Gig economy blues

benfell

Gig economy (neoliberal wet dream)

‘Rideshare’ driving

The low pay[1] is bad enough. But the way a driver knows they’re being scammed is with an increasingly byzantine system of incentives:

Armed with troves of data and the quickly improving capabilities of machine learning, online platforms such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. use nudges to coordinate millions of independent workers and extract maximum productivity. This model let Uber scale quickly, with the force of a command-and-control structure, even while corporate framed its drivers as independent, self-directed, and entrepreneurial.[2]

These “nudges” ensure we never, ever, really know how much of any fare we’re actually getting and, by extension, how much the companies are actually taking:[3]

To many drivers, the flexibility of their contractor status is indeed a benefit, but many also describe an experience plagued by uncertainty and arbitrariness. The business model they participate in depends on an asymmetry of power and information: Typically, for example, they have to decide whether to accept a ride without knowing where the pickup or drop-off will be. Unable to assess how much money a trip will bring in, they’re at a disadvantage in the great labor-bidding scrum. “They call us independent workers, as if we have control over what goes on in the app,” says Anthony Arnold, who drives in Las Vegas. “Sure, you can make a bit of money, but it’s not going to be on your terms.”[4]

I am actually, occasionally but unpredictably, seeing origin and destination information on rides before I accept them. The trick is that the offers usually come in while I’m driving my previous passenger to their destination. The information appears in small print. I don’t have time, certainly not in Pittsburgh traffic, to study it fully before deciding whether or not to accept the order. Rather, I sometimes barely have time to attempt to see if the origin even makes sense—I declined one order because the origin appeared as I-376 and the Fort Pitt Tunnel, by no means a reasonable pickup location where one can stop to pick someone up.

And anybody who thinks they’re doing well as an Uber/Lyft driver is failing to account for their costs properly.[5] I don’t care if they think they’re clever enough to outsmart the artificial idiot running the app[6] or not. The numbers simply don’t come out.

Jackie Davalos and Drake Bennett, “Gamification Took Over the Gig Economy. Who’s Really Winning?” Bloomberg, May 27, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-27/how-uber-and-lyft-gamify-the-gig-economy

Bezzle

It’d be one thing if Uber and Lyft were creating all these abysmal jobs that, now, only the desperate accept,[7] but they still can’t even make money themselves.[8] A reckoning will come. The only question is how long it takes to get here,[9] how long they can stretch out that so-called “cash runway.”[10]

Preetika Rana and Emily Glazer, “Lyft to Pause Some Hiring and Trim Budgets, Citing Economic Slowdown,” Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyft-to-pause-hiring-and-reduce-budgets-to-reduce-costs-as-shares-plunge-amid-investor-concerns-11653426208

Laura Forman, “Tech’s Reckoning With Reality Is Still Half-Baked,” Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/techs-reckoning-with-reality-is-still-half-baked-11653476401

Brad Stone and Lizette Chapman, “The Tech Rout Isn’t Just Cyclical—It’s Well-Earned, and Overdue,” Bloomberg, May 26, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-26/meta-amazon-tesla-big-tech-s-stock-selloff-is-long-overdue

Aaron Gordon, “Uber and Lyft Are Out of Ideas, Jacking Up Prices in Desperation for Profit,” Vice, May 27, 2022, https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vmpb/uber-and-lyft-are-out-of-ideas-jacking-up-prices-in-desperation-for-profit

Preetika Rana, “Uber and Lyft’s New Road: Fewer Drivers, Thrifty Riders and Jittery Investors,” Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-and-lyfts-new-road-fewer-drivers-thrifty-riders-and-jittery-investors-11653651912

Jessica Bursztynsky, “Start-up investors are warning of dark days ahead as boom times are ‘unambiguously over,’” CNBC, May 28, 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/28/start-up-investors-issue-warnings-as-boom-times-unambiguously-over.html

  1. [1]Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon, “Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say,” Jalopnik, August 26, 2019, https://jalopnik.com/uber-and-lyft-take-a-lot-more-from-drivers-than-they-sa-1837450373; Alexa Noel, “Revised MIT Study Says Uber, Lyft Drivers Make About $8 or $10 per Hour,” Points Guy, March 8, 2018, https://thepointsguy.com/2018/03/revised-mit-study-says-uber-lyft-drivers-make-about-8-or-10-per-hour/; Kari Paul, “Uber drivers plan shutdown over ‘poverty wages’ as company goes public,” Guardian, April 25, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/24/uber-drivers-strike-ipo; Rida Qadri and Alexandra Mateescu, “Uber and Lyft: woo drivers with stable pay, not short-term honeypots,” Guardian, June 20, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/20/gig-economy-companies-uber-lyft-drivers-pandemic; Faiz Siddiqui, “You may be paying more for Uber, but drivers aren’t getting their cut of the fare hike,” Washington Post, June 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/09/uber-lyft-drivers-price-hike/↩
  2. [2]Jackie Davalos and Drake Bennett, “Gamification Took Over the Gig Economy. Who’s Really Winning?” Bloomberg, May 27, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-27/how-uber-and-lyft-gamify-the-gig-economy↩
  3. [3]Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon, “Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say,” Jalopnik, August 26, 2019, https://jalopnik.com/uber-and-lyft-take-a-lot-more-from-drivers-than-they-sa-1837450373; Rida Qadri and Alexandra Mateescu, “Uber and Lyft: woo drivers with stable pay, not short-term honeypots,” Guardian, June 20, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/20/gig-economy-companies-uber-lyft-drivers-pandemic; Faiz Siddiqui, “You may be paying more for Uber, but drivers aren’t getting their cut of the fare hike,” Washington Post, June 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/09/uber-lyft-drivers-price-hike/↩
  4. [4]Jackie Davalos and Drake Bennett, “Gamification Took Over the Gig Economy. Who’s Really Winning?” Bloomberg, May 27, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-27/how-uber-and-lyft-gamify-the-gig-economy↩
  5. [5]Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon, “Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say,” Jalopnik, August 26, 2019, https://jalopnik.com/uber-and-lyft-take-a-lot-more-from-drivers-than-they-sa-1837450373; Alexa Noel, “Revised MIT Study Says Uber, Lyft Drivers Make About $8 or $10 per Hour,” Points Guy, March 8, 2018, https://thepointsguy.com/2018/03/revised-mit-study-says-uber-lyft-drivers-make-about-8-or-10-per-hour/; Kari Paul, “Uber drivers plan shutdown over ‘poverty wages’ as company goes public,” Guardian, April 25, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/24/uber-drivers-strike-ipo; Faiz Siddiqui, “You may be paying more for Uber, but drivers aren’t getting their cut of the fare hike,” Washington Post, June 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/09/uber-lyft-drivers-price-hike/↩
  6. [6]Jackie Davalos and Drake Bennett, “Gamification Took Over the Gig Economy. Who’s Really Winning?” Bloomberg, May 27, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-05-27/how-uber-and-lyft-gamify-the-gig-economy↩
  7. [7]Laura Forman, “Uber and Lyft Need a Sharper Turn,” Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-and-lyft-need-a-sharper-turn-11618311794; Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon, “Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say,” Jalopnik, August 26, 2019, https://jalopnik.com/uber-and-lyft-take-a-lot-more-from-drivers-than-they-sa-1837450373; Mariella Moon, “Uber and Lyft rides are pricier due to a lack of drivers (and the waits are longer, too),” Engadget, June 1, 2021, https://www.engadget.com/uber-lyft-surge-pricing-lack-of-drivers-035835230.html; Alexa Noel, “Revised MIT Study Says Uber, Lyft Drivers Make About $8 or $10 per Hour,” Points Guy, March 8, 2018, https://thepointsguy.com/2018/03/revised-mit-study-says-uber-lyft-drivers-make-about-8-or-10-per-hour/; Edward Ongweso, Jr., “Uber and Lyft Can’t Find Drivers Because Gig Work Sucks,” Vice, July 8, 2021, https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kvej4/uber-and-lyft-cant-find-drivers-because-gig-work-sucks; Kari Paul, “Uber drivers plan shutdown over ‘poverty wages’ as company goes public,” Guardian, April 25, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/24/uber-drivers-strike-ipo; Kari Paul, “Uber and Lyft drivers to join day-long strike over working conditions,” Guardian, July 21, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/21/uber-lyft-drivers-strike-app-based-work-gig-economy; Faiz Siddiqui, “Where have all the Uber drivers gone?” Washington Post, May 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/07/uber-lyft-drivers/; Faiz Siddiqui, “Lyft built a brand on being the nice gig work app clad in pink. Its drivers paint a different picture,” Washington Post, September 21, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/21/lyft-driver-shortage/; Alissa Walker, “Why Your Uber Ride Is Suddenly Costing a Fortune,” New York, June 4, 2021, https://www.curbed.com/2021/06/uber-lyft-expensive-new-york-city.html↩
  8. [8]Aaron Gordon, “Uber and Lyft Are Out of Ideas, Jacking Up Prices in Desperation for Profit,” Vice, May 27, 2022, https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vmpb/uber-and-lyft-are-out-of-ideas-jacking-up-prices-in-desperation-for-profit; Hubert Horan, “Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Twenty-Nine: Despite Massive Price Increases Uber Losses Top $31 Billion,” Naked Capitalism, February 11, 2022, https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/hubert-horan-can-uber-ever-deliver-part-twenty-nine-despite-massive-price-increases-uber-losses-top-31-billion.html; Preetika Rana, “Uber and Lyft’s New Road: Fewer Drivers, Thrifty Riders and Jittery Investors,” Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-and-lyfts-new-road-fewer-drivers-thrifty-riders-and-jittery-investors-11653651912↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “This is not a business plan,” Not Housebroken, May 26, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/20/this-is-not-a-business-plan/↩
  10. [10]Jessica Bursztynsky, “Start-up investors are warning of dark days ahead as boom times are ‘unambiguously over,’” CNBC, May 28, 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/28/start-up-investors-issue-warnings-as-boom-times-unambiguously-over.html↩

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