Steller: In Tucson, Uber drivers are wanted — and doomed

The news felt good, like we should be cheering it.

But was it?

Uber, the ride-sharing company, announced Sept. 10 a plan to sign up another 1,500 drivers in the Tucson area by the end of the year. Actually, they phrased it this way in a press release: “Uber will be ... on-boarding 1,500 new driver-partners by the end of the year in Tucson.”

“On-boarding” is the keyword there, but predictably people don’t use that phrase — they say Uber is “hiring.” Which is not what Uber does. Drivers are independent contractors who typically make 80 percent of the fares they charge, with Uber taking the other 20 percent.

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, who attended the announcement at Randolph Community Center, described Uber’s effort as reflecting something good about Tucson.

“Uber looking at this market means they’re looking at a changing community,” he told me days later.

Uber spokeswoman Maui Cheska Orozco elaborated on that idea in an email, explaining the company’s so-called “Work on Demand” initiative here: “Ridesharing in Tucson is growing rapidly, and there is skyrocketing demand. Demand continues to grow for Uber, and that means more opportunities and more business for more driver-partners. Aside from ridesharing, Tucson as a city has tremendous growth potential.”

However, interviews with Uber drivers and a review of the company’s latest news suggest that, while this local effort might be a short-term win for some people, over the long-term it’s not great news. That’s because Tucson is already a borderline city for ride-share and taxi drivers trying to make a living, and drivers represent a problem for the company to erase, not an asset.

Consider this: Bloomberg News reported Aug. 25 that Uber lost $1.2 billion — yes, billion with a B — in the first six months of the year. The primary cause of the loss: subsidizing drivers. That loss came after a year, 2015, in which it lost more than $2 billion.

Now consider this: Last week Uber put customers in autonomous cars for the first time, in Pittsburgh. The company plans to expand the use of these cars, so that the Uber riders of the distant future will be in a mix of driverless and human-operated vehicles.

The long-term trend is clear: Uber must cut its spending on drivers if it’s ever going to turn a profit, and driverless cars offer a way to do that.

But over the short term? The impact is mixed, unless you’re a taxi driver losing your way of life.

I spoke with three Tucson-area Uber drivers last week, and their feelings about the work ranged from enthusiastic to grim. The newer they were to driving, and the less they drove, the happier they were.

Take Rose Quiroga, of Sahuarita. She retired early as a nurse this year but started using Uber as a passenger during a trip to Houston in the spring. Some of the drivers were women, which convinced Quiroga to make some money as an Uber driver herself when she got home.

“It’s my travel money,” she said. “I make enough and then I leave town.”

Quiroga, 63, often waits until she has errands to do in Tucson to turn on the app that shows she is available to give rides as an Uber driver. Overall, she drives three or four days a week, up to six hours per day, she said.

The gig has been good to Quiroga, who only drives during the day for safety reasons, and has had very few unpleasant customers. Usually it’s busy enough, she said, but not always.

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In the slow times, she said, “I’ll find myself a shady spot off of Glenn and Campbell and wait as much as a half hour for a call.”

Of the planned additional drivers, Quiroga said: “I don’t know if we really need that many, unless they’re planning on expanding.”

Quiroga talked with me by phone, but Gabriel Hill, 51, drove me Thursday from the Star’s downtown office to the main plant at 4850 S. Park Ave. Last week, for the first time, he was trying to drive Uber full time because, he said, he had been laid off from his job as an aircraft mechanic in Marana.

It was a quiet summer for Uber drivers, he said, except for occasional special events and the nightlife shifts, from Wednesday nights through Saturday nights. But he added, “Now that the college students are back there’s plenty of activity within Tucson.”

It’s not a way to make a living for Hill, but his wife has a good job, he said, and he’s on her medical insurance. He’s also protected himself by forming a limited liability company under which he drives for Uber. That move gives drivers some protection from liability for incidents that occur while they’re driving.

Hill is not afraid of the eventual arrival of driverless cars.

“People like conversations,” he said. “It would be a very dull drive — unless they put artificial intelligence in it.”

Driverless cars were also a distant concern for Matthew Steiner, the Uber driver who took me from the Star’s main plant back downtown. Steiner, 25, has been driving for three years, full time recently, and has had a hard time of it in Tucson.

He’s actually spent a couple of months in Phoenix just to find enough customers.

“You can’t make a living off of it here,” he said. “No benefits. They don’t pay for your gas. They don’t pay for your car insurance.”

His first car broke down, and he asked Uber for help to no avail, he said. Now he’s on his second Uber car.

“It’s a good thing for the rider,” he said. “Drivers are expendable.”

That is true, and a problem with the recent announcement: Uber riders have it great, really, but drivers, not so much.

Only people who can afford to be expendable — those who aren’t counting on the gig to support themselves or their families — are likely to get an adequate return from driving.

But it goes further: Uber may need them now, but eventually it must be rid of the glut of drivers in order to turn a profit.

By the time it does, Uber may have cleared out the entire taxi industry and made drivers practically irrelevant.