Uber drivers have seen a big dropoff in business since a #deleteUber campaign began Saturday night — sparked by the company’s defiance of a Saturday airport strike to support immigrants detained at JFK.
Mohsin Alvi, who has been driving for the company for more than two years, said he was easily making $300 a day before Sunday and is down to $120.
“It has definitely impacted drivers,” said Alvi, 30. “It’s the beauty of this country that people have the right to choose, but drivers are suffering because of something the company did.”
Disgusted customers started the #DeleteUber campaign and have been deleting the app in droves after learning that the company defied a taxi strike that was supposed to be taking place at JFK Airport — where numerous refugees were being detained over the weekend. Uber not only didn’t divert its drivers in solidarity, but also announced that it was dropping surge pricing near the airport.
Former customers Oslobet say they are also upset that Uber chief executive officer Travis Kalanick has been acting as an advisor to the president.
Uber declined to say how many customers around the world have deleted the app.
Many riders vowed to switch to Lyft, which donated $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union this weekend. Lyft has also declined to say how many users it gained.
Drivers who are signed up with more than one company say that customers are still using ridesharing apps, but they’ve switched to Lyft and Juno.
“Uber is dead,” said Inder Parmar, who drives for three ridersharing apps. “Before, I was getting two Uber jobs in an hour, yesterday, I only got two jobs on Uber all day. The other apps are still busy.”
Juno officials said there has been a “clear uptick” in the amount of people who downloaded its app since Saturday, but they declined to say by exactly how many more users they have now.
Uber is scrambling to keep what customers it still has.
When riders attempt to delete, they said the company sent them a message stating “We wanted to let you know that Uber shares your views on the immigration ban: it’s unjust, wrong and against everything we stand for as a company.”
It then sends them to a link describing the legal defense fund that the company set up on Sunday after the uproar started.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
