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Uber, Lyft stock decimated as US aims to classify gig workers as staff

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

...and the flexibility.

I assume the people against gig workers being classed separately have never spoken to an uber driver. Quite a lot of them are on several platforms, not just one, and make a decent living. Some Uber drivers make £1,000+ a week with cleverly planned routes and platform hopping (some even carry their own insurance etc and will take private bookings with no platform at all). If you're smart you can make a lot of money as a gig working driver especially if you take the time to plan your routes and locations, acquire the appropriate licenses, insurance and so on. The risk with these platforms is that you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up sitting a round taking no fares, wasting fuel etc.

A good chunk (at least round my way) are former grocery delivery drivers (who are employees) and they switched because they earned considerably less money, had a shitty work life balance and wanted more control over where they drive and when they drive.

I suspect there is more to wanting gig workers classed as employees than meets the eye....the drivers don't want it...perhaps Uber, Lyft (or indeed some other gig platform) etc have been lobbying because they don't want their drivers working on more than one platform?

The risk to platforms providing gig work is that if they are no longer competitive on pay, the workers will just hop somewhere else immediately. No notice period, no warning, workers can just stop using the app immediately...just a mass exodus all at once. I'd imagine it's quite scary being Uber etc as you constantly have to be monitoring activity and making sure you are competitive all the god damned time!

Gig workers have a considerable amount of power and someone, somewhere high up doesn't like that.

I use Uber etc all the time and for the most part I can usually get a decent conversation out of most of the drivers...some of them are weirdos for sure, but quite a few of them are very savvy people and those people are very happy with the way they work / live. Obviously, most of my experience here is UK based, not US based so it could be a completely different situation over there...but here in the UK the benefits are clear. Sure, you can have days where you get no fares (or no advantageous fares) but that is what planning is for.

The last one I spoke to was a former Sainsbury's delivery driver...he was earning peanuts at Sainsbury's and was often doing 10 hour days and had to deal with a lot of abuse from customers (the drivers don't do the pick and pack, they have no control over the quality of the groceries you get) and he was a young bloke with a family and needed a better balance because he was hardly seeing his own kids. So he swapped to Uber (and other platforms) and started planning his routes. He starts the day at Luton airport (near where he lives) and aims to get a fare that leaves him somewhere near Heathrow (within 20 minutes), then he will take fares from Heathrow and aim to end up within 30 minutes of Gatwick with the aim of ending up somewhere in the East of Surrey (30 mins south of Heathrow) from there he will take a bunch of fares from people trying to get home after work, school etc then he will head back to Heathrow, then finally aim to be back in Luton. This approach reduces his fuel costs considerably (the platforms don't pay for your fuel) and ensures he is somewhere that has fares at an appropriate time of the day...he also keeps a close eye on the airport arrivals schedule so he knows when the airports will be busy and he knows when the best fares will be there to be collected. He is classed as an Uber XL so he is most interested in long haul flights with plenty of luggage (he gets more for an XL fare than a standard fare). Dude earns at best £1,500 a week, on average about £800 a week and typically works 4 days a week (total) around his life schedule and typically has around 2 months off (spread across the year) which means his total income is around £30k (not massive, but not terrible either) and he has tons of spare time to do other stuff (he does other work outside of "Ubering" as well, not sure what he earns there).

All this said, you have to wonder precisely who it is that wants to do away with gig working as it is, because right now if it's done right, it is extremely beneficial to the worker. If we look for the simple answer, it is businesses that want to employ people full time that are taking the biggest hit. Probably massive businesses like supermarkets etc...they can't compete for the same workers. Lower pay, less flexibility...they simply have no way to compete and they will never switch to a gig style setup because it would put them in constant competition with other firms for workers and they would have to significantly up their game on work conditions etc which would be expensive.

If gig workers were to be classed as employees then legally things get a lot murkier for the workers and it would be a lot more challenging to hop between platforms etc.

With work from home becoming the norm and employees demanding greater flexibility and so on, the "cost of living crisis", inflation etc massive businesses are going through a severe headache right now because they are losing staff hand over fist because large numbers of people want a better life, greater pay, better conditions etc.

Here in the UK there are loads of vacancies and not enough workers...for the first time in a long time, the employment market belongs to the employees not the employers. I would imagine a lot of employers out there don't like this at all and will do whatever it takes to shift the market back in their favour again.

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