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Transportation

Uber and Lyft Drivers Weigh Risk of Safety Against Paycheck (bloomberg.com) 72

Many Lyft and Uber drivers have seen a bump in business from the spreading coronavirus, but they're also weighing the risks of staying safe versus continuing to earn a paycheck. From a report: A study published Friday shows that more than half of ride-hailing drivers said they were now "very concerned" about reduced earnings as a result of the virus and 41% said they've modified their driving strategy as a result. These changes include reducing hours, refusing airport rides and halting driving entirely. The survey of 871 drivers in the U.S. from March 1 to March 4 compared data with similar four-day periods in 2020 and was conducted by driver productivity app Gridwise. "They are doing what they have to do to continue earning," said Brandon Sellers, a product growth specialist at the Pittsburgh-based startup. About one-third of drivers are now wiping down their cars with disinfectant after every ride, using hand sanitizer and wearing a mask, he said. "The data is telling us that drivers are afraid."
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Uber and Lyft Drivers Weigh Risk of Safety Against Paycheck

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  • by I kan Spl ( 614759 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @01:19AM (#59805614)

    So Uber and Lyft drivers have the same problem as everyone else in every industry that works with the public?

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @01:48AM (#59805652)

      So Uber and Lyft drivers have the same problem as everyone else in every industry that works with the public?

      No. They are closer to their customers, are in close proximity for a longer period, can't step away from a customer that is sneezing and coughing, and often serve international visitors that are more likely to be infected.

      • by Kjella ( 173770 )

        Particularly the latter, at least the initial wave is flying in. Here in Norway 86/136 infected so far have been travelling to Italy. Many of them went to skiing resorts outside the areas of active spread, so they suspect many were infected at or in connection with going to the airport. And that's often when people have a luggage and need a taxi, they're definitively on the front lines. And if the virus first gets one driver infected, that person becomes a reservoir of freshly infected - thus not showing an

      • by KixWooder ( 5232441 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @07:31AM (#59805892)
        I work in clinical healthcare. I won't be able to step away any time I want and we are already having problems getting PPE.
        • Well nobody would doubt healthcare workers are on the front lines.

          Drivers do have something additional to worry about, reduced income.

          I think that is the central dynamic of Coronavirus - safety vs. cost. It's deadly, but not super-duper-deadly, so how much will each nation tank its economy to slow or stop the spread?

          South Korea has done a lot, and seems to be managing to constrain the outbreak, albeit at huge cost. USA is doing more or less nothing. I guess we'll find out what happens.

          • Healthcare workers also have to worry about reduced income. Many healthcare workers are poorly paid and rely on extra shifts to pay their family's bills, especially single parents whose children may be sent home from schools during this viral issue.

          • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

            Safety versus cost is a lie. This is a readily transmissible infection, there is no avoiding getting the infection unless you are naturally resistant, you will get it, it us just a matter of when. All the authorities are doing is trying to slow the rate of infection so they are more readily able to handle the consequence. As an uber or taxi driver, you will get the infection, just early and you will recover (most likely by a long shot) or you will die (the genetic die roll, suck it up). So it is not safety

            • All the authorities are doing is trying to slow the rate of infection so they are more readily able to handle the consequence

              You downplay the importance of this? If medical resources are swamped and people go without care, a lot more will die.

              I agree the genie isn't going back into the bottle.

        • So what we need is an app, where you can sign up and do medicine on your own time, and decide which contracts for short-term medical care you wish to provide! You have to provide your own equipment - of course - but you'll get people scheduling you all the time. We'll call it Meduber!
          • So what we need is an app, where you can sign up and do medicine on your own time, and decide which contracts for short-term medical care you wish to provide! You have to provide your own equipment - of course - but you'll get people scheduling you all the time. We'll call it Meduber!

            They already have this for health care aides. No reason someone could not make one for doctors if there was demand for some hourly gigs.

            https://www.everythingzoomer.c... [everythingzoomer.com]

      • Then how are they any different than Taxi drivers? Well, other than Uber drivers being contractors and deciding whether or not they want to drive as opposed to being employees who can be fired if they don't.
    • by Admiral Krunch ( 6177530 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @02:11AM (#59805678)

      So Uber and Lyft drivers have the same problem as everyone else in every industry that works with the public?

      No. They can't be fired for not showing up to work for a day.

      • by Kjella ( 173770 )

        No. They can't be fired for not showing up to work for a day.

        I don't know if Uber does any of that but it's really easy to tilt the tables where drivers lose some kind of bonus streak if they don't show up. Online games do this all the time to keep people hooked, I don't know it'd be acceptable in a work environment but I wouldn't put it past Uber to try...

        • If you _lease_ a car through Lyft's lease program, they cancel the lease if you drive fewer than 20 trips a week. I just reviewed this with a young person who hadn't been able to find work in their field, spent a week trying to do job interviews and refusing to drive in bad weather, and lost their lease.

    • The difference is that the majority of Uber and Lyft drivers are over the age of 80?
    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Sure, but name another industry that deals with the public that gets *more* business in a situation like this. They're getting people who could normally take transit but don't want to ride on a crowded bus or subway car.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AmazingRuss ( 555076 )
      Don't even need to work with the pubic, if you work for one of the dipshit tech companies that think cramming 200 people in a room creates synergy.

  • Just carry around a barrel of bleach in the trunk, and dunk each fare for 30 seconds before allowing them into your car.

  • I stopped driving for them when those gunphobic liberal idiots who live in a fantasy world in their gated communities told me I can't carry a concealed gun in MY OWN DAMN CAR while driving for them. Fuck that.
    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @06:11AM (#59805832)

      Surely as a contractor and not an employee you could have argued against that rule in your contract negotiation, right? So you have no one to blame but yourself.

      • In theory, perhaps? But in practice, the insurance provided by Uber and Lyft could certainly deny the very helpful coverage if the driver is armed. So many personal weapons are stolen or misused, it's an understandable rule by a company for their contractors or employees on the job.

      • Surely as a contractor and not an employee you could have argued against that rule in your contract negotiation, right? So you have no one to blame but yourself.

        That's really not necessary.

        Carrying a weapon while driving for Uber is kinda like posting, "Fuck you, Zuckerberg!" on Facebook.

        The worst that can happen is that you get banned from either platform.

        There's no legal repercussions.

    • I stopped driving for them when those gunphobic liberal idiots who live in a fantasy world in their gated communities told me I can't carry a concealed gun in MY OWN DAMN CAR while driving for them. Fuck that.

      From the headline, I was thinking that when driving for them you're always taking a risk for a paycheck. Corona virus or not.

    • Because if someone intends to rob you they'll wait while you pull out your gun, remove the safety, chamber a round, and then aim it at them.

      The person sits in your back seat. By the time they pull out their gun and point it at your head it's all over. I dare say not even you would be stupid enough to try and reach for your gun at that point.

      Having a gun only works if you have time to use it.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        He has a gun, so he's FREE
        The world is ending. Let him have his dream.
      • I am guessing you do not carry a gun.

        If you did, you would probably k ow that most people who do already have a round chambered and do not carry it with the safety on, if it even has a safety.

      • Because if someone intends to rob you they'll wait while you pull out your gun, remove the safety, chamber a round, and then aim it at them.

        The person sits in your back seat. By the time they pull out their gun and point it at your head it's all over. I dare say not even you would be stupid enough to try and reach for your gun at that point.

        Having a gun only works if you have time to use it.

        We who are schooled in self-defense (like, all License To Carry in Texas), do not carry weapons with a safety.

        Also, we load a magazine, chamber a round, pull the mag and put another round in.

        It's called, "one in the pipe."

        Like you said, there's no time to flip a safety and rack a round, and people become very confused in a panic.

        The process for defense goes like this: Pull, point, and shoot.

      • Because if someone intends to rob you they'll wait while you pull out your gun, remove the safety, chamber a round, and then aim it at them.

        Most people who carry concealed carry in the same state police in the USA carry it - round chambered. So eliminate step 3 entirely, as it was chambered back at the house or whatever. The Glock, #1 police gun in the USA, doesn't even have a manual safety to remove, so remove step 2 as well for "most" guns, and even then, disengaging the safety can be done WHILE in the process of bringing it to target with some practice.

        Generally speaking, criminals aren't smooth operators either - you can often see while t

  • They handle disgusting cash with all sorts of viruses, influenza included, at least Uber is cash-less.

    • They handle disgusting cash with all sorts of viruses, influenza included, at least Uber is cash-less.

      Hold on there pal. The modern left wing agenda is to only attack Uber and Lyft, not anyone working for the highly esteemed taxis business.

  • by mark_reh ( 2015546 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @08:25AM (#59805924) Journal

    Unless you work by yourself, never interact with others, and never touch anything other people have touched, you're always at risk of picking up some sort of virus. BFD.

    Every health care worker on the planet faces increased risk because they tend to deal with people who are known to be sick.

    I'm a dentist and work exclusively on patients who are HIV positive. I am exposed to blood and saliva every day. My risk of infection with HIV and other comorbidities is small, but not zero. If I was worried about it I couldn't do my job, and believe me, it's a job that needs to be done.

  • by sasparillascott ( 1267058 ) on Saturday March 07, 2020 @09:26AM (#59806020)
    Seems like we're only in the opening inning of this. Those independent contractors that can, will stop driving and fewer and fewer new people will come into the pipeline to be "new drivers".

    With Lyft and Uber's cash burn rate could see this being very troublesome for those companies.
  • Uber and Lyft drivers are now beginning to learn why taxi cabs normally have a bullet proof partitions between the front and back seats.

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