On Monday, Lyft lost a lawsuit against new York city because the judge refused to block the decision of the Commission for taxi and limousine the TLC of new York on the introduction of a minimum wage for taxi drivers operating on the basis of applications such as Lyft, Uber and Juno.
Lyft and Juno went to court, because he believed that the minimum salary of at least $ 17,22 per hour will have a negative impact on their business.
Lyft said that the new rules will benefit only a giant such as Uber, and smaller companies may be on the verge of bankruptcy, and people who worked in such companies will become unemployed. In addition, may suffer and users of these applications. Because carsharing company to make ends meet will be forced to raise prices.
Lyft said that the new rules decrease the competition in this field, and could lead to the monopolization of the market.
Once at the beginning of February, the rules came into force, Lyft tried to stabilize the market mainly through the use of discounts for passengers. But after they stopped to reduce the payment to its customers, and prices rose by 24%. The number of orders fell by 26%, and in turn, the earnings of the drivers fell by 15%.
Minimum Pay For Lyft, Uber Drivers Allowed To Continue https://t.co/fV2MqhLZlJ pic.twitter.com/YuGAld7RPC
— Sunset Park Patch (@SunsetParkPatch) March 20, 2019
Juno in the course of the trial brought the documents with similar data. After the entry into force of the rules and TLC, respectively, of the increase in prices for passengers to follow the rules , the number of orders in Juno was reduced by 30%. This loss of customers has led to the fact that hourly wage drivers decreased by 17%.
«We support the idea of the city Council of new York on the introduction of the minimum wage, but oppose specific TLC rules, because they cause real damage to the livelihood opportunities for drivers,» said Lyft spokesman Campbell Matthews.
However, there are those who are pleased with the increase in the minimum wage.
The city authorities and the Guild of Independent Drivers (Independent Drivers Guild), which campaigned in support of the introduction of a minimum wage, praised the court for refusing cancellation of the new rules.
«We finally get more than in recent years, thanks to new rules the payment,» said Tina Raveno member of the Guild and Lyft driver.
