Right now is the best time for driver, cab drivers are joining the Uber ranks

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Trading Taxis for Uber, Drivers Riding a Boom

As their earnings dwindle, some yellow cab drivers are joining the Uber ranks

After three years as a yellow-cab driver, Predrag Kumanovic noticed his earnings dwindling. Trips slowed as passengers increasingly hailed competitors through smartphones, making it tougher to scratch out a living in his 12-hour shifts.

Now, Mr. Kumanovic, 34 years old, is a driver for Uber Technologies Inc., picking up passengers in his 2011 silver Dodge minivan for the car service whose explosive growth in New York faced the threat of a temporary cap before city officials backed down.

He is among the Uber drivers who often drive around Manhattan waiting for the company’s app to send them to their next fare—a practice that city officials worry is slowing down traffic on already-congested Manhattan streets.

A lingering question from the debate over the cap on for-hire vehicles is whether intense competition threatens professional drivers’ livelihood, and ultimately might lead to a decline in quality of New York City’s taxis and car services.

For Mr. Kumanovic, a native of Serbia who moved to the U.S. about a decade ago, the switch to Uber earlier this year has worked out so far, affording him about the same income while working fewer hours in a schedule he sets himself.

He can hop inside his van, which he parks outside his apartment in Queens, rather than show up to a taxi garage hoping to get a good car.

Mr. Kumanovic estimates his daily expenses are far lower than daily taxi leases, which regulators limit to about $130 a shift.

“It makes life easier for me,” he said.

But he sees the risks he faces amid industry turmoil as others rush to drive for San Francisco-based Uber, which after a new round of funding was valued at close to $51 billion.

“Things are changing so fast,” he said. “You never know.”

Mr. Kumanovic is among Uber drivers who support a limitation on the city’s fleet of for-hire vehicles, despite the company’s fierce opposition to such constraints. He worries a surge in new Uber drivers could eventually threaten his own pay.

Uber argues that a cap would ultimately hurt drivers, leading to lengthy wait times for passenger pickups and decreasing reliability if the company couldn’t meet rising demand by supplying more drivers.

The company counts about 23,000 drivers in New York City, plus about 6,000 drivers of yellow and green cabs who fetch hails through its uberT feature.

There are currently about 52,600 drivers licensed to drive yellow taxis, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

In the run-up to a City Council vote on a proposed cap on new for-hire vehicles that was eventually put off, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance held a rally highlighting what members see as Uber’s threat to drivers’ steady jobs.

“Once they bring down the income expectations in the industry, it’s a vicious race to the bottom for tens of thousands of drivers for whom this is their full-time job and their only source of income,” Bhairavi Desai, the taxi-driver group’s executive director.

Meera Joshi, chairwoman of the city’s taxi commission, suggested recent cases of illegal street hails might indicate a potential sign of tough times for some Uber drivers.

Yellow taxis are the only vehicles allowed to pick up passengers from the street, as opposed to through a dispatcher or via a smartphone app, in much of Manhattan and at the city’s airports.

Of 662 vehicles seized by the taxi commission between April 29 and June 7 for alleged illegal street hails, about half were affiliated with an Uber base.

“If you can’t make enough money off of the legal dispatches, you’re going to end up doing illegal street hails,” Ms. Joshi said.

Uber says that its drivers on average have seen steadily increasing hourly trips and earnings. The company said the average driver had net earnings of $27.26 an hour as of June 1, up from $26.10 at the same point last year and $21 on June 1, 2013.

Josh Mohrer, the company’s general manager in New York, said Uber wouldn’t add new drivers if their pay slips. “The drivers are my customers ultimately, so I have to keep them happy,” he said.

In New York City, Uber takes 20% of the fare revenue drivers earn through its main UberX feature.

Mr. Kumanovic says that in contrast to his earlier stints as a delivery driver and running a small business renting tents for parties, the Uber job lets him meet interesting New Yorkers.

It also gives Mr. Kumanovic, who studied economics in college, a front-row seat to an industry undergoing rapid change.

While he doesn’t know where he’ll be working in the long-term, Mr. Kumanovic is satisfied for now, and he recommended his gig to a brother.

“Right now is the best time for a driver,” he said.

Write to Andrew Tangel at [email protected]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/trading-...oom-1438389363


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