Financial Times Corrects Claim on Uber Drivers’ Pay After Error on Pick-Up Time

The Financial Times has issued a correction after inaccurately stating that Uber drivers are not paid for the time spent travelling to pick-up locations, an error that appeared in a feature examining the financial pressures faced by gig economy workers.

The original article described a driver’s frustration at accepting jobs that required long journeys to collect passengers, asserting that this time was unpaid. Uber disputed that characterisation, and the FT later clarified that the ride-hailing company does factor pick-up time into the algorithm used to calculate driver pay.

The correction, published without altering the broader thrust of the piece, acknowledged that the earlier wording was incorrect. Uber’s pay model remains complex and opaque to many drivers, but the specific claim that pick-up travel time is excluded from compensation was inaccurate.

The episode underscores how small factual errors can materially shape the narrative around contested labour models. In debates over platform work, where pay structures are poorly understood and heavily politicised, a single misstatement can reinforce perceptions of exploitation that may not fully reflect how systems actually operate.

For readers, the distinction matters. Being paid via an algorithm that incorporates pick-up time is not the same as being paid transparently or predictably, but it is materially different from not being paid at all. The correction narrows that gap, even as questions about fairness, data access and wage volatility remain unresolved.