So-called ‘ridesharing’
Drivers
Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.
I have already explained that with the abuse I endure as an Uber driver and with Uber pay cuts—I have no explanation for Engadget’s claim that median driver pay has gone up, even if not enough to match rising fares,[1] because in Pittsburgh, it has gone down,[2] I believe by about 40 percent, and a comparison between what passengers say they are paying and the amounts I am being paid are consistently in the 60 percent-plus range—I am no longer in a tenable situation.[3] Now, in all the years I have been driving people around, first as an airport shuttle driver, then as a taxi driver, now as an Uber and Lyft driver, I have never had a Valentine’s Day as bad as the one I have just had. Never.
At the end of this month, I need to inform my landlord as to whether I will be renewing my lease for another year. In order to answer that question intelligently, my life needs to make some kind of sense.
That means, one way or another, the poverty, the abuse, the torment, the insult I have endured will end.
Because one thing that’s a whole lot more insane than ending it is continuing to endure it.
Jon Fingas, “Uber and Lyft driver pay isn’t keeping up with soaring fares, study says,” Engadget, February 14, 2023,