The drivers, who are mostly comprised of SUV and black car drivers, have planned a protest outside of the Long Island City Uber Office
I wonder how much good the office protest will do versus just emailing Uber saying "Adios Uber! I'm headed to Lyft because of..."
The on site picketing made sense for blue collar industrial and government workers because the switching cost of quitting your job and (hoping) to get hired at another plant would have been very high. For hire drivers working for Uber and Lyft essentially have close to zero switching costs. A demonstration of that would seem more effective than picketing.
The media attention that drivers get through this action help signal to consumers that they are moving to a competitor. This might make me (a rider) more likely to fire up the Lyft app instead of Uber next time I need a ride.
True, media attention is important but I wonder if the protest will make it onto more mainstream channels and not just the tech news/blogosphere.
Local papers in Dallas have been doing quite a bit of coverage as Uber and Lyft taken on the politically connected taxi industry here. I don't know if intra-service fighting would get as much attention.
Maybe some HNers in the Long Island area will chime in.
Long Island City is right across the river from Manhattan. It's technically on the Island, but for most people Long Island = Suffolk and Nassau, not Brooklyn and Queens.
I wonder how much good the office protest will do versus just emailing Uber saying "Adios Uber! I'm headed to Lyft because of..."
The on site picketing made sense for blue collar industrial and government workers because the switching cost of quitting your job and (hoping) to get hired at another plant would have been very high. For hire drivers working for Uber and Lyft essentially have close to zero switching costs. A demonstration of that would seem more effective than picketing.