Dozens of rideshare drivers turned the evening commute into a rolling protest Wednesday in downtown Seattle, circling and clustering outside Uber's engineering offices to sound the alarm on what they call a "flooded" market. With megaphones, chants and a steady chorus of honking, drivers said a surge of new signups has left many of them parked instead of paid and has dragged earnings down.
The action landed the same day the Drivers Union released a report that examined nearly 1 million Uber trips in Washington and found that in 2024 most on-app miles were driven without a passenger in the car. Those empty deadhead miles have climbed to an average of 9.9 miles per trip, up from 3.5 miles in 2019, according to Drivers Union. The analysis says the number of drivers has grown nearly seven times faster than the number of trips and recommends "a pause in onboarding new drivers" to bring the market back into balance.
Protest Outside Uber's Seattle Office
Video and on-the-ground coverage show union members packing the street outside Uber's downtown engineering hub during rush hour, leaning into megaphones and call-and-response chants to make their point, as reported by KING5. Organizers said they picked the height of the commute on purpose, both to spotlight traffic congestion and to underline how much of drivers' time they say is now spent waiting around for the next ping.
Why Drivers Say Supply Is Crushing Pay
Drivers and researchers argue that all those extra empty miles come with a cost. More deadheading means more gas, more wear and tear, more traffic and less money left over after expenses, a trend the report links to aggressive onboarding by the apps. The protest and the new numbers arrive as state lawmakers and advocates are still hashing out proposals to curb surge pricing and boost transparency around fares and driver pay, a policy fight KUOW has been tracking.
What Drivers Want Next
The Drivers Union is pushing for an immediate timeout on new driver sign-ups until deadhead miles come down, along with rules to keep the growth in drivers and trips more closely aligned and clearer disclosure of company take rates and dispatch practices. The union says it plans to press both the companies and regulators for fast action and is prepared to ramp up organizing if the market remains "flooded," according to Drivers Union.
For riders, Wednesday's disruption may have felt like little more than an unusually noisy commute. For drivers, they say, the stakes are much higher: fewer paid trips paired with longer deadhead stretches can quickly erase earnings once gas, maintenance and other costs are factored in. The protest and the report now sit in front of city and state officials, who are under growing pressure to keep rides reliable without letting an oversupply of drivers wipe out the very livelihoods that keep those apps running.
