fall asleep and cause a tragic accident.?The rideshare company is seeing a profit whether you accept that last ride or not.?It’s not a real profit, since dead drivers don’t make any more money for the duopoly. Insurance rates go up because the driver might, more importantly, take out paying passengers in the accident.?No wonder Lyft and über can’t really make any money.

Both Lyft and über have survived by the passivity and ignorance of riders, drivers, stockholders, and governments. The duopoly knows what it is doing.?Though evil, the corporate heads are not oblivious.?They know full well that they are incentivizing dangerous driving, both from driver’s rushing to fit in more rides, and from their falling asleep trying to do so.?

In the end, to say that driving for Lyft and über is a “dumb” job, would be an understatement.?It’s not only unprofitable, usually paying out less than minimum wage, but it’s deadly, too. Ask Ahmad!

Many, if not most drivers, have become smarter through the school of hard knocks.?The effective churn rate for many drivers is probably between three and six months of service to their not so favorite charity, Lyft and über. For some, they feel so trapped by the system that quitting doesn’t seem like an option.?They are so tired, they can’t even make time to fill out applications for real jobs that pay real benefits and offer protections. They can’t even find the time to form a healthy union. In fact, if they want to survive and take care of any loved ones, quitting is the only “smart” option.?McDonald’s is safer and pays a heck of a lot better, especially when benefits are considered.?Plus, McDonald’s is legal.

The drivers I’ve met, on average, suffer from low self esteem, which comes from many sources.?It stems from not knowing English, not having a job, having too many bills, living above their means, family emergencies, etc. In other cases, drivers are just lonely and want a captive audience to talk to.?At least, while the driver is talking, the passenger knows he’s awake.

I remember one passenger story that I put on video, where he described his obviously tired driver telling him he had to drive full 12 hour shifts between each mandatory six hour break, because his wife had lost her job and he had to work for the both of them to support their family.?The breaks come at inopportune times that save the duopoly from paying out the ride quantity based bonuses.

The next thing my passenger knew, the driver had fallen asleep and the car was heading into an oncoming 18 wheeler.?My passenger said he grabbed the wheel to save their lives as he hit the driver at the same moment to wake him up.?The driver woke up and had no idea where he was.?He was that asleep!

But a driver’s ego is involved and despite the doubts of family and friends, won’t listen to common sense, let alone great sense.?He’ll stand stubbornly by his decisions to drive anyway. He’s also under the misconception that he benefits by the company’s illegally treating him as a private contractor, 1099 and all.?The companies would rather pay numerous lawyers, lobbyists, legal settlements and higher insurance than to actually pay the drivers legally and ethically. It’s too simple for the natures of the duopoly’s corporate boards of directors.

A driver's life becomes controlled by the will of the duopoly that uses every conniving trick in the book.?The scorpion like companies obfuscate, lie, and steal from the drivers.?Then they pretend that the shortcomings are the driver’s fault. Tricks are often used to get rid of troublesome drivers that complain.?The way that Lyft deactivated me after my being one of their best drivers for over seven years, most of them to write this book, was to use the excuse (as they worded it) of “alleged” racism, after a couple of young obnoxious passengers tried to probably get out of their cancel fee with Lyft. The lie (or even misunderstanding) didn’t matter.?It was the excuse Lyft needed to get rid of a real whistle blower than understands what they’ve been up to, and why.?The Governor and the California State Attorney General will get a copy of this portion of my book. It’s a call to action.

As I write this, I have many passengers that tell horror stories of their experiences with Lyft and über, sometimes because they too, had driven for the duopoly. Almost all were glad to be done with them. A few maintained their accounts to bring in the extra $20 they needed to pay their rent on a one room flat in Stockton.?The romance of pretending to be “Taxi Drivers” Travis Bickle saving Iris Steensma from a dead end destiny, is lost within hours of actually driving for the duopoly.?Even Bickle made more money.

A typical Northern California driver’s life might include living in one’s car, sleeping in parking lots or at the curb, showering at a gym like Planet Fitness, and using the Internet at McDonalds, a place where deals can be had for mostly fattening and unhealthy meals. Finding the time to do anything more than to eat, drive and sleep, can be hard for too many drivers.?Their health can suffer in many ways.?Too much sitting and eating junk food can shorten a driver’s lifespan substantially.?All one has to do is look around an Airport’s rideshare staging area at the unhealthy looking drivers, overweight and smoking cigarettes.

Putting the honest drivers stories together, it’s a corporate legacy of injustice, unfairness, and deadly consequences. Its political shenanigans at their finest.?The duopoly gets away with it with help from companies like FaceBook (Meta) that deactivate the accounts of whistleblowers to protect such advertisers. How many lawyers and lobbyists are also retained to protect them from justice. In my never to be humble opinion, I would take the whole board of directors of both companies, and deport them to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.?They earned my sobering judgement many, many times over. I now avoid FaceBook and the duopoly’s other accomplices like the plague and always look over my shoulder for assassins and corporate “cleaners” who won’t hesitate to hack my computers, drives and storage facilities. Corruption knows no boundaries, not even the killing of women and children, as the duopoly does through the drivers and as demonstrated by my story here.

There are a lot of current and ex-drivers that would agree with me.?There are much better jobs out there working for more legitimate companies that exhibit some type of moral compass, something totally missing at über and Lyft.?Anything that looks good or nice at the duopoly, is only lip service to make the narcissistic natures look good to the public.?Pull away the curtain, and Beelzebub suddenly appears, but unlike the character of the Wizard of Oz, there are no redeeming moments.?The Woodsman doesn’t get a heart.?The boards are pretty close to pure evil, and yes, it’s a profit earned from dead bodies.?I think you ought to know.?Wake up.?Rethink it.

Hopefully the duopoly’s end is near.?If someone really wants to drive, there are far better jobs with insurance and dental, vacations and such. Any way you look at it, a full timer’s hundred thousand miles per year is pushing the odds at life’s casino, even if you are an honest and safe driver.?I tell new drivers that if they drive full time for three years, they should count on being in a serious accident.?They should ask themselves if that’s being fair to their families and pets.

The thing the average driver pushes to the back of his mind, is that he too will make driving errors. One of them might be to drive tired and kill somebody’s child in a crosswalk, all for four bucks an hour.?They will never live past that one. Falling asleep while driving is the number two cause of driving deaths.?It’s worse than drunk driving, one of the marketed benefits of the duopoly’s existence.

The number one cause of driver deaths is “distracted driving.”?And über and Lyft are the driver’s number one distractions. They constantly interrupt rides with texts and promotions. Other distractions include phones like Apple’s complicated and inexact iPhone.?Swiping and pressing on your phone while on a pot hole filled Oakland road is a total distraction. Meanwhile, mapping systems can totally mislead drivers. Passengers constantly argue between themselves and with drivers about which way to go. A new request may mean charging across lanes to make a freeway offramp or left turn in homebound city traffic.

While the symptoms of drunk driving don’t usually reflect a rideshare driver’s habits, the symptoms of sleepy driving are the same.?Driver’s start to speed up and slow down for no apparent reason.?They hit the bumps. They pass out.

In the end, despite the misdeeds of Darth Zimmer at Lyft or Darth Dara at über, rideshare drivers do have a choice.?And if Lyft and über appropriately abandon the rideshare industry, there will always be some form of taxi or even driverless car, hopefully improved by technology.?There is a larger than ever rider and driver base with technologies to support it.?We all just need to demand a better, more legal company to take the reigns. ?

As for corporate integrity??Lyft and über’s nature won’t support it. I’m not holding my breath for them to have “Come to Jesus” moments. So don’t be a company like General Motors or Ford that partner with them to lease cars or for another benefit.?Ban them from airports. It makes your companies and governments look bad.?It makes me stay away from your products and services.?That includes you, Apple!?

I drive an American made Chrysler Pacifica Limited, a luxury car.?So, don’t even think about playing your boombox with dirty rap or hip hop at full volume inside my vehicle.?Don’t put your muddy ice chest on my leather seats and watch your potty mouth!?I’m 67 and consider using the “F,” “B,” or “N” word very disrespectful.?And don’t ever call me a racist to get a refund after I kick you out and you cancel the ride.?I didn’t even know or care if you were black. That’s your overly sensitive trigger, not mine Please don’t wear out my mental middle finger even if I reserve it for your sketchy disgusting selves.?Sorry Travis Kalanick, founder of über, I’m also talking to you.

#rideshare #lyft #uber #driving #drivers