Uber offers Tampa Bay riders special flat rates to Gulf beaches

As Florida’s sizzling summer officially begins, Uber makes it easy for Tampa-area residents to cool off at the beach.

Starting this weekend, the ridesharing technology company is offering flat rates for UberX and UberXL from Downtown Tampa to the St. Pete Gulf beaches — $29 for an UberX and $49 for an UberXL.

Uber's job listings hint at its plans for world domination

North America has the most openings of any continent, but Asia — a region that is seen as crucial for Uber to reach the size that investors have forecast — is a close second. Silk found 278 Uber job openings in Asia.

It has become pretty apparent that Uber wants to rule the world. But first, it needs an army.
The ride hailing service has hit the gas on its recruitment, providing a window into the company's plans moving forward. Job openings in the U.S. have almost doubled from the start of the year, adding up to 427 listings now, according to information compiled by data publishing and visualization firm Silk.co.

American mayor who hates Uber

Uber is operating in Madison, Wis., despite the best efforts of the city’s mayor, a former cabdriver, who wants stricter regulations on ride services.

Paul Soglin is the liberal mayor of Madison, Wis., one of few cities with a political sensibility to the left of San Francisco and an unemployment rate that’s just as low.

But unlike Mayor Ed Lee, who has emerged as a cheerleader for the tech industry, Soglin has fought to make Madison “the last city in America where Uber is allowed.”
Soglin, who is one of 280 mayors in town for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, told a Madison audience this year that Uber and Lyft’s business model is “built on exploitation” and treats drivers with a “16th century version of serfdom.”
So no, he has no intention of joining Lee on a tour of Uber’s headquarters Monday.
Soglin may be an outlier among the legions of public officials who swoon in the presence of Uber, which is valued at $50 billion and operates in hundreds of U.S. cities and 57 countries. But his opinion is in line with a ruling made public this week by the California Labor Commission, which said that an Uber driver is an employee, not an independent contractor.

thousands of Lyft and Uber drivers out of work

The California Labor Commission ruled today that an Uber driver should be given the status of employee, not contractor, and ordered the company to pay her $4,152.20 in business expenses for time she worked as an Uber driver in 2014. If this ruling is repeated in upcoming court cases, it could mean Uber would need to provide its drivers with benefits like health insurance and overtime pay. The company could also be on the hook for payroll tax, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and state taxes.
All that would drastically reduce the profitability of the fast-growing startup's current business model, which has powered it to a $40 billion valuation and massive global reach. "With a business model based on offering affordable fares, these companies may not be able to survive a ruling against them in this area," argued Jennifer Robles of Owen Dunn Insurance. "Without contractor status, it’s likely these companies could not continue at a profit, leaving traditional taxi drivers decidedly happier and thousands of Lyft and Uber drivers out of work."

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