Uber and Lyft sued by Massachusetts over worker misclassification

The US state of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft yesterday (Tuesday, July 14) saying that the companies are misclassifying their drivers as contractors when they should be employees.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, the companies are coming under the exact same scrutiny in California.

For years Uber and Lyft have built their billion-dollar businesses on a model that exploits drivers,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said when announcing the lawsuit. “Uber and Lyft set the rates. They alone set the rules. Drivers are employees.”

“For years these companies have systematically denied their drivers basic workplace protections and benefits, and profited greatly from it. This business is unfair and it’s also illegal under Massachusetts law,” she added.

We shouldn’t expect the state’s motion to change anything soon. Just like we’ve seen in California, Uber and Lyft will likely do everything in their power to prevent it from having to reclassify workers.

Last year, California passed state legislation called AB5 which requires gig-workers to be afforded basic rights like minimum wage, worker’s compensation, and more.

However, Uber and Lyft have continually contested the requirement and have collectively, along with some other companies, poured over $90 million into fighting the legislation.

In California, Uber says it will fight the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the company said: “At a time when California’s economy is in crisis with 4 million people out of work, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning.” Though it seems Uber is missing the point as drivers don’t seem to earn enough to make it a viable job.

Last month, courts told taxi ride-hailing companies that they must comply with the laws by July 1 or face closure in the state. But again, Uber, Lyft, et al., continued to fight the regulator.

While it’s promising that Massachusetts is following in California’s footsteps and fighting for the rights of gig-workers, it’s more than likely going to face the same fight that the California regulators are currently facing. Change won’t come soon or easy.

HT – The Verge

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Freightera Launches SaaS Model With New Membership Plans for Canadian and US Business Shippers

freighter rolls out new paid membership plans with value-added services and a rewards program for volume shippers

PRESS RELEASE  UPDATED: JUL 15, 2020 08:01 EDT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 15, 2020 (Newswire.com) -​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Freightera, North America’s rapidly growing online freight marketplace, just enhanced its popular free platform with value-added paid memberships and a rewards program.

I am pleased to announce our latest release that enhances your experience and makes bookings more rewarding and fun. It also expands our plans and services beyond classic free Freightera with more choices for everyone.

ERIC BECKWITT

CEO

“I am pleased to announce our latest release that enhances your experience and makes bookings more rewarding and fun,” noted Freightera CEO Eric Beckwitt, updating Freightera’s 12,700+ business shippers. “It also expands our plans and services beyond classic free Freightera with more choices for everyone.”

Late in 2019, the company surveyed its top shippers and found they were interested in value-added services and paid plans if Freightera was to offer them. Freightera’s team created a game plan and completed the implementation at the end of the second quarter, despite the added stress of COVID-19 disruption.

Freightera is one of the top growth companies in Canada. It has grown at around 240% per year since 2015, making it the third fastest-growing company in British Columbia according to Business in Vancouver (2019), winning 2019 and 2020 Ready to Rocket placement among the top technology companies in BC and being selected as BC Tech 2020 Technology Impact Awards (TIA) finalist for Growth Company of the Year. TIA awards winners will be announced later in the fall.

In June 2020, Freightera hit all-time highs in bookings as platform revenue surged 40% over May, exceeding pre-COVID numbers. Immediately following the launch of paid memberships, Freightera hit new daily highs for both bookings and gross profit.

“It’s great to see a positive response from our shippers,” noted Beckwitt. “Automated bookings are up sharply, and we have renewed interest from investors.”

Freightera has raised over CAD 9 million, primarily from investors in Canada and the USA. According to Frost & Sullivan, Freightera is one of the top five “automated on-demand” freight platforms in North America, and the only system that offers fixed-cost, all-inclusive quotes direct from transport companies of all sizes and transport modes. In Q1-2020, Freightera introduced AI-assisted pricing and Q2 focused on adding a SaaS revenue stream to its core offerings.

Response to COVID and Climate Change

Because most businesses are affected by COVID-19, Freightera is offering three-month free trials of new paid SMB Plus and SMB Priority plans. Shippers can learn more at https://www.freightera.com/en/freight-shippers/plans.

In March 2020, Freightera implemented an initiative to help businesses affected by COVID-19 by creating the free Source Locally Community, which facilitates Canadian and U.S. sourcing between members of the Freightera shipper community. 

Freightera is a leading advocate for making the transition to green, zero-emission shipping. In cooperation with Natural Resource Canada and SmartWay™, Freightera created North America’s first Lower Emission Freight Marketplace. In early 2020, 90% of the bookings on the Freightera platform were via lower-emission SmartWay-certified carriers or rail. 

​Media Contact
​Eric Beckwitt
604-899-4081​

Source: Freightera

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Taxi Live Africa brings Uber-like ehailing features to metered taxis

Since Uber arrived in South Africa in 2013, there’s been a fierce (and often violent) rivalry between those employing the technology and metered taxi drivers. But thanks to a new app developed in South Africa, this could be about to change.

Called Taxi Live Africa (TLA), the service and app lets metered taxi drivers perform trips requested by customers. Essentially, it’s bringing the Uber model to private taxis.

The reason for its development is clear: metered taxi operators need technology to compete in the evolving transportation industry, according to co-founder Luvuyo Ntshayi.

“Metered taxi operators have not had an app developed especially for them and their passengers,” he told Memeburn in an email.

“Ehailing has now become an established market but metered taxis were excluded from benefiting from this — in short, metered taxi drivers have been struggling to compete in a technology-led market.”

“Before TLA was established, I conducted numerous interviews with metered taxi operators in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town so that we gain real insights into their business challenges,” Nyashi continued.

“Not surprisingly, the one comment challenge among all of the people I met was that they had lost clients due to e-hailing. The gap in the market was evident and we believe that Taxi Live Africa will create a lot of opportunities not only for drivers but as we recruit more and more drivers, we will also be creating jobs within Taxi Live Africa as administrators in our offices.”

The service hasn’t had much time to mature though. The company was founded in 2017 by Ntshayi and business partner Soyiso Qotiwe, but only soft-launched in Durban in June 2019. Still, the company’s seen more than 700 registrations in the KwaZulu-Natal city thus far.
Taxi App Development cost Live Africa vs Uber and Bolt

Aesthetically, the app’s spiffy, swift, and modern. Lots of yellow is employed in UI elements, while users can adjust payment option, view fare estimates, and take advantage of offers from the primary screen.

It also has the basic features you’d expect in an ehailing app. This includes an in-app emergency button, live chat support, the ability to schedule rides ahead of time, and a built-in police emergency number.

TLA does have an exhaustive list of registration criteria for drivers too, including the ownership of a PDP, car registration documents from 2014, police clearance, and hailing operating documents. The company also wants drivers to be “willing to go for drivers training”.

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These London taxi drivers have made an app like Uber to save black cabs

The app has been built by black cab drivers to allow passengers to book and pay for a black cab like they would through Uber

Sean Paul Day was a psychotherapist before he became a black cab driver 18 years ago.

“I’ve probably given more therapy to passengers than I ever did to patients,” he laughs. Recently he’s added another profession to his CV. Day is the co-founder of Taxiapp. The founders, who are all black cab drivers from Hackney, London, claim this is the only ethical taxi app among the competition - and the only one that gives black cabbies a fair chance against the aggressive pricing of Uber and similar apps.

The industry sorely needs a digital platform to compete with Silicon Valley upstarts. The number of black cabs on the road has been declining since hitting a peak in 2011. Transport for London licences for private hire cars outnumber those for black cabs by more than four to one. “The black cab trade is a vital industry in London, it’s the only taxi trade not losing money,” Day says. “It’s a travesty to see this iconic taxi go from London.”

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Snapchat Debuts New Developer Tools Including eCommerce

Snap has rolled out a large array of new features for popular social media app Snapchat, including Snap Minis, which allow brands to offer new ways to connect on the app, and new augmented reality features, the company said on Thursday (June 11).

The popular social media app said Minis are “a new way for developers to bring their services inside Snapchat and empower new, social experiences.” Users will be able to use apps like Headspace to meditate with friends, flashcards apps to study together, or utilize apps to buy event tickets, all easily integrated into Snapchat’s features, the company said.

The augmented reality program comes in several new forms, including SnapML, an update to Snapchat’s camera platform Lens Studio which has implemented machine learning capabilities that developers can bring to the platform to create their own Lenses.

Users will be able to utilize the augmented reality device to make real-life photos more colorful with digital paint and designs, the website says.

Also, there are new press-and-hold “Scan” partners that work to identify types of plants, breeds of dogs, and recognize nutrients in food.

In addition, the company’s augmented reality feature can be utilized to let Snap users “become part of the show” for many of the app’s original productions, with the motion-tracking lenses used to let users perform dance moves and experience optical illusions, among other features.

Meanwhile, the new Camera Kit app will integrate the augmented reality feature to let users utilize it while chatting together, shopping or watching videos. And with the new Dynamic Lenses feature, Snap users can bring real-time information to share custom lenses and group hangouts, the website says.

Social media apps from TikTok to Instagram to Facebook have seen more activity over the past few months as people had to spend time inside to avoid the coronavirus. With that has come more opportunities for brands to advertise and find new avenues for revenues.

E-commerce App Solution Canada, Taxi Booking App Solution Canada, Taxi Dispatch App Solution Toronto Canada

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Amazon and Flipkart might have to give their source code to the Indian government

Written by : by IVAN MEHTA — 3 days ago in INDIA

Online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart might have to hand over their site’s source code and core algorithms to the Indian government. According to a report by Bloomberg, a new draft ecommerce policy that seeks to bring competitiveness in the market, list this as a mandate.

The draft bill also asks if companies are using “explainable AI” (XAI) — a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that makes solutions and methods understandable for humans. The bill tackles the question of storing the data locally, but leaves it open by saying that after consultation the government “will define the categories of e-commerce that would require mirroring or localization.”

The policy is not public yet, and it might take a while for it to be formalized. However, Bloomberg’s report suggests the Indian government will ask for more data access and transparency — a trend previously seen in draft data protection and content policing bills — from tech companies.

The idea of this bill is to create an ecommerce app solution watchdog that stops companies from creating monopolies and give Indian startups a boost.

Amazon and Flipkart will be closely watching developments of this bill as their future depends on it. India is already planning to mandate a 72-hour window for companies to hand over user data. It also reportedly wants unrestricted access to non-personal data of companies. That’s a tricky situation for major tech firms, as that might mean handing over the secret algorithms that their drive business. And don’t expect them to do that without a fight.

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Building a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace: Use a Ready Platform or Do It from Scratch

The peer-to-peer marketplace is a popular service these days. It connects buyers with sellers without involving any resources. Building up a marketplace has three alternatives. One, you can develop an interesting marketplace that attracts people from scratch. Two, you can use any of the open-source software like Magneto. And the last one, use any of the Software as a Service solution like Near Me or Marketplace.

P2P marketplace holds different specialties and gives a wide range of products and ventures — from internet shopping, like eBay, to transportation administrations, for example, BlaBlaCar. These marketplaces have been rapidly investigating new specialties, yet the best thing is, there is consistently space for new ideas.

Let’s see why we need a peer-to-peer marketplace.

What Makes Peer-to-Peer Marketplace So Important?

P2P is the most popular and successful business model in the digital space for over a decade. Popular websites like Etsy, Airbnb, Olx, and other service providers that grew to popularity are some of the examples. Here’s how the biggies in the e-commerce business world leverage these opportunities.

Read More at: Building a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace: Use a Ready Platform or Do It from Scratch

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