Drivers for ride-share service Uber say they’re tired of falling rates and rising fees the company has imposed. Last week, 100 drivers voiced their dismay at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, and now drivers in Los Angeles and Orange County are frustrated.

That was the discussion at noon on a sweltering Sunday in Santa Ana, when Orange County drivers gathered in a Bank of America parking lot across from John Wayne Airport. Some had worked until 4:30 a.m., shuttling nighttime patrons.

With a large coffee in hand, Johnny Chung stood in his sweatpants and hoodie as he shook off the fatigue of the nighttime hours. He was adamant about the need to put his name to the grievances the drivers have expressed.

“If I take a stand on this and risk getting fired, I’m willing to do that,” said Chung, 42, an UberX driver. “What Uber is doing to us is wrong.”

Four other drivers expressed anger, too. Some had been traditional cabdrivers, and others took to Uber after losing other jobs.

The other drivers were reluctant to have their names used, though, on the chance of reprisal.

Two San Francisco Uber drivers voiced similar complaints last summer, putting their names on a class-action lawsuit filed in August in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, which was granted class-action status by Judge Edward Chen.

Since Uber sprang up in March 2010, that company and other smartphone app-driven transportation services, such as Lyft and Sidecar, have grown rapidly. Uber and its lower-cost UberX service provides services in 40 countries and 58 U.S. cities. The company has been in Los Angeles for two years and in Orange County since September.

Those companies operate largely outside government regulations, unlike cabdrivers, who are required to have permits to pick up customers. These advantages – and the ability to let passengers pay without cash through the Internet – have disrupted traditional taxi services and given work to hundreds of drivers across Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Drivers, classified as independent contractors, use their own vehicles and pay all of their own expenses, including gas and maintenance. In exchange, they can work as many hours as they want.

Patrons hail rides through an app, and then rate the driver on the cleanliness of the cab, speed and other factors. Once the ride is completed, passengers and drivers rate each other.

A bad overall rating can lead to a driver’s deactivation. That means his or her Uber iPhone is turned off and the driver no longer can receive jobs.

However, drivers say the financial benefits of the setup are shrinking.

In exchange for using their vehicles, drivers say they were assured they would make more money than traditional cabbies off each ride. The company says drivers make about $25 an hour.

But drivers say that figure doesn’t account for gas expenses and vehicle wear and tear.

UberX drivers say Uber used to charge passengers more than $2.40 a mile, but this spring dropped its rates to $1.25. And on April 24, Uber began taking a 20percent per-passenger fee from drivers.

As part of its pitch as “the cashless experience,” Uber doesn’t allow drivers to take tips.

Victor Valdivia, a part-time Uber driver for about three months, said he leased his car with the expectation that rates would remain close to where they began.

“It’s difficult to make ends meet,” he said. “They’re messing with our livelihoods.”

Uber said its pricing varies from city to city, and the drop in price and the rise in per-passenger fees was designed to stimulate business in response to a January downturn.

“Even with that (fee) increase, we expect driver earnings to be above what they were in December, which was the peak,” said Nairi Hourdajian, Uber’s head of global communications.

Drivers say the drop in price has more to do with competition from nemesis Lyft. That company’s drivers are distinctive for the magnetic pink mustache that is affixed to the front of its cars.

The Uber grievances have been gathered into a national class-action lawsuit. Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer who filed the suit, said the company’s claim that drivers make $25 an hour is questionable. She said she has company documents that prove Uber split built-in gratuities with drivers, which is illegal under California law. Liss-Riordan is seeking more drivers to join the suit.

Uber denied that its service has a built-in gratuity. It declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Liss-Riordan said she also will argue that the drivers should be classified as employees, which would raise operating costs for Uber.

Meanwhile, Chung, a single father, said the fear of bad ratings by riders and the falling pay are causing him to survive paycheck to paycheck.

“I truly believe I’ll be fired over this, and it’ll make my life a pain,” Chung said. “But whatever. I’ll go work for Lyft.”

Contact the writer: wdurso@losangelesregister.com or 562-453-7332