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by eridius 2755 days ago
If a driver accepts every ride the service offers them, then I agree they should be paid for the idle time in between being offered rides. If they don't accept every ride offered them (as is their right, as independent contractors), how do you determine how much idleness is ok? Saying "if you reject a single ride you lose your minimum wage" doesn't seem ok, because that punishes them for exercising their right as an independent contractor.

This also still runs into the question of what happens if the driver is driving for multiple services? They may have relatively little idle time, but each independent service sees the driver as having a lot of idle time (any time they're on a competitor's job).
2 comments
Traster 2754 days ago
I would put it this way: They must be paid for all idle time. If they're on the app they're considered to be working. It's like the person working at the McDonalds drive through - if no one pulls up to the drive through that doesn't mean the person shouldn't be paid. It's then down to Uber or Lyft or whoever to determine whether they want to engage a contractor whose previous behaviour includes spending long periods not accepting jobs.
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eridius 2754 days ago
The person at a McDonald's drive-thru is an actual employee though, they're paid for all their time on the job, and they can't just refuse to serve a given customer. A Lyft or Uber driver is a contractor, and is legally allowed to refuse any individual ride.

If they couldn't refuse rides, then saying "pay them for all the time they're in the app" makes sense, but that's not the case. Since they can refuse rides, it doesn't make sense to say "you must pay them for all the time they're in the app", especially since a single driver can be active on both Uber and Lyft at the same time.

One could argue that drivers should be turned into part-time or full-time employees, at which point yes they'd have to be paid for their idle time, but that's a different argument.

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dx034 2755 days ago
I guess most drivers would be fine accepting all offered jobs within a fixed period. For most it's a full time job anyway, the only reason they would refuse jobs in between is because they're not paying well enough or because they got one with a competitor.
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