Thanks for sticking around for the first week! The Daily HBD will be back on Tuesday 5/28 at around 6PM PDT! 

It’s been a lot of fun putting these together this week and I think every email is getting just a.little.bit.better.  I’ve still got some stuff to iron-out around production and the site though. Here’s to next week!

-Christian

ScUber: It’s Uber For A Submarine! (hot take)

You may have seen some clickbait-y headlines around the internet today talking all about the ability to hail a submarine in Australia via the Uber app. Pretty cool. Minimum fare is $2060 and includes a helicopter transfer and some views of the Great Barrier Reef while it’s still around. Neato.

It’s sure pretty novel. But lets think larger for a moment..

Uber basically just plugged this local, one-off, submarine tourist business into their ridehail app. What if other companies could plug their local services into the Uber App though? Perhaps a local moving company with 40 trucks and 100 workers. Or a ridehail subcontractor company that specializes in Wheelchair Access Vehicles?

There could even be a whole marketplace of different companies and services. Sounds like a big idea.

In The Apps…

Lyft’s Shared Saver vs. UberEXPRESS

I said yesterday that Shared Saver Mode and UberEXPRESS are basically the same thing. One key difference though is the way that pay works between the two

• UberExpress and UberPOOL operate on separate rate cards then UberX. The rate cards pay less per minute and per mile than UberX. This means that a ride on UberEXPRESS would earn you less money than an identical ride on UberX. However, Uber will pay you a little extra for each passenger you pickup with POOL and Express rides.

• Lyft pays the same amount of money on Shared and Shared Saver rides as it does on Lyft Classic rides. In my opinion, this makes Lyft’s shared rides a little more tolerable than ExpressPOOL.

In The News…

There Are No Rich People Working For Postmates (SF Chronicle)

Courier organizers are circulating a petition to protest Postmates latest change in pay too their couriers. Couriers claim that they are earning about 30% less after Postmates change in pay. I’ve included a link to the petition below if you want to check it out and sign it.

Here’s There Petition:https://payup.wtf/postmates-time-to-pay-up

Couriers have been running their own campaigns and actions but it would be interesting to see if they ever team up with ridehail organizers

Robbers Are Grabbing Lyft Drivers’ Phones And Stealing Their Earnings (Gothamist)

There is a group of criminals in NYC running a scheme where they will lean over and grab your phone at the end of a ride on Lyft. They take the phone, change the information to some random debit card, and cashing out your earnings.

This isn’t the only scam that targets Express Pay. A few years ago, a different scam targeted drivers by requesting rides and posing as Uber or Lyft employees to gain access to driver accounts and change their Express Pay information to their own information.

Lyft says it is working on a solution that will make it harder to do this. Until then, I advise keeping your eye out for more incidents like this.

Also, this reason 139892347498 to have a dashcam. Get one!

The Daily HBD will be Back Tuesday, May 28th.