Oct 20, 2026 · 1 hr 13 min · 11 segments
Rideshare Rodeo Podcast w/guest Ken O'Donnell This week on the podcast we discuss Uber moving to upfront pricing, and why they stepped away from the rate card. We also dive into to Colorado data…
But but in a in a smart way, because, you know, one of the great thing about this great thing about California is California will just trudge the path.
And right or wrong, they will be the first to call out everything and every manufacturer and every manufacturer.
And so, but it's great because they make a lot of mistakes and then you sort of try to learn off of what they do.
move here.
And the same thing with like Seattle and the same thing with Minneapolis and the same thing with Boston, like they've all, they've all tried to to institute their version of the rate card.
And because they, there there's um two two major things one is is that they're asking for way too much and i think that that's been a flaw and and two with the rate card is that they've allowed uber to do a true up system once you do a true up system throw the rate card right out the window if they are allowed to round up just throw it right out the window and any legislation has to be on a per ride basis And they're going to fight to the death on that because the true up allows them to basically manipulate the numbers again to where, like Len said, the minimum wage becomes the maximum wage.
So any time of any time a legislator allows Uber to do this true up and they make this great argument like, well, how do we know like we lose money? I mean, they testify and they said we lose money on one out of every four rides.
I'm like, who does business that way? Why don't you just make money a little bit on all four? They put this big song and dance together and they say, this is how it drew up.
I still believe that you have to have mechanisms and levers in place for supply and demand.
You have to be able to increase or incentivize drivers to go to a certain area after the Bronco game.
Yeah.
But but in a in a smart way, because, you know, one of the great thing about this great thing about California is California will just trudge the path.
And right or wrong, they will be the first to call out everything and every manufacturer and every manufacturer.
And so, but it's great because they make a lot of mistakes and then you sort of try to learn off of what they do.
move here.
And the same thing with like Seattle and the same thing with Minneapolis and the same thing with Boston, like they've all, they've all tried to to institute their version of the rate card.
And because they, there there's um two two major things one is is that they're asking for way too much and i think that that's been a flaw and and two with the rate card is that they've allowed uber to do a true up system once you do a true up system throw the rate card right out the window if they are allowed to round up just throw it right out the window and any legislation has to be on a per ride basis And they're going to fight to the death on that because the true up allows them to basically manipulate the numbers again to where, like Len said, the minimum wage becomes the maximum wage.
So any time of any time a legislator allows Uber to do this true up and they make this great argument like, well, how do we know like we lose money? I mean, they testify and they said we lose money on one out of every four rides.
I'm like, who does business that way? Why don't you just make money a little bit on all four? They put this big song and dance together and they say, this is how it drew up.
I still believe that you have to have mechanisms and levers in place for supply and demand.
You have to be able to increase or incentivize drivers to go to a certain area after the Bronco game.
Yeah.
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