Uber stock was up about 2.5% in early trading on Thursday, just hours after a pullback following the company’s Q2 earnings release. Uber missed on analyst estimates for both revenue and EPS, due in part to driver shortages in its ride-hailing business, while rival Lyft reported a huge quarter — but analysts are still bullish on Uber’s prospects.
Analyst Ross Sandler of Barclays maintained an Overweight rating on the stock, anticipating a recovery in the company’s volume, take rate and...
President Biden on Thursday announced an ambitious new goal for the automobile industry – for EVs to make up half of all U.S. vehicle sales by 2030. The president signed an executive order declaring the nonlegally binding milestone a priority, while also proposing new vehicle emission standards to cut pollution by 2026.
But what does this mean for the gig economy, much of which is composed of rideshare companies and drivers? It could spell trouble.
Automakers Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co....
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/evs-for-all-what-bidens-executive-order-means-for-gig-economy
Ride-hailing company Lyft released its Q2 earnings after the bell on Tuesday, recording a massive 125% increase in year-over-year revenue and a 25% gain on last quarter’s revenue, while also recording profitable adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the first time in its history.
The company brought in $765 million in revenue for the quarter compared to $339.3 million last year. In its earnings call, Lyft’s (NASDAQ: LYFT) executive team said that this was...
About two weeks ago, thousands of people across the United States took to the streets in protest, hoisting signs with damning statements like “Driving us into poverty” or “32 cents a mile is not enough.” In cities from Los Angeles to Boston, the masses clamored to be heard, tensions flared and the streets seemed suspiciously devoid of ridesharing vehicles.
The protests could be more accurately described as a strike against the ridesharing industry’s titans, Uber (NYSE: UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ:...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/uber-lyft-and-others-face-a-reckoning
Independent work is all the rage right now. Here’s a crazy stat – if the growth rate of Uber drivers were to remain steady, every person in America would be an Uber driver within five years. But despite the rapidly growing popularity of independent work, gig-economy workers from freelance artists to rideshare drivers still face many disadvantages that traditional workers do not.
However, their lives got a little bit easier on Wednesday, when one-stop income verification service Truework debuted...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truework-expands-credit-access-for-gig-workers
Lyft will begin running autonomous vehicles within its rideshare network before the end of 2021 through a partnership with Ford and Argo AI.
The three companies announced an agreement Wednesday morning that will place self-driving ride-hailing vehicles on Miami city streets later this year and on Austin, Texas, roadways in 2022.
“This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together this way,” Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) co-founder and CEO Logan Green...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/ford-to-run-self-driving-cars-on-lyft-network-later-this-year
Didi Global operates in 16 countries, but 90% of its revenues come from China. In 2020, the ride-hailing giant saw its business plummet due to lockdowns related to COVID-19 and lost $1.6 billion on $21.6 billion in revenue, a 10% decline from 2019. The loss might have been bigger, save for the company’s decision to expand its operations into intracity freight delivery, food delivery and community group-buying services.
Even as a Chinese government investigation into the company is ongoing, Didi...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/is-didis-ipo-a-stock-loser-from-the-start
Rideshare and delivery drivers hustle to make money, but it can come at a cost – and it could be their lives. For most on-demand drivers, the person or people they are picking up, or the address they are delivering to, are unknowns. They don’t know if that person has a criminal history that could put their lives in jeopardy or if the situation they are about to drive into for that food delivery is safe.
But they do it anyway. And for some, these situations are real. The headlines tell the...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/with-lives-on-the-line-adt-offers-help-for-gig-drivers-passengers
Last week, residents of New York City were provided a new option for getting around with the launch of Drivers Cooperative, a driver-owned rideshare service.
The company is not the first rideshare service to take on the big two of Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) and Uber (NYSE: UBER), and it likely won’t be the last. The Drivers Cooperative promises to take a smaller commission from fares than either Lyft or Uber, offer lower rates for riders and ensure drivers make more money.
In 2019, another rideshare...
In the last few weeks, there have been surveys that suggest that rideshare drivers and other independent contractors would rather have full-time employment – except for those who don’t.
The employment status of these workers has been much debated and will continue to serve as the centerpiece of future legislation at the state level and in Washington. How a society and its political leaders can reach a conclusion that satisfies these workers and the companies that pay them may be one of the most...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/do-gig-workers-want-to-be-employees-it-depends-who-you-ask