Uber has allowed its drivers to set their own fares in Southern California and Sacramento, soon this feature will be brought in to the Bay Area and then to the entire state as well.
As the California administration has released a new law named AB5 that makes it harder for the companies to claim that their workers are independent contractors.
As the Uber is based upon this model, the company’s San Francisco ride handling has launched this new feature that shows that their workers are independent, therefore trying to save them from getting classified as employees under AB5.
The Uber drivers are setting up their own trip fare as a multiplier of Uber’s existing time and distance rates, in the areas of Los Angeles, Bakersfield, San Diego, Fresno, and other surrounding areas.
The drivers are allowed to charge as little as half the standard fare and as much as five times the standard fare and they can also keep sticking to the default Uber’s rates. It is up to them to choose between them. In the coming weeks, the name your price regime will be expanded to other regions of San Francisco by Uber.
Harry Campbell who runs The Rider guy blog and podcast said “I do think this helps Uber’s case, but it will be tough for Uber to even allow drivers to fully operate as independent contractors. Drivers would agree that Uber’s had too much control over these years.
Uber started as an amazing frictionless product: one tap, the driver comes. Now you have to do a little bit of work to decide what price you want to pay. The trend is to add complexity and features.”
Uber also said that giving more control to the drivers is a bit of tough job as it affects the rider’s experience too.
Campbell added “Drivers who provide better levels of service will want to charge more, but its service will want to charge more, but it’s tough for riders to know that if ETA and lowest price. I would like to see Uber add a feature to let drivers highlight their ratings or exemplary service they provide.”
