When the pandemic hit the world, the sector that took a huge blow to its revenue and profits was the ride-hailing sector. The drivers who were solely dependent on ride-hailing for their regular income found themselves facing a huge problem. They were left without any other source of income and were forced to live on their savings.
With the lockdowns and curfews, people were not up for getting out of their houses to work from offices. Even the companies from around the world had moved their working process to “work-from-home”. This left the full-time ride-hailing drivers without any options or sources of income.
Now that the pandemic is slowly getting rid of in different parts of the world, people have also started coming out of their houses. Similarly, companies have also started calling their employees back to work from offices instead of staying at their houses.
As a result of the above, demand for ride-hailing services has again surged and the company such as Uber, Lyft, Wingz, and many more have started re-instating their services.
The companies are reportedly deploying their drivers in different zones, areas, and regions to ensure that the number of drivers does not exceed the number of passengers.
With the situation getting back to normal, Uber has started taking the necessary actions to bring back the drivers it had before the pandemic hit the world. Uber had recently announced a one-time stimulus for its drivers that was worth $250 million.
Uber had announced that stimulus would be handed over to the drivers in the form of rewards and incentives for performing their duties on the Uber platform.
Although the stimulus announcement comes as a promising step from Uber, yet it is still not a permanent solution for the drivers.
Many old Uber drivers fear that once the incentive program ends and the funds run out, there won’t be much for the drivers to earn through ride-hailing.
This is mainly because as Uber continues to increase its fleet of drivers on the platform, new drivers will also be eligible for the stimulus funds. Once the funds are over, there will be many drivers on the roads without many trips to cater.
This would eventually result in Uber drivers earning fewer wages and the old drivers are not at all happy about this. Many old drivers have already stopped depending upon Uber rides and trips because as per them, the hailing demand was too low.
Over the course of time, Uber has reported that many Uber drivers have switched from ride-hailing to food delivery services. This is mainly because the drivers no longer find Uber ride-hailing a profitable platform.