It is becoming more and more difficult to catch an Uber in Brazil. While fuel prices have increased by 50% last yearapplications than carpooling drivers to count on claim a considerable sum chunk of What is that left.
The surge in inflation has left many Brazilians struggling make ends meet.
On the street, an Uber driver, the phone rings out the signal at pick up a passenger, but he checks the distance and declines: “I became a mathematician behind the wheel,” he complains.
But now, drivers in Sao Paulo, a sprawling city city of 12 millions people are about to launch an application of theirs, taking on likes of industry giant Uber with a platform they say will give drivers a better deal.
“With gasoline so expensive I have to do split-second math before each trip to do sure it is worth that, so I don’t finish up offering a free ride to the passenger,” said Sao Paulo Uber driver Valmir, 56 years old, who require that son last the name should not be used.
“I work 12, 13, sometimes 14 hours a day to do the same money I used to “between 250 and 300 reals ($48-$57) a day before expenses,” he said.
This problem led a group of São Paulo’s 150,000 app drivers organize and develop a mobile application of their own, supported by the Association of Sao Paulo of Application pilots and deliverers (AMMASP).
His name is Me Busca, which roughly translates to “pick me up.”
“We want to offer drivers the conditions that (carpooling) companies do not: pay better, more safety and best quality work“, AMMASP president Eduardo Lima told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
His creators say Me Busca will offer prices similar to competitors like Uber and 99, based in the United States, which are owned by Chinese Didi.
The application is about to be launched in March, and thousands of drivers have already sign up.
Inflation has come in at a painful 10% in Brazil last year driven by economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic. Price increases for some sectors were far higherincluding 49% for fuel.
The pandemic has also swelled the ranks of the struggling and unemployed.
Raniel de Queiroz, a 42-year-old tech worker, began to supplement son day job as data backup analyst with eight hour nights like a carpool driver. “My salary is not going up, but the prices are. Driving was a way at earn a bit more money and keep up with the inflation situation in the country,” he said.
Corn son treatment by the application it drives for “obtained more and more unfair,” he said. added.
Rates paid by app users increased by 60.5% last year in Sao Paulo. Drivers say they hardly see it money.
the apps “To take advantage of of high unemployment in Brazil” currently 11.6%, to be retained driver pay low, said Marlon Luz, a city to advise who represents the drivers.
He said the apps keep between 14% and 40% of each tariff, sometimes even rising up to 60%.
Me Busca will pay drivers “about 2,000 reals more per month than what they earn now, for work the same number of hours,” he said.
Uber, who arrived in Brazil in 2014, says drivers “Always keep the majority of the price paid by users. »
“In Sao Paulo, estimate every week earnings increased to 1,500 reals last month, for a 40-hour work week,” the company told AFP.
Soaring fuel prices made lots of Uber drivers To cut back on trips last yearleaving runners with a long wait times or even failed.
The company said it was trying to fix this with incentives such as dynamic pricing to attract drivers.
App 99, meanwhile, said it had increased driver pay 10% to 25% last year and offer 8% more per kilometer this year in Sao Paulo.
The drivers are not convinced.
“We hope the new the app works,” Queiroz said. “If it does, they’ll wish they had listened us.”
