Uber Still Blocks Drivers From App Despite Deal With New York – Documented

On the Tuesday morning after Labor Day, 62-year-old Uber driver Etykala Reddy woke up in his Queens home to find he had once again been blocked from the app. It wasn’t the first time Reddy, an immigrant from India, had been blocked. For more than a year, he had been randomly blocked from the Uber app during his shift.

“It doesn’t tell me how long I’ll be locked outside or where I’ll be locked outside,” he said during a phone call from his car. “It all comes as a surprise. Now I’m driving down the street aimlessly until I get back online.”

What made that Tuesday morning even more frustrating for Reddy was the fact that Uber had pledged to end the lockouts by Labor Day. But the next day, several drivers who spoke with Documented shared screenshots showing they were still experiencing lockouts.

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“Of course, I’m still locked outside,” said Saif, a 51-year-old driver from Yemen. “Yesterday I couldn’t work and I was at home all day.”

On July 31, Mayor Eric Adams announced that his administration had reached an agreement with Uber and Lyft to reduce the number of driver lock-ups. Under the mayor’s agreement, Uber agreed to immediately phase out the lock-ups by Labor Day. To reduce competition between them, both Uber and Lyft agreed to limit the number of new drivers on the road by halting new driver hiring.

Read also: Unions split over mayor’s deal to ease Uber, Lyft driver lockdowns

Lyft also agreed to minimize lockdowns during the registration blackout. In exchange for voluntarily agreeing to ease lockdowns, the apps could avoid further city regulation.

The announcement was met with controversy, with the Independent Drivers Guild praising the plan, while the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) called the plan a “corporate giveaway.”

Still, drivers say the blockages are not abating as Labor Day approaches.

“The lockouts are so severe that I am still at home,” said Ali Haider, a 45-year-old immigrant from Pakistan.

Last year, Haider said he often made more than $2,000 a week driving for Uber, but now he’s lucky to take home $500.

“I am too depressed and stressed all day because we left our family to earn a living and we sit in the car all day and earn nothing,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Uber began completely blocking drivers from taking rides last June in response to former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s rule requiring ride-sharing apps to pay drivers a minimum wage of $17.22 per hour for waiting between rides.

The formula the city uses to determine a driver’s minimum fare takes into account a driver’s total work time, which includes time spent transporting a passenger, also known as utilization rate, as well as time spent waiting for a new passenger and time spent driving to the pick-up location.

To determine individual driver usage rates, the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) divides the amount of time a driver spends with a passenger by the total amount of time the driver is available to accept a new fare. If a driver has to wait between trips, Uber and Lyft are required to pay the driver the required minimum.

To avoid paying the usage rate, both Uber and Lyft block drivers to reduce the number of drivers they would have to pay the minimum wage. When divers are blocked, Uber and Lyft blame city ordinances for forcing them to take such harsh measures.

However, the effects of lockdowns are a huge financial burden for drivers like Reddy because they never know when they will find themselves in a lockdown situation again.

“It’s very stressful because it’s all so tense,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t go online for a whole day.”

Bhairavi Desai, president of the NYTWA, says she has heard of cases of post-Labor Day blockades among her members and criticized the mayor’s plan, which did not permanently meet drivers’ demands.

“Uber and the city have added insult to injury with their empty promises,” she said. “Consensual collusion between the two companies will never end the driver crisis, but in fact worsen it. The city can regulate to close loopholes, end blockades and raise the rates drivers receive to compensate for the loss of rides.”

Lyft did not respond to Documented’s request for comment. Uber spokesman Josh Gold denied that any holdups occurred.

“Access restrictions have been removed,” he said, without going into further details.

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to Documented’s request for comment, but Jason Kersten, a spokesman for TLC, acknowledged the lockouts.

“We have been in contact with Uber and are aware of reports that some drivers are still unable to log into the app,” he said. “We are closely monitoring the situation and continue to work toward finding long-term solutions to discourage apps from blocking drivers in the future.”

Meanwhile, the NYTWA plans to hold a large rally on Wednesday to demand a permanent solution to the lockout crisis and is prepared to go on strike if its demands are not met.

Reddy is also ready to strike. Even though he is 62, he cannot afford to retire anytime soon. He is also unable to change careers. Driving is all he can do.

“I’ve been doing this all my life,” he said. “I can’t do anything else.”