UBER take pay day loans to a new level

There is growing concern among Uber drivers, both current and prospective, about a recent pilot program launched by the company that offers new drivers $1,000 in advance, and then requires repayment via monthly earnings. 

The Advance Pay program launched in early April 2016 as part of a partnership between Uber and Clearbanc, a financial services startup that focuses on self-employed professionals. Made available only to new drivers in California and Michigan, the initiative spots drivers $1,000 up front, with as much as 25 percent of that amount available immediately, and the rest coming after the driver completes their first trip. 

For repayment, the company takes a portion of revenue the driver generates each week until the balance is paid off. The percentage, which can be as much as 50 percent of a driver's income, is determined up front and doesn't vary over time. A driver can also pay back the advance directly to Clearbanc to wipe out the balance.

The advance is "interest free," according to the terms provided by Clearbanc, but that's where things start get a little confusing. 

Recent uproar surrounding the Advance Pay program claimed that, in addition to the weekly repayment percentage, the company also charges a fee of $2 per day if there is a balance on the account. The report came from a user on Uber-People.net—a popular forum for drivers on ride-hailing platforms—and was circulated on Twitter.

http://www.dailydot.com/technology/uber-clearbanc-advance-pay/

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NEW YORK

Taxi owners:" City is forcing us to buy cars that don't exist"

An accelerated schedule for wheelchair accessibility catches Nissan by surprise and leaves medallions without cars

The taxi industry, already grumbling about the city's mandate that half of all yellow cabs be wheelchair accessible by 2020, has a new complaint: The Taxi & Limousine Commission has sped up the conversion schedule—even though the ramp-equipped cars they must buy are not available.

Cabs have a designated life expectancy of anywhere from three to seven years. Medallion owners are upset that cars that have a retirement date of 2018, for instance—but need to come off the road now because they keep breaking down—must be replaced with a wheelchair-accessible model.

And the owners are blowing a gasket because Nissan, which won the contract to supply city cabs, hasn't produced enough of its NV200 accessible vehicles to meet the increased demand.

According to one fleet owner, who declined to be named, Nissan is telling the taxi industry that it will not have a consistent supply of the model until next February. Meanwhile, the owner has medallions that are sitting idle because they've been designated for accessible vehicles ahead of their retirement date, and none can be found.

Medallion owners can apply for a waiver to use one of a handful of other models, but the only one they consider acceptable—the Toyota Sienna—is also unavailable, taxi insiders say.

A TLC spokesman—who denied that the conversion schedule had been sped up—said the agency is aware of the issue and is in discussions with Nissan about how to deal with it. He said the commission is also working with taxi owners.

"We are issuing appropriate extensions to all owners who are specifically affected," the spokesman wrote in an email.

The fleet owner said the extension did him no good because it was for cars that are no longer reliable. He described it as a chance to throw good money after bad.

In other cases, "medallions may already be in storage, so there is no vehicle retirement to extend," noted David Beier, president of the Committee for Taxi Safety, an industry advocacy group. "Unless the TLC allows us to put and keep a nonaccessible vehicle on the road until that car's retirement date, extensions will not help."

According to Beier, the rules for independent medallions—which are owned singly and make up about 40% of the fleet—call for lotteries to be held in the year before cars are due to be retired. 

But instead of waiting until 2017, for example, to hold a lottery for cabs due to retire in 2018—half of which would end up converting to wheelchair-accessible models—the TLC held lotteries for all of them starting in 2015 and concluding in January 2016.

The medallions that were chosen to convert must do so whenever their cars come off the road, regardless of their retirement schedule. That means cabs that go out of service because of maintenance issues or an accident must be replaced at once with accessible models.

The shortage stems partly from the TLC "changing the interpretation of its rules" regarding vehicle retirement for independent medallions, Beier said. "Nissan did a very limited production run, based on what they believed was going to be the need for vehicles, which was premised on the retirement dates. And now, all of a sudden, there's this great need for them."

A Nissan spokesman acknowledged a shortage, saying, "Sales of wheelchair-accessible taxis have been strong," with close to 200 put into service in 2016.

"The strong demand has challenged availability of the wheelchair-accessible taxi, but we are working to address this with our conversion partner, Braun, and the TLC," he said, referring to the company that retrofits the standard "Taxi of Tomorrow" NV200s to accommodate wheelchairs.

Wheelchair accessibility has been a sore point with the industry, which is struggling to win back drivers from Uber, Lyft and other app-based vehicle services. Fleet and medallion owners object to the tech-savvy rivals having no accessibility requirements for their own cars. The services connect wheelchair users to accessible vehicles offered by other providers, including taxis.

Cabdrivers receive added fees to pick up wheelchair passengers and can earn several thousand dollars more a year, according to the TLC. But the vehicles still are not popular with many drivers, who believe their heavier weight adds to maintenance issues and higher gas costs. Some drivers also worry about losing money by spending time loading and unloading a wheelchair.

Beier estimates that as many as 500 medallions could be idle by the end of the year as a result of the policy change and the shortage of vehicles. That would represent about 3.5% of yellow cabs.

A TLC spokesman denied that the agency had "changed the interpretation" of retirement date rules for independent medallions.

"The simple answer is no, we didn't," he said.

http://goo.gl/lc0MwG