Taxi co-ops versus Uber: Struggles for workplace democracy in the sharing economy

Abstract

Transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft have drawn scrutiny for the way they have upended urban transportation systems and heightened the precarity of taxi drivers. Less attention has been paid to their implications for democratic workplaces. This article provides a comparative study of Uber and Lyft's impacts on taxi worker cooperatives in three cities: Philadelphia, Denver, and Austin. Drawing on interviews with drivers, regulators, and other transportation stakeholders, we observe three major effects. First, TNCs have opened doors for cooperatives by undercutting taxi oligopolies and lowering regulatory barriers to entry. Second, they have intensified market pressures that make it difficult for start‐up co‐ops to survive. Finally, competition from TNCs has led co‐ops to shift resources away from democratic decision making and toward financial bottom lines. These findings paint a complex picture of workplace democracy's potential and limits as a response to the sharing economy's competitive and neoliberal underbelly.

The Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts of Ridesourcing Services: A Literature Review

“…They have had less obligation to drivers and the community, operating independently and outside the government [28]. Although the drivers enjoy the flexible working schedule and independence, it provides opportunities for TNCs to avoid existing considerations designed to protect laborers and to sacrifice the advantages that come with employee status [11,123]. In a situation where workers are self-employed and employers exert a minimum control on their employees, TNCs refuse responsibility to third party victims for losses caused by accidents, sexual violence, and other damages arising in the external environment [84].…”

Specific Features and Problem Aspects of Adapting the Taxi Market Regulatory Mechanism to Business Models Built on Digital Platforms

“…On the one hand, sharing has led to a reduction in unit costs, on the other hand, it has made it possible to benefit from the implementation of economies of scale for ordinary users of applications, ensuring a reduction in transportation tariffs and increasing the possibilities and convenience of using taxi services. These consequences of digital platforms penetration into the Belarusian taxi market also correlate with global practice (Hall & Krueger, 2018, Borowiak & Ji, 2019, Garben, 2019. It should be noted that there is a positive cross-network effect typical for the functioning of multilateral digital platforms (Rochet & Tirole, 2003) an increase in the number of participants on one side of such platforms (customers) leads to an increase in the attractiveness of interaction for the other side of the platform (drivers), which also contributes to active growth market share of transport network companies (Cusumano, 2015).It should be noted that there have been significant changes in the labor market for taxi drivers, which are characteristic, in particular, for other national markets (Hall & Krueger, 2018, Borowiak & Ji, 2019, Berg & Johnston, 2019.Not only the quantitative composition of taxi drivers is changing, the socio-demographic portrait of the driver is changing, their working conditions, the assessment of results and the degree of satisfaction are changing (Berger et al, 2019).…”

Prefiguring alternatives through the articulation of post- and anti-capitalistic politics: An introduction to three additional papers and a reflection

“…Yet this desire might also potentially be mobilized to destabilize the process of capital valorization, rather than facilitate it. The emergence of local cooperatives of taxi drivers operating through digital platforms similar to Uber, in a sector which was till recently highly regulated by local authorities and dominated by licensed taxi companies, points to this potential (Borowiak and Ji, 2019). Although there are obviously no guarantees, these novel organizations, which replicate Uber’s digital coordinative infrastructure yet anchor it locally onto a group of workers, might come closer to what we consider alternative to capitalism.…”