Investigation: Uber and Lyft lockouts for 800+ NYC drivers occurred almost every hour of every day, saving the companies hundreds of millions of dollars in pay
Even If You're Not One Johan / The Rideshare Guy : Weekly Roundup: Rideshare Drivers Use Teslas as Makeshift Robotaxis Katie Johnston / The Boston Globe : 'To me, this isn't a full and real union': Labor movement grapples with Uber, Lyft ballot measure Business Insider : Flooded roads, worried passengers, and no income: Florida Uber and Lyft drivers share their experiences on the road before and after Hurricane Milton Taylor Herzlich / New York Post : Uber, Lyft avoided millions in pay by locking NYC drivers out of apps: report landing.podtrac.com : Big Take — The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what's shaping the world's economies … Sasha Rogelberg / Fortune : Uber and Lyft are the big winners from Tesla's underwhelming Cybercab reveal Pia Singh / CNBC : Ridesharing giants Uber, Lyft jump after Tesla's ‘toothless taxi’ fails to excite investors Shanthi Rexaline / Benzinga : Why Uber, Lyft Shares Are Speeding Up In Friday's Premarket Threads: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : New York came up with a new law that required ride sharing apps to pay drivers for the time they spend in-between rides. So Uber & Lyft found an elegant solution, prevent drivers from using the apps during slow times so they aren't paying lots of drivers who are waiting for a ride. … Mastodon: @obrien_kat@mastodon.world : This is really terrific reporting and use of data by Bloomberg investigating Uber and Lyft's locking drivers out of using the app in order to avoid paying them minimum wages. I suspect this report will both garner enough attention and includes enough detail to thoroughly launch an investigation. … X: Rakesh Agrawal / @rakeshsfnyc : Fascinating look at the economics of Lyft and Uber when faced with NYC regulations. tl;dr they came up with ways to work around the regulations to not have do “make good” payments. Every regulation has workarounds if you think creatively. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Eric Newcomer / @ericnewcomer : not a good look for uber. uber depending on drivers who work full-time but wanting to hide the ball on that fact is a problem that has plagued the company from the beginning Keith Ellison / @keithellison : This is very disappointing, and apparently very unfair - The kind of thing that prompts policy makers to look to get curious. Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant : In order to get around minimum wage laws in New York, where drivers are supposed to be paid for time on the clock in between rides, Uber and Lyft are simply locking them out of the app so there's no record that they're on the roads at that time. Incredible, infuriating story. Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier : A new(ish) part of my job at Bloomberg involves overseeing tech data investigations. That means I get to work with incredible reporters, editors and graphics folks on stuff like this. Please read about how this NYC driver minimum wage law went awry: Katie J. Wells / @katiejwells : Wow. Thank you @natlungfy for these findings. “Lockouts occurred almost every hour of every day... They even happened in high-demand areas, leading to some increased fares b/c there were fewer cars available.” Uber & Lyft does so “to save millions on future driver wages.” Rachel Metz / @rachelmetz : This is some amazing data-driven reporting from my @business colleagues. Please give it a read! @mteuzi : This right here is a prime example of the brutal exploitation inherent in capitalism. Rideshare drivers toyed with for the sole purpose of squeezing more profit out of them. Uber and Lyft have perfected a system where drivers, like pieces on a chessboard, are strategically [image] Jamie Tarabay / @jamietarabay : Extraordinary reporting on how @Uber and @lyft got away with denying NYC drivers millions in payouts by locking them out of their apps. A @business investigation https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @bbgvisualdata Stacie Sherman / @sserve : Incredible Bloomberg investigation here: Uber and Lyft got away with denying NYC drivers millions in payouts by locking them out of their apps. https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @bbgvisualdata Marietje Schaake / @marietjeschaake : Uber and Lyft using tech to cheat NY drivers from enjoying new minimum wage. How is this not illegal? In NY recently ‘ride share’ was way more expensive than Yellow Cabs too #techcoup ↘️ https://www.bloomberg.com/... @moreperfectus : A new investigation shows how rideshare apps used a loophole to systematically lower driver pay. Uber and Lyft said they'd only lock out drivers when there's low demand. Instead, lockouts happened almost every hour, every day—costing workers millions. https://www.bloomberg.com/... @zerohedge : Lina Khan going after Uber and Lyft next https://www.bloomberg.com/... Michelle Fay Cortez / @faycortez : Uber and Lyft locked NYC drivers out of their apps (essentially how they clocked in), which limited when they could work and slashed their earnings by millions of $$$, a Bloomberg investigation finds. And riders? They lost, too https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @bbgvisualdata @nyccomptroller : This must read investigation by Bloomberg News found that @Uber and @lyft are locking out drivers “almost every hour of every day.” https://www.bloomberg.com/... Parker / @pt : I genuinely don't understand how these folks thought taxi companies would pay more money per hour without reducing supply to drive up prices. Has nobody in NYC government ever taken an economics 101 course? And now they're tweeting indignantly about it! Leon Yin / @leonyin : NEW INVESTIGATION: Uber and Lyft locked drivers out of work to game a NYC minimum wage law. We crowdsourced screenshots, monitored surge pricing and ran financial models to reveal the devastating impact on drivers. w/ @natlungfy @A_W_Gordon @DeniseDSLu https://www.bloomberg.com/... Aaron W. Gordon / @a_w_gordon : Really proud to work with @LeonYin, @natlungfy and @DeniseDSLu on this one. Imagine having to constantly tap a button in an app all day to find out if you're allowed to work. That's what Uber/Lyft drivers in NYC had to do all summer (and Lyft still does). https://www.bloomberg.com/... Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro : Really incredible finding by Bloomberg show how Uber/Lyft dealt with a minimum wage law in New York: https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://www.bloomberg.com/... [image] Parker / @pt : It makes sense that if you pass laws requiring certain pay, taxi companies will give some drivers more work and some drivers no work rather than eating the cost of paying them to sit around. This article makes it sound like a conspiracy, but these companies are highly Leon Yin / @leonyin : Uber and Lyft don't share data on lockouts, so we built a WhatsApp tipline and shared it with worker groups, web forums, and distributed flyers to drivers directly. We crowdsourced +7K screenshots from <900 drivers (~1% of registered NYC drivers). https://www.bloomberg.com/... [video] Jeff Kirk / @kirker : I didn't think the rideshare situation in NYC could get any more FUBAR, but this new summer-of-lockouts bullshit is utterly absurd. Uber & Lyft are, as always, being total assholes, but the crux of the problem is NYC's unworkable minimum-wage rules. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Leon Yin / @leonyin : The core promise of the gig-economy is flexibility. However, Uber and Lyft locked out drivers nearly every hour of every day w/ no notice. Including during peak hours and Uber “open access times” when drivers are told they can work. https://www.bloomberg.com/... [image] Axel Merk / @axelmerk : @LeonYin ... this is a perfect example of how regulations have unintended consequences and the fix makes it worse. Instead of fixing the underlying issue, I trust local rules will double down with drivers losing out. Get rid of the underlying issue, the minimum wage law. Josh Eidelson / @josheidelson : “lockouts occurred almost every hour of every day...They even happened in high-demand areas, leading to some increased fares...By making drivers seem busier on paper, the companies set themselves up to save as much as 100s of millions” https://www.bloomberg.com/... @natlungfy @LeonYin @rayprisament : I am curious, when you read this, do you come away thinking it is uber/lyft's fault as the article implies, or the city's fault for imposing an expensive and weirdly complex new regulation on those companies? Seems pretty clearly the latter to me? https://www.bloomberg.com/... LinkedIn: Matthew Boyle : Today's must-read: A fantastic example of the hard-hitting, data-visual storytelling that Bloomberg News does so well. … Dana Wollman : Proud to have played a part in this data investigation, months in the making, that shows Uber and Lyft's practice of locking out drivers …
Context & Ripple Effects
The investigation places app access at the center of the rideshare labor model: a driver’s ability to earn can be altered by platform controls rather than only by rider demand. That extends a history of Uber changing driver-facing rules, including its earlier reconsideration of price-naming and destination-preview policies.
It also arrives after reporting on Uber’s broader cost retrenchment and the consequences of low-priced rides for cities and transit, captured in Uber’s effort to rein in costs. The reported lockouts make labor time, not just trip pricing, a consequential operating variable.
First-order effects
- More than 800 affected New York City drivers faced repeated limits on when they could access work through the apps, while Uber and Lyft reduced recorded paid time, according to the investigation.
- The report puts the companies’ app-based work controls under immediate scrutiny because the alleged savings came from wages drivers otherwise would have received.
Second-order effects
- Driver groups and policymakers have a clearer basis to examine whether platform access restrictions function as wage-management tools, rather than merely operational controls.
- For Uber and Lyft, any requirement to change lockout practices could raise labor costs or require different supply-management tactics; Uber’s prior app revamp to attract more drivers shows how closely app design and driver availability are connected.
Third-order effects
- If similar findings prompt enforcement or clearer rules, platform labor compliance may increasingly cover algorithmic access to work as well as the pay rate for completed trips.
- The broader structural issue is whether marketplaces can treat app availability as a flexible supply lever when that availability determines workers’ compensated time; the answer will shape the cost advantages of the rideshare model.
The trend: Gig-work platforms are facing growing pressure over how algorithmic controls of access, time, and pay redistribute economic risk to workers.