Raj has been driving professionally in Toronto for nine years ,first as a taxi driver, then as the owner of a for-hire vehicle business, and now for uberSelect, a higher-end service. He admires UBer's technology, but he sees the influx of nonoccupational drivers as a threat to his livelihood: "Competition is always good for everyone; but again, it should be reasonable not that you just flood the market." With the advent of Uber, he's become anxious about the stability of his income as a professional driver and is looking to change careeers. He keeps textbooks under the front passenger seat so that in between rides he can study to become a mortgage broker. In essence, Uber's model opens up employment opportunities for anyone who wants a job, but the conditions UBer sets for this workundermine driving as a viable occuption.

Raul, a New York Uber and LYft driver and a former Yellow Cab driver, was working eight to nine hours aday before rate cuts; now he works twelve to fourteen hours. He still values the flexibility [...] But having the autonomy to choose which fourteen of the twenty-four hours in a day to work doesn't create teh sense of freedom implied by the "flexibility" rhetoric/

Mehmet used to drive a Toyota CAmry foruberX, which he rented for its TLC plates for ten months at $1,600 a month. Later, he upgraded his vehicle, investing $55,000 ina used luxury vehicle, so he could be eligible forthe higher uberBlack and uberSUV pay rates. His expenses for work amount to about $2,000 a month. He says that even drivers who bought that type ofcar new for $60,000 to $70,000 (the rangedepends on whether the driver has good orbad credit, according to another interviewee) used to make money, before rate cuts that Uber implemeted in January 2017.

[...] The range of driver motivations within Uber's labor pool supports the company's business model of employing part-timers as the majority of its drivers and full-timers as the minority of its drivers: part-timers can inadvertently undermine the leverage that full-timers ned to advocate better working conditions. Though their motivations can overlap happy and unhappy drivers are products of a business model that opens up part-time opportunities for many at the expense of a dedicated few.

[...] Fernando is also upset about Uber shifting its eligiblity requirement for cars - in 2014, he spent $42,000 on an Uber-eqligible car (which meant a 2005 or newwer model); but in February 2015, Uber began allowing models dating to 2001. "You know how many people went tothe dealer and buy [sic] new cars?" [...] his voice drops when he describes his sons' disappointment in his situation: his familiy thoguht they were getting a pathway to the middle class, and now their father is working hard at a job that is failing him.

Drivers' experiences demonstrate the gap betwen rhetoric and reality when Uber talks about being a beacon of entrepeneurial oppportunity. The image of driver-as-entrepreneur fails forthree main reasons: drivesr have no control over the raetat whichthey work; they do not determine which jobs they take while logged in; and they are routinely punished for any attempt to "disrupt" the system that Uber imposes.

[...] By tracking incentive offers with pay premiums and working wih the other factors within his control, Frank tries to mximize the benefits of the job. The relationship between Uber and its drivers becomes inherently adversarial, though without particular animosity: Frank, like many drivers, is always trying to juice the promotions of his employer to get extra money. [...]

[...] One Utah driver posted the following in a forum in the summer of 2017:

This is the scam Uber is playing, calling us contractors when we're obviously not. If you're a painting contractor, do you accept ajobwithout knowing what it is or how much it pays? Of course not. But this is exactly what Uber is doing to us. Like tellingthe painting contractor you have a job for him but hehas to acceptitbeforeheknows what it is. Paint the whole house for 50 bucks and you the contractor have to supply the paint. You'd tell them to go pound sand, the paint alone costs more than 50 bucks. Then the painting contractor is told he already accepted the job and if he cancels he'll never work in this town again.

[...] The note went on to say "Please accept every request that Uber sends your way, and do not cancel tripsin the hope that your nextdispatch willbe a surge trip." In effect, Uber used the promise of surge pricing to shepherd adriver to a particular place at a particular time, and when the driver opted to decline a nonsurge fare in favor of waiting for a more profitable, surge-priced dispatch, he or she was sanctioned by the Uber manager for "surge manipulation". In UBerland, the data that drivers see on their individual screens is deployed to manipulate their behavior, but permitted manipulation is a one-way street.

[...] The company seems unconcerned that its practises severely limit drivers' ability to optimize their earnings. Algorithmic management is a system that works for hte company [...] drives suffer as they are forced to accept the odds that Uber has designed in its own favor.