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Comment by calvinbhai | Hacker News Reader

You are asking the right question. And Uber will never share answers to such questions :)

Even if 90% of Uber drivers drive <10 hr a week, its quite possible that more than 90% of the total ride time is be drivers who drive ~24 hrs a day.

In India, most Uber drivers I spoke to had a common thread. They buy new car, slog day and night to pay off the monthly payments, which means sleep for 3-4 hrs, work for 12 - 14 hrs.

Sleeping they do, wherever they'd find a safe place to park the car, and sign out of the Uber app. Basically no life of their own, until they pay off the car.

For many, lured by Uber's scheme of 'leasing to buy' cars scheme, once they have had the car for a month, its difficult to get out of that scheme because of loss aversion, and hope of independence after slogging for 3 to 4 years.

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It is indentured slavery. I hate to say it, but my fellow tech workers are embarrassing us. We need to stand up for these workers. How many people that work at Uber would disagree with this practice but never speak up about it?

What though, is wrong with it?

As far as I can see, simply that the same company helps them get the loan is the same one that pays them to drive. And also that they probably buy new cars and are upside down on the loan as soon as they drive off the lot.

I agree with you that these drivers are getting loans only because Uber and its partners are willing give, and in return gobble up a huge share of the driver's earnings.

But, isn't that like asking 'whats wrong in giving subprime loans?'

The way I see it, at least for Uber drivers in US getting such loans from Santander+Uber, its a raw deal.

In 4-6 years if they pay off the car as earnings continue to slide, they'll be holding onto a car which has 200K+ to 400K+ miles on it and worth not much. And in 4 years there's a very very good possibility that short haul rides could be fully autonomous.

Well, it's certainly a deal than neither of us would take, but if the person bought intelligently and drove conservatively, it could be a win for them.

Certainly to the point where I don't want to forbid them making that contract if they see fit. And the fact that Uber profits as well doesn't change the driver's rights in dealing with them. If the driver got a separate loan from the bank we wouldn't be having this discussion. Smart or not, it's their right.

The issue is all in the one company having too much control - like miners in a company town being under the thumb of a landlord and boss who were the same and shared information about the employee. That does bother me and I might want to pass a law to forbid that, to ensure there's a wall between those roles.

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