Former KC Uber driver organizing national strike against the rideshare company
When Abe Husein started driving for Uber this past March, he says, rides in Kansas City cost $1.85 per mile. When he quit, in August, rides were down to $1 per mile. Good for riders, bad for drivers.
Husein, 29, is an investment-minded guy who owns a rental property in town. He says he was driving for Uber to save up money to buy another rental property. (Husein also recently appeared on an episode of American Greed; he was a victim of huckster Kevin Trudeau, who is accused of defrauding consumers across the country.) When the fare rates dropped, though, Husein started to view his job as a poor investment of his time.
“Think about it: Uber is now charging $1 a mile here,” Husein says. “Of that $1, Uber takes $0.20 off the top. In addition, Uber takes a $1 ‘safe-ride’ fee. Then calculate the average cost of operating a vehicle per mile, which is about $0.58, according to AAA. When I was driving for Uber, I put 800 miles on my car every week. You destroy your car in a matter of years driving like that.
“So after all that,” Husein continues, “drivers are making, what, $0.10 or $0.15 profit per mile? You don’t realize it because you’re getting weekly paychecks from Uber for a couple hundred bucks. Even if you drive 50 hours a week for Uber, and you make a thousand bucks, it’s really more like $300 if you do all the math. It’s all sunshine and rainbows until you realize the true expenses.”
While still employed by Uber — or rather, while working as an independent contractor for Uber, a classification that governments are taking an increasingly dim view of — Husein in August started a Facebook group aimed at organizing a strike among Kansas City Uber drivers. Uber found out, and deactivated his driver account, he says.
“I had a 4.9 out of 5 rating, one of the highest in the area,” Husein says. “They kicked me off because they found out I was trying to organize the strike.”
This month, Husein started a new Facebook group, called Uber Freedom. It’s also threatening a strike, but now on a national scale. And it is growing rapidly. As of this writing, the group had over 20,000 members and a video of Husein explaining the strike had been viewed over 300,000 times.
Husein says he has other issues with Uber’s business model — its approach to insurance, and the way surge pricing manipulates drivers — but for now, at least, Uber Freedom is demanding that Uber:
*Raise fare rates by 60 percent
*Raise the cancellation fee to $7 from $5
*Raise the minimum fare to $7 from $5
*Add a tip option on the app
Unless Uber makes those changes, Husein says, on the weekend of October 16-18, Uber Freedom is calling for all Uber drivers to strike. And rather than just not drive that weekend, Uber drivers are being urged by Uber Freedom to create fake rider accounts, request rides, and then cancel those rides at the last minute, so that the Uber drivers who continue to drive — the scabs, if you will — will be heading to dead ends.
“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” Husein says, noting that Uber has been accused of a similar tactic in its war with rideshare competitor Lyft. “And for riders, if hardly any Uber drivers are on the road, they either won’t be able to get a ride, or the surge will be so high that they’re paying $5 or $6 a mile. I think if we succeed with that, Uber and the public will start to listen to our demands.”
There is no indication that Uber is listening at this point, though. The company has not responded to our request for comment. We will update if it does.
Uber Freedom’s Facebook page is here.
