If that were all that mattered, then sure. There are a dozen or so other considerations.

The thing is that when you go down the list of employee classifications, Uber looks in a worse off, not a better off, position.

Uber basically decides the interaction with the client. They place relatively strict conditions on how to deliver the service (can only use these kinds of cars, etc). Uber guides almost all parts of the service.

Another that doesn't get talked about a lot: This is Uber's main business. Uber is essentially a car-rental service. The fact that the drivers are providing the primary service of Uber is another potential indicator that the drivers are, in fact, employees.

The very flexible schedule + commission-based payments are more evidence of a contractor relationship, of couse.

The drivers also provide the cars (a necessary and quite substantial capital asset), and it's very easy for a driver to work for multiple ride-sharing companies at once. A driver could easily lose money by accepting rides that don't earn them enough to pay for gas and maintenance. (On the other hand, the laws around here don't allow a taxi driver to reject a hire based on the destination, which is why the price has a per-mile component.)

What are flexible working time companies?

You don't have set hours.

In my experience (as a software engineer) most companies take a hybrid approach, where they define a few core hours a day when you are supposed to be working (to assure that everyone is in at the same time for at least part of the day), but let you decide when to put in the majority of your hours.

Which is the basis of all salaried jobs ie you don't have fixed hours of work

A salaried structure is not the same thing as unset hours. This is a pretty standard misconception of people new to the workforce.

It is in the UK and my last contract it explicity said "no fixed hours of work".

You can't be unprofessional about it and take the piss an not get sacked for cause but you cant micro mange and try and fire some one for being 5 mins late.

my guess is most (by far) salaried jobs are not flex time. certainly flex hours is not the basis of all salaried jobs.

to pick a job at random: teachers are salaried. they certainly have fixed working hours.

That's picking a rather specialised nich career which doesn't prove the point.

I guess the parent meant come in between 8-10 leave 8hrs later?

Or "As long as you've clocked 40 hours in a week, we don't care when".

Yes, the Reuters article deeply mischaracteried the actual ruling, sadly.

That requirement is quite common in the "branded chauffeur" space though... Take the drivers that Emirates send when you fly business - They're never employed by Emirates (either employees or subcontractors of the cab company that has the Emirates deal for that airport), and yet the requirements are very strict: Black E or S class, less than 3 years old, magazines and water bottles etc.