Uber sabotage Lyft instructions published

Lyft taxi operator's suspicions of unfair competition from the larger Uber company were largely confirmed.

The network got several official instructions for Uber employees on how to handle taxi drivers working for a competitor. The program, code-named SLOG, includes the use of one-time SIM cards for mobile phones and temporary payment cards issued by employees, with a balance in the account for rides in a competitor’s taxi.

Uber has already received $ 1.5 billion in venture capital investments, so it has enough money to fight its competitors.

The main objective of the SLOG operation is to sabotage a competitor, luring to their side taxi drivers who work with Lyft. A side effect in this case is a number of false (canceled) calls, due to the desire to avoid detection by Lyft.

They hire people through SLOG agencies to work at SLOG. Basically, they work at various events, in bars and student campuses, offering others to call Uber taxis. But recently, they have been assigned new tasks: call Lyft taxis and try to recruit drivers. The instructions spell out a specific scenario of the conversation, during which the driver is promised a larger amount of remuneration.



For successful involvement of one driver, you can earn commissions up to $ 750. To create fake Lyft accounts, agents are given mobile phones and bank cards.



Uber agents must call Lyft taxis from all over the city without causing suspicion. At the end of the conversation, you should land "in a safe place." Even with an unsuccessful recruitment attempt, such a trip is beneficial because it loads the competitor’s network with useless calls, and normal Lyft customers have to wait longer for the car.

After talking with the driver, his contact information should be entered in the database so that other agents do not contact him again.



To coordinate the actions of agents, a collective private chat was also created in the GroupMe mobile service. If repeated contact occurs, the agent is advised to cancel the call. Hence the thousands of canceled calls that Lyft management spoke of.

The SLOG program operated in several cities in the United States. At least 10 cities are listed in one of the forms. The tactics of unfair competition were accompanied by lies in the media and (probably) investors.

Note that Uber and Lyft are still working on the brink of loss, using dumping and offering a large number of promotions for users.

Price comparison for expensive San Francisco, excluding discounts and bonuses:

Uber X: $ 3 base rate, $ 0.30 per minute, $ 0.93 per kilometer
Lyft: $ 2.25 base rate, $ 0.27 per minute, $ 0.84 per kilometer

In both cases, the client must have an “insurance” deposit of at least 1 dollar.