Mechanically, the answer is until what ever is pouring money into the system runs out of money.
But figuring out all the money flows can be quite complex.
So from the driver's perspective there will always be people available for whom "some money" is better than "no money." That is the part of the labor pool who have multiple jobs which each contribute some part of their overall income. Uber is good for those people because the hours are very flexible and so they can be "fit in" around a lot of other more scheduled economic activity.
So an interesting question is this, what is the supply of these laborers and is there any other activity that can get them the more income with the same flexibility? Is that the critical resource here? "remainder" laborers?
If that is the case, then that shortage will drive the price up in order to meet demand for Uber rides. And if the price for Uber rides goes up, it will mean that some Uber customers for whom it was marginally useful at the previous lower price will drop out.
And that summarizes to there will neither be a driver revolt nor a significant price increase. There may be fewer drivers which leads to a gradual price increase or there may be higher driver turnover and stable prices. Time will tell though, regulation could step in that changes the balance significantly in favor of one party or another.
Recently took a Pool ride, although I was the only passenger picked up. Short ride. About 10 min. + the time it took to get to me (10 min.) $2.54 Shocking. In short, I love Uber.
Being an American worker, the amount of excess labor capacity (if you want to call it that) out there is terrifying. Non skilled work is cheap. People will work for almost nothing.
Mechanically, it will last until all the first generation Uber driver cars give out. I very much doubt many drivers are properly accounting for wear and tear on their vehicles and still make minimum wage.
I would push back on that thought a bit. Consider that in our existing history are door to door sales people who would use their own car to sell goods on a commission basis, the canonical example of that is the "Fuller Brush Salesperson".
Also, assuming these people file tax returns, if they are independent contractors then they are writing off their car mileage at 55 cents a mile against any income they make. Hard to know for sure without talking to actual drivers though.
Comments
Mechanically, the answer is until what ever is pouring money into the system runs out of money.
But figuring out all the money flows can be quite complex.
So from the driver's perspective there will always be people available for whom "some money" is better than "no money." That is the part of the labor pool who have multiple jobs which each contribute some part of their overall income. Uber is good for those people because the hours are very flexible and so they can be "fit in" around a lot of other more scheduled economic activity.
So an interesting question is this, what is the supply of these laborers and is there any other activity that can get them the more income with the same flexibility? Is that the critical resource here? "remainder" laborers?
If that is the case, then that shortage will drive the price up in order to meet demand for Uber rides. And if the price for Uber rides goes up, it will mean that some Uber customers for whom it was marginally useful at the previous lower price will drop out.
And that summarizes to there will neither be a driver revolt nor a significant price increase. There may be fewer drivers which leads to a gradual price increase or there may be higher driver turnover and stable prices. Time will tell though, regulation could step in that changes the balance significantly in favor of one party or another.
Recently took a Pool ride, although I was the only passenger picked up. Short ride. About 10 min. + the time it took to get to me (10 min.) $2.54 Shocking. In short, I love Uber.
Being an American worker, the amount of excess labor capacity (if you want to call it that) out there is terrifying. Non skilled work is cheap. People will work for almost nothing.
Mechanically, it will last until all the first generation Uber driver cars give out. I very much doubt many drivers are properly accounting for wear and tear on their vehicles and still make minimum wage.
I would push back on that thought a bit. Consider that in our existing history are door to door sales people who would use their own car to sell goods on a commission basis, the canonical example of that is the "Fuller Brush Salesperson".
Also, assuming these people file tax returns, if they are independent contractors then they are writing off their car mileage at 55 cents a mile against any income they make. Hard to know for sure without talking to actual drivers though.
There is a big difference between driving while selling and selling your driving.
<Mechanically, the answer is until what ever is pouring money into the system runs out of money.>
Or, until all competitors of significance are run out of the market by losses, e.g. "Sidecar down, Lyft to go".