Uber and Lyft have slashed driver pay in recent years and now take a larger portion of each fare, far larger than the companies publicly report, based on data collected by Jalopnik. From a report: And the new Surge or Prime Time pricing structure widely adopted by both companies undermines a key legal argument both companies make to classify drivers as independent contractors. Jalopnik asked drivers to send us fare receipts showing a breakdown of how much the rider paid for the trip, how much of that fare Uber or Lyft kept, and what the driver earned. In total, we received 14,756 fares. These came from two sources: the web form where drivers could submit fares individually, and via email where some drivers sent us all their fares from a given time period.
Of all the fares Jalopnik examined, Uber kept 35 percent of the revenue, while Lyft kept 38 percent. These numbers are roughly in line with a previous study by Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute which concluded Uber’s take rate to be roughly one-third, or 33 percent. (Per its filings with the SEC, Uber says it takes about 25% of what drivers earn as its “take-rate.”) Of the drivers who emailed us breakdowns for all of their fares in a given time period — ranging from a few months to more than a year — Uber kept, on average, 29.6 percent. Lyft pocketed 34.5 percent. Those take rates are 10.6 percent and 8.5 percent higher than Uber and Lyftâ(TM)s publicly reported figures, respectively.
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Source:: Slashdot