A union of ride-hailing drivers in Seattle says there are too many people doing their job, a glut that increases pollution and congestion, and drives down wages, as empty Ubers roam the city looking for the next passenger.
In a report paid for in part by the state Department of Ecology with funding from the Climate Commitment Act, the Drivers Union of Washington said Uber, Lyft and other similar companies should stop onboarding new drivers until the empty deadheading" miles are reduced, and called for rules to ensure an appropriate number of drivers.
“Uber and Lyft are adding drivers far beyond what is necessary to meet rider demand," said union policy analyst Kat Jensen, saying that since 2022 there's been an "explosion" of empty deadheading miles. In 2024, more than 24,700 Uber drivers were operating in Seattle.
Jensen was among union representatives at a news conference Wednesday morning that also included ride-hailing drivers and Andrés Monroy-Hernández, a computer science professor at Princeton University who is a team member at the Worker's Algorithm Observatory, which helps gig workers audit the companies they work for and that contributed to the report.
According to the report, which primarily focused on Uber, drivers gave 952,940 trips from 2019-24, and a majority of the ride-hailing miles driven in Seattle, about 55%, are now done without a passenger.
In 2019, Ubers spent an average of 3.5 miles per trip without a passenger, and 5.6 miles with a passenger. In 2024, the vehicles went an average 9.9 miles without a passenger, and 8.1 miles with one. It also found that the number of ride-hailing drivers is growing seven times faster than trips.
The empty roaming caused by the influx of drivers has also increased air pollution, the report said. While gas-powered vehicles are the direct culprit, the increase in congestion contributes to the problem, as traffic jams increase travel time, slow all cars down and change driving behaviors that increase air pollution.
In a statement, Allison Ford, senior manager of public policy at Uber for the Pacific Northwest, suggested the report was flawed because it relied on an "extremely small, unrepresentative sample of drivers."
Beyond that, Ford placed blame on "well-intentioned regulations" in Seattle having unintended consequences on drivers and consumers.
"After the city's minimum pay standards took effect, rider fares on average increased by 40%," Ford wrote. "Seattle now has the highest rideshare prices in the country and higher prices affect everyone but they hit hardest on those with few alternatives."
Lyft did not reply Wednesday to a request for comment.
The drivers union, affiliated with Teamsters Local 117, said the boom in ride-hailing drivers has driven wages down, and noted that Uber still takes about half the fare a rider pays.
Don Creery, who's been driving an Uber for 12 years, said he made $55,000 in 2022 doing 20 to 25 rides a day. In 2025, he said he made $24,000 giving five to six rides a day. He said a recent ride he gave from Maple Leaf to the airport cost the rider $125. Creery got $55.
"There's an obvious standard of living impact," Creery said, adding that the saturated driver market has also affected other drivers. "If people are having trouble finding place to park downtown, that’s probably because there are Uber and Lyft drivers sitting in those parking spots."
Since the companies don't pay hourly wages and only collect a share of paid fares, the union claimed the empty miles don't affect the companies' bottom lines.
Takele Gobena, interim president of the union, said his group is not advocating for a reduction in ride-hailing drivers in King County or suggesting that anybody should lose their job.
Instead, the union wants to "pause" new hires to assess the market. And it wants the companies to share more ridership data.
Monroy-Hernández, the professor, said the companies can easily provide more of their data, as they are required by law to do in Chicago, which displays the data in a public dashboard.
Chicago, as Monroy-Hernández pointed out, has information on every single ride that happens in the city, where the ride started, where it ended, how much the rider paid, how much the driver got paid and more.
"Chicago is a good example of something Seattle could get from the companies," said Monroy-Hernández.
The lack of data is reflected in the report, which provides only yearly averages and doesn't reflect the need for such vehicles during peak demand: in the height of summer, for instance, or during major events like FIFA World Cup matches.
Gobena said the number of drivers out there is sufficient to deal with large demand, and pointed to the recent parade attended by hundreds of thousands celebrating the Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl win, which was "great and perfectly handled by ride-hailing drivers who transported revelers.
While the city of Seattle does have rules about how ride-hailing companies operate, it doesn't regulate how many ride-hailing drivers are allowed to operate.
The report looked at self-reported tax data from 212 Uber drivers covering 2019-24, and analyzed that information against King County Records and Licensing information. It also used testimonies from drivers collected in 2025 by a research team at the University of Washington Information School.
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