VEHICLE DRIVERS BE IN THE FUTURE?
frequent and hourly earnings significantly lower. As an employer of drivers, Uber may consider restricting the hours that drivers may work and matching the times that drivers are allowed to work, to the profile of demand, to ensure hourly earnings exceed minimum requirements. This will enable drivers to increase hourly earnings, but decrease the hours worked. Potentially, the result will be reduced overall earnings for some.
It is often quoted that a big saving of removing limits is the cost of demand surveys and the potential cost of court challenges to the policy. But if no-one is ever going to spend money identifying clearly if the changes have had their desired effect, is that really right and proper, is that really a positive step for a regulator. In the Law Commission review they saw the benefit that regular reviews of the service through an unmet demand study had. They even suggested that not just demand surveys but rank reviews and accessi- bility reviews all be made mandatory and undertaken on a three-yearly cycle. Changing policies and facilitating no clear means for them to be tested, flies in the face of this.
In Scotland, authorities can undertake reviews of both hackney carriage and private hire demand and if appropriate apply restrictions on private hire operations as well as hackney carriages. What is important there is that an holistic view of the overall public need for all licensed vehicle services is undertaken from the point of view of actual public demand not any other interpretation of what demand might be. And our recent work during the pandemic has now proved that more detailed consideration is needed of both the supply side as well as the more traditionally surveyed demand side of the overall equation. The duty of a regulator to understand the requirements for licensed vehicle services and derive appropriate policies should be foremost.
UBER – WHAT CHANGES COULD BE IN THE PIPELINE?
Looking at the potential changes to how Uber may operate, following the Supreme Court judgement, we should also consider that the implications for Uber may well also apply to other companies which offer the service of a booking and payment intermediary, between the passenger and the service provider (licensed driver).
A key consideration for Uber (and possibly others) is the minimum wage requirement and holiday pay. When drivers are busy, they will normally earn in excess of the minimum hourly wage. However, during quiet times, fares may be less
MARCH 2021
In the UK, a legal minimum holiday pay, based on hours worked, is 12.07% of hours worked, for regular workers. However, this generally relates to hours at a constant rate of pay, which is then applied as the holiday pay rate. Where the rate of pay per hour is variable, then different considerations may apply. The need to account for holiday pay is another incentive for Uber to limit working hours, to limit holiday pay liability.
Vehicle running costs is another consideration. If Uber is responsible for ensuring a minimum wage rate is achieved, does this take into account vehicle running costs? Should fixed (leasing costs, vehicle depreciation, insurance, VED etc.) costs be allocated pro-rata to hours worked? Or, as a nominal fixed rate per fare paying mile?
PRICE CONTROL AND WAGES
How will measures affect Uber’s famous surge pricing? If the times when drivers may log into the system and start working, are limited, does this mean that mean more control will be applied to pricing? Treatment of drivers as employees may also affect the proportion of surge price fares that the drivers themselves receive. Would driver earnings per hour increase in line with the surge price fare increase? Or perhaps a lower proportion of the increase? Or perhaps no increase at all, with drivers paid a fixed hourly rate?
Drivers may be less willing to work unsocial hours if the hourly pay rate isn’t higher (as it would be if surge price fares were paid pro-rata to the driver.) However, if the hours that drivers are allowed to work are allocated on the basis of how willing and flexible drivers are to cater for varying demand, those drivers unwilling to work unsocial hours, may be allocated fewer working hours per week.
The need for Uber to consider the ‘employee’ implications and potentially, the need for other companies to consider the same implications, may increase the level of control that these companies feel they need to exert on the trade.
Controls may be limited to the hours that drivers are expected to work. Controls could also be extended to include, for example, dress code or uniform for drivers, the type of vehicle used, the age of the vehicles used, specifying localities where drivers or vehicles may operate, vehicle colouring and branding etc.
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