When the fleet stops working because Uber tells you that if you don’t pay me your debt, I won’t activate the fleet for you, the owner cancels the registration of the fleet and creates another one with a different name or a fake account” (D., Uber driver).
Furthermore, fleet owners typically try to attract drivers through messages posted on WhatsApp groups or social media message boards, announcing better rates, or even promising not to pay commissions. On Facebook in 2020, countless posts were published in Uber driver groups saying: “stop paying commissions and join my fleet!”. In the same social groups, many drivers denounce the inappropriate behaviour of fleet owners by reporting their own experiences: “I was in a fleet and yesterday they suspended my account, the owner disappeared, it seems he didn’t pay any commission and so Uber blocked the fleet!” (source: Facebook Public Group). In most cases, it is migrant workers from other countries who fall into this kind of trap. In the case of Uber in Buenos Aires, for example, it is mainly drivers from Venezuela, Paraguay and Bolivia who end up in these informal digital gangmaster mechanisms. Parasitic and fraudulent fleet intermediation therefore mainly affects the migrants, less experienced drivers or more vulnerable components of the workforce and represents another form of caporalato. Furthermore, in the world of Uber in Buenos Aires, there are countless other forms of intermediation between drivers and the platform that are not entirely transparent. One of the most common and widespread is the use of fake accounts, known as ‘cuentas truchas’. These accounts are sold mainly on social media and often have a short-term guarantee, even a few weeks or months. However, these services allow those whose accounts have been blocked or irregular migrants present in the country to work. Finally, other forms of informal labour intermediation involve renting out one’s account to third parties—again, this trading market generally takes place on social media.
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G. PETERLONGO