Uber is slowly dimming the lights on drivers. Will this last?

Uber is dimming the lights on the precious information drivers have available to them. As of this past weekend, Uber is no longer allowing drivers the ability to download their earning statements.

This is huge. Drivers are losing confidence in Uber and this is the latest major action to cause drivers to become upset.

Forget pricing and policy changes. Sure, those have major impacts on drivers as well. But before, at least drivers could run their numbers to see how pricing and policy changes have affected them. This is no longer an option.

Uber is slowly dimming the lights on drivers, while a few companies, third parties, and blogs, are trying to make it brighter.

Sidecar gets this and is by far the most transparent of rideshare companies. Lyft is getting there. Others in the delivery space seem to be following as well. And the bottom line is this affects the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people.

So what has Uber actually done?

Uber drivers are not getting customer support and are not receiving their earning statements.

A couple months ago Uber updated their Driver Dashboard, with a ‘CSV’ link available to have statements emailed. However, no email is ever sent. Hundreds of drivers have alerted Uber to this issue, a quick engineering fix. Carlos emailed support 5 times about this issue, and got a different response each time. And no earnings statements.

Drivers are not being listened to. One support email outlined that Uber had no plans to make this button actually work.

The result is powerless drivers: Drivers have no way to easily back earnings information up for record keeping, tax purposes, integration with financial and analytical tools, or to just keep Uber honest. For an already vulnerable workforce this is a major problem.

Why is this a major problem for the workforce?

Imagine you’re one of the 40M independent contractors in the United States like Carlos in San Francisco. You drive around passengers, deliver food, or put your online skills to work. All of a sudden you cannot access your earnings for each service.

For Carlos, he has no way to easily aggregate his Uber earnings in a useful way, unless he wants to spend hours manually processing numbers. Carlos has become frustrated but luckily his other driving services provide more transparency and he has other options.

Drivers are speaking loudly that they want to be treated better and are switching to other services like Lyft and Sidecar.

Are you throwing in the towel on gig work?

If this is you, you’d become frustrated with this lifestyle because for some reason the money hitting your bank account is not what you expected. But you can’t really solve the problem because you’re not exactly sure where it is: Is it with Uber or another service you’re using, does it have to do with when or where you’re working, or is it related to job expenses? And now you owe quarterly taxes that seem to take the little savings that you did manage to accumulate.

You stop driving for Uber, look for other services, or even worse, write off the whole independent contractor lifestyle.

Or using better information to earn more?

Now imagine you’re an independent contractor in the United States that not only believes in the future of contractor work, but has the right information and support to make this work add up.

You get approved for the right platforms, choose the best times, places, and platforms to work for, and efficiently keep track of all your expenses and mileage. You have vastly improved your decision making — and since this work is largely based on the decisions you make — you maximize your earnings.

With access to earnings information, your monthly income actually adds up for you and your family. This is the future drivers and other independent contractors want to see.

This is coming directly from the drivers.

I’ve been getting to know drivers and independent contractors from across the US, as co-founder of the site Sherpa, with the mission of supporting drivers and other independent contractors maximize their earnings. We care about helping them.

I’ve talked to thousands of drivers over the better part of a year. This frustration with Uber is coming directly from them.

I’ve heard countless stories of drivers joining the Uber workforce with high hopes as their gateway to the independent contractor life. Now many are shifting to other services and work, or about to make that leap.

Uber has built a powerful global network of independent contractors. Imagine if they took the lead in giving more control to drivers. This could start by quickly giving back driver’s fundamental access to their earnings statements.

A call on behalf of the thousands of drivers who I’ve talked to, had coffee with, and driven with: To help the independent contractor workforce grow, support their ‘independence’.

Ryder Pearce is a co-founder of SherpaShare.com, a site helping thousands of independent contractors maximize their income. Sherpa has tracked 700,000 Lyft, Uber, and Sidecar trips since May.