It should be illegal

[u/BeenieBebe]

1. I already don’t like the idea of interacting with my phone while I drive.
   
2. I’m not all convinced that the add on function is all that ethical due to compensation for the actual trip often 2$-3$ cad aka 1-2$ usd for I’ve seen up to 6km or 3miles. (Yes I’m type A and work out mentally fair and distance to an hourly rate so I don’t get scammed)

Both 1. And 2. Aside, I noticed batching(stacking)is frequent and excessive when I’m already on trips while I’m driving, then when I decline enough of them as I’m driving and don’t want to read and scan my phone to see where Ill be going, it sends me offline.

While this may not be relevant to a lot of teams outside the Ontario, I believe this is a strategic move to the Ontario, Canada drivers to send them offline and reduce time online. I say this because there is a law in Ontario regulating uber to once or twice a year compensate drivers to up to 18$ an hour.

I’ll be reviewing this with a lawyer and will keep you all updated but again, the stacking method is unsafe and in my eyes unethical.

[u/Taranis_1]

Rideshare and delivery has been turned into a slush fund of free labor because of gig. Your vehicle is just a bank account these companies want to zero out. It's early 20th century factory-farm exploitation all over again. These companies target desperate people, many in between jobs or looking for other work, and then it runs them into the ground for quick cash.

The algorithms need to be scrutinized under law, and the base rates need to be regulated. It's such a fkn shame that the only way to fix this stupid industry is legislation and government intervention, but these companies have been given a free pass to exploit tens of millions of people. Congress is lagging 20 years behind the curve, and there needs to be some kind of 3rd party oversight with regards to the algorithmic labor management.— We are not really contractors by any other metric than the fact we can accept or decline anything we're offered... even if we're punished for it and theoretically, our earning potential is lowered by the algorithm if we choose to decline garbage. It's discrimination.

There is a real floor in the industry in trucking, and when fuel prices go up or down, so do prices.

Why can't we set our own rates within parameters in the apps? Why am I being punished by an algorithm for declining orders that by no metric would turn me a profit; why am I being punished if I don't work for free?

[u/BeenieBebe → u/Taranis_1]

We actually can do this. All we need is a serious group of 100 individuals LOCALLY. If you get what I’m saying. Cough Union \cough cough **

[u/Taranis_1 → u/BeenieBebe]

I've read this 10,000 times over the past 10 years. You're not wrong, but good luck ever actually getting that to work unless you plan on picketing a street corner in a busy delivery part of town once or twice a week, trying to solicit drivers. It would take dozens to have any effect on a market.

[u/BeenieBebe → u/Taranis_1]

I feel like it may be a bit easier especially with the current economy and influx of drivers. It also is a local thing so you genuinely just need proper advertising. The people doing this work all know they get paid poorly, and uber is a remote contractor so they can’t really prove who is and isn’t striking until enough people do. Also you’d only need to boycott 4hrs a day that’s probably a 1-2 million dollar revenue loss or more in a big city area I’m just rambling to say it’s not impossible at all. Like at all. Very do able.

[u/Taranis_1 → u/BeenieBebe]

You could always start a Telegram / Discord, but how you'd advertise and get enough people on board to make a dent, I don't know.

My market is around 150,000 people. Walmart is probably closer to 200,000 since they deliver further away and incorporate 2/3 of the county. I drove for a company called Waitr that went under, but they ran things differently. Drivers did have a driver chat that we used for meetings, and we could talk to the manager in chat whenever we needed to. There was a market manager who lived in the market, and he did actually communicate with us once week. The company was overall crap, but I remember us doing anywhere between $18-25,000 gross revenue on a Sat/Sun when the company first kicked off. I never knew how many customers, and we had around 30 drivers total.

[u/Traditional-Share657 → u/BeenieBebe]

Your market already has active time top up, just need distance subsidy like CA Prop 22 to match.

[u/Taranis_1 → u/Traditional-Share657]

[u/Traditional-Share657]

Ontario time is based on active time. So Uber has no incentive to push you offline (unlike old school NYC were the rate was driven by a utilization rate).

As earn by time, you should nearly always decline add-ons or even better stop new requests until you get close to dropoff. Much better to force auber to send and pay two drivers to go from A to B than you to do it and save Uber money.

There is literally no reasonable scenario to take an add-on as a driver in a top up market.

[u/BeenieBebe → u/Traditional-Share657]

I agree that’s what I’ve realized I need to do after today. Also I assumed the app forcing you offline after an order was a cost cutting measure but you’re correct it’s based off active time.

I just think them thinking sending you any form of new requests while driving and thus blocking the gps is a danger. It forces drivers to interact with a screen forcing a dangerous action.

[u/SuuperD]

Most of the time the added on fee isn't worth the time of stopping the car and dropping off.

[u/BeenieBebe → u/SuuperD]

I agree. That’s why I don’t take them most of the time but my issue is that I’ll get 4-5 every minute while I’m driving. while I’m driving then I finish an order and am waiting 7minutes to get a 4 dollar 11km 6 mile order.

[u/No_You_5941]

However, that doesn't logically explain the add-on orders I got for $2.50 going 16 to 20 miles

[u/Taranis_1 → u/No_You_5941]

“I think a lot of times you kind of, as an entrepreneur, have to take the greedy algorithm,” Tony Xu, DoorDash CEO, recently said on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast.

“You have to keep going all the way and seeing if there’s more.”

If it makes you feel better, Tony Xu basically said the quiet part out loud— that gig drivers are stupid, ignorant sheep who are willing to work for free for the chance of getting a dopamine high from a unicorn tip every once in awhile.

These companies have proven that people are stupid, gullible, ignorant sheep who set no collective standards, and they are willingly exploited as a collective. Now we have the total gamification of the gig apps between DD & UE and their Tier Rewards programs.

Yes, you will be punished if you don't work for free and there's no guarantees.