How quickly we accepted that it’s normal to pay someone to go get our groceries for us. To drive us around when public transportation is available. To run errands for us. To bring us fast food.
Covid capitalized on it.
People don’t want to give up that luxury now that they’ve had it. Even if it makes things cost 2x-3x as much.
Even when we all know its exploitive labor.
It’s true delivery and driver services have been around for hundreds of years but now instead of companies with full time employees (with benefits) , the gig employee gets paid less while taking on risk that aren’t compensated by the employer (car accidents, gas, car repairs, injury or attacks).
Gig work is a much worse thing than maybe a lot of people realize. And it’s also making more people servants to others.
It’s moving full time employees with benefits and using company property to no benefits and using their own property that they have to pay for.
I honestly don’t see how people do this and in a way that is in the black.
Step one is to not live in or close to a major city or high cost of living area. Step two is to buy an old compact car with good mpg in the $600 range. The insurance will be dead cheap. Then you work, not in a city, but a heavily gentrified suburb. I would average a net (yes, including costs etc.) $30 an hour before I got too ill to do pretty much anything. I have some good days where I can get stuff done, but it takes me way long to do it.
Around me its impossible to get a car that runs for under a grand at this point. I mean its been that way for awhile really.
If you’re the kind of person who holds onto your car for 10 years, The accelerated maintenance and fees don’t burn quite as hot. you get your oil change to any way you get your tires changed anyway, they just don’t see it coming out of their pocket the same way the tires wore out because the tires wore out, not because you drove the piss out of it.
They’re making less they just don’t see it happening.
The only way these platforms hold together is through VC funding and tipping. They’ll all inevitably enshittify more and more, get bought out and eventually absorbed by some megacorp that just wants data to train AI on or some shit. Many such cases.
no I mean the people doing the work. I realize that initiailly thye places ran at such a loss it was kinda doable. especially if it was just supplement. Now though it seems like people do it as a main thing and with the wear and tear on the vehicle it just seems like its a loss long term. Its like the more you do it the less it should return. Once there is a car repair or such.
Yeah I wasn’t sure if you meant for the workers, the platforms or the consumers, haha. But, yeah, tips are the only thing that makes it viable for drivers, I think any delivery without a tip is at best break-even, but they need to accept any delivery they’re offered to keep their ratings up high and so on. Cyclists can probably make more too, at the cost of higher risks of getting hit by a car…
There’s a reason why these jobs are so popular with people who might not be able to find other jobs for various reasons.
Just to tag onto this, you should use the option to add the tip after the delivery. If you don’t then the app will just subsidize themselves with your tip.
For example each delivery is an offer to the delivery driver so a delivery will be 10 dollars. Well if you tipped 8 dollars on that order then the service will pay you 2 dollars and the 8 dollar tip will be the rest. But if you start by tipping zero then the service will pay ten dollars for the delivery and then if you add the tip the gig worker will get 18 dollars for the order.
problem with cycling is now you have what is made goes over a longer period lowering any rate manageable. I think it wins if the density is high enough where you can be as fast or faster than the cars.