On Monday April 30, Council Member Ruben Diaz, the Chair of the City Council’s For-Hire Vehicle Committee is proposing a new law that will destroy our jobs if the City Council decides to pass it. This bill is intended to take the income away from tens of thousands of immigrant families.
ADDITIONAL $2,000 YEARLY FEE JUST TO WORK: This bill would require each driver that works with an app-based service pays $2,000 per year—just to work.
YOU COULD ONLY WORK FOR ONE COMPANY: If you work for both Uber and Lyft right now—you would have to choose between the two. Permanently. You would not be able to switch between Uber, Lyft, and Juno. You could only choose one that you work for, permanently. You would no longer be allowed to be a luxury black car, livery, green or yellow driver that uses an app company in between clients.
IF UBER FIRES YOU, YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTION: Uber terminates hundreds of workers every month. Under this bill if you are one of the people Uber fires at random, you would not only continue to not have access to unemployment insurance, and you would not be able to work with another company unless you pay another $2,000 fee.
RIDERS WILL BE IMPACTED, TOO: EXPECT DELAYS AND MORE CONGESTION. The ability of drivers to work for multiple apps reduces unpaid down time for drivers, but it also leads to quicker response times for riders. With drivers forced to stick to a single app, there will be longer wait times for riders and more riderless vehicles clogging our streets.
HOW DO THEY EXPECT US TO SURVIVE?: It’s hard enough to make money as it is, now it’s about to get much harder.