Uber lost $5.24 billion in the second quarter this year and seems to have no clear path to profitability. But even that loss is understated, because a substantial part of the expense is not included in Uber’s income statement and is instead pushed onto drivers: the wear and tear the job puts on their cars. …
Category Archives: Drivers
Postmates CEO’s Labor Values Aren’t as Progressive as They Seem
On Thursday, Postmates co-founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann published an op-ed on CNN titled “Gig workers deserve a better deal than we have given them” calling for a “new deal” that brings together workers and companies across the gig economy “for the future of work.” In the op-ed, Lehmann writes that on-demand delivery and transportation …
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DoorDash Tip Suit Is Just Another Chapter In The Gig Economy’s Crummy History
A new class-action lawsuit addresses one of numerous long-running and embarrassing problems among gig-economy companies: in this case, tip skimming. Just days after food-delivery platform DoorDash faced significant backlash in light of a New York Times reporter’s piece about his time as a ‘Dasher,’ a class-action suit was filed in Brooklyn this week about that very issue. The suit was filed in …
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Food delivery company Waitr adds tamper-resistant bags to protect your food
Now you can know if your delivery worker is taste-testing your food order. That’s the purpose of new sealed bags from local restaurant delivery service Waitr. Seals added on restaurant to-go packaging will keep delivery workers and others honest; if the seal (a sticker with the Waitr logo, as seen up top) is broken, it’s a …
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DoorDash’s quest for convenience comes at a cost
For food delivery apps, reports of withholding tips and domain squatting are just the tip of a very nefarious iceberg. On Wednesday night, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu announced that the company will begin doling out tips in full and in addition to its delivery workers’ wages. Earlier this year it was found the company would …
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Will DoorDash’s Pain Generate Big Gains for Grubhub?
DoorDash overtook Grubhub (NYSE:GRUB) as America’s top third-party food delivery platform in May according to research firm Second Measure. The gap widened slightly in June, with DoorDash claiming 33.8% of the market compared to Grubhub’s 32.7% share. DoorDash’s growth is fueled by its dominance of several major urban areas, including Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Francisco. …
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Starbucks and UberEats are taking their delivery program nationwide
… Starbucks Delivers is a service from Starbucks announced Tuesday that does what it sounds like — it delivers Starbucks coffee. Created by the Seattle-based coffee megacorp in exclusive partnership with UberEats, the service is set to launch across the US in 2020. … And because Starbucks is partnering with UberEats officially, approximately 95% of Starbucks’ menu items …
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DoorDash CEO announces that now your tips will go to delivery workers
Earlier this year, news reports exposed that not only did DoorDash (and others, like Instacart) sometimes lower its payout to delivery workers when customers tipped, its payment system didn’t make clear that this was happening. Last month it changed payouts to show how much of “Dashers” income came from the company vs. tips, but it still used customer tips to account …
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My Frantic Life as a Cab-Dodging, Tip-Chasing Food App Deliveryman
… The riders are the street-level manifestation of an overturned industry, as restaurants are forced to become e-commerce businesses, outsourcing delivery to the apps who outsource it to a fleet of freelancers. …At the dawn of the food-app era, back in 2016 or so, companies awash in venture capital paid fat wages with hourly guarantees and …
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Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann Says Gig Economy Has Wronged Workers
Unlike his fellow chief executive officers who rely on contract workers, Postmates’ Bastian Lehmann wants a push for improvement of workforce conditions. As workers’ demands for better pay and reasonable hours increase, the gig economy is under more scrutiny than ever. … “We need a comprehensive approach that ends this confusion and empowers gig workers without taking away their flexibility …
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