I Knew I Was a Scab
I started doing Lyft in February of 2014. The prices were good, the rates were high, everybody was friendly and happy. It was an enjoyable experience. And then the price cuts started, even though nobody was complaining about the prices. But in order to compete with Uber, Lyft started the price wars and the race to the bottom began.
The Uber/Lyft model is not advantageous to the drivers. You’re going to destroy your car. After 10 months, my backseat looked like I’d been transporting farm animals. And I definitely needed brakes and tires sooner than I probably would have normally.
As far as how I felt about doing the Uber/Lyft thing… Well, I knew I was a scab. I knew I was a rat, so I drove like a rat. My goal was to never have an encounter with a cab driver, to never seem like a Lyft or Uber car on the road. I never used the “trade dress,” the pink mustache or the U placard. I would cringe any time somebody got in the back, because it was obvious I was an Uber driver.
Now that I’ve been driving taxi, I know that San Francisco will lose more than just a formally lucrative form of employment if Uber and Lyft take over: Like many cab drivers, I take pride in being an ambassador to the city, to be able to offer historical facts and anecdotes about the places we drive past and recommend restaurants and bars. Cab drivers know the pulse of the city.
