VI: Side Hustlin’ in the Gig Economy
Denise Mast, Uber driver, April 2018
What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?
Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Uber is a vile company. With a culture of harassment, a history of shady and outright illegal practices, and no sign of profitability despite meteoric growth, they are the face of capitalism at its worst. They are Silicon Valley’s take on Enron, except instead of going down in flames, they are shaking off one scandal after another. Uber is also the poster boy for the so-called sharing economy. Or more accurately, the gig economy: because the only thing shared is responsibility — by Uber, with drivers — and profits — by drivers, with Uber.
Pushing people to unregulated work with no protections under the guise of offering them freedom and flexibility sounds like a scheme concocted by the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia but it’s real and it’s a booming business. Only in the US, 34% of workers are in the gig economy and the numbers are growing. But, just like with sex work, it would be foolish to assume we know what’s best for workers without including them in the discussion. So I sought out an Uber driver that wanted to speak about their situation. Denise Mast from Denver answered my questions about driving for Uber and to my surprise, the picture she paints isn’t as bleak as I was expecting — though not without caveats.
Wojtek Borowicz: Is Uber a side gig or your main job?
Denise Mast: It’s a side gig. I have a full-time job. I started driving for Uber about two and a half years ago, after I moved to Denver. I didn’t know anybody here, I didn’t know the geography, and I also worked from home. I realized that I could drive for Uber and get paid to discover the city. I also always loved to drive so for me it was a win-win.
I started to drive on weekend evenings. There’s always a lot of sporting events, music, art, so I knew it would be busy and it just became so entertaining that even after I really understood my way around Denver, I kept doing it. It’s just fun.
What’s your day job?
My full-time job is with a company called Spartan Race. It’s an obstacle course racing company and I’m the quality manager for the international races. I work from home but I travel a lot. The nice thing about Uber is that I can drive in my spare time. If I want to go out and drive for a couple of hours, I do.
Two years in, do you still find it as entertaining as you used to?
Yes. There are times when I get tired roaming and I’m thinking, I’m not into it, I’m gonna go home. But if it’s busy, it’s fun. People are a lot of fun, and people in Denver are incredibly well-behaved and respectful and I never had a bad incident. People would ask if I feel safe as a female. Absolutely. Some cities have sketchy neighbourhoods, Denver doesn’t really. It’s all nice and I don’t have any safety issues. And if it’s slow and there’s not much happening, I just turn off and go home.
Tell me about your best experiences as a driver.
Many more college students that were supposed to be in my car legally. We just had a big old singalong with some Sheryl Crow song. They were so fun and animated, they invited me to the party they were going to, though I did not go. But probably my best story is from my very first fare. I’ve been driving for Uber for less than 5 minutes at that point, I had four people in the car and they were all drunk. It was still daylight and they were giving me directions. They said make a left turn here while I was on the right lane, so I crossed over and the police pulled me over. They rolled down my window and asked me to get out of the car because it smelled of alcohol so bad. The people inside the car were cheering my name, chanting, De-nise, De-nise, De-nise! and the police were nice. They just said Okay, you’re not drunk, but don’t listen to your drunk passengers.
If you’re gonna drive for Uber, Lyft, or any of the ride-sharing apps, you kind of need to expect this sort of stuff. You engage the customer. And driving on weekend nights, I know there’s going to be a lot of drunk people. If it’s college students, just have fun with them. Go out there and have a good time.
Would you say this social aspect, engaging the customer rather than just getting them from point A to B, is an important part of driving?
In a lot of cases, yes. But you can easily gauge if someone wants to talk. I often start by saying, Hey, how was your night? and sometimes people would just say, Good and that’s it. I let them take it from there. If they want to engage with me then they go on.
Did you have any bad experiences?
Nothing horrific but I get hit on by men a lot. Sometimes they don’t say anything, you’re not even talking, until you get to the destination and they ask, Do you want to come up?
I have this worst-best story. It was about 2:30 in the morning, I picked a guy up from a bar. It was a short and easy ride. He was very animated and we were talking, joking around, and just having good fun. He asked me to stop by a convenience store. I did and he comes out a minute later and asks to just drive around. I said I want to go home after I drop him off and he’s like No! Let’s park somewhere and talk. Didn’t you see what I just bought? I bought condoms.
I said to him, Come on. You’ve been in my car for less than 7 minutes and you think I want to have sex with you?
And he said, I thought we were getting along really well and I’m not usually wrong about these things.
I replied, Um…I bet you are.
Then he asked me to drive him to a pizza place and offered to buy me a slice. And I was like, You know what? Okay, I could use some pizza and you’re buying.
Is driving for Uber a sustainable way of life? I know it’s a side gig for you but can you imagine going full-time?
It would be really difficult. I don’t see how people make ends meet that way. Payments on your vehicle, gas, maintenance, plus regular living expenses. You’d need to put in at least 14-hour days, 7 days a week. I don’t understand why anybody would do this full-time. Maybe between jobs. I see on the forums that if you have a nicer car, a town car, an SUV or a luxury car — those types of vehicles seem to do better.
Will you drive more in the future?
Probably about the same. I do Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. In Denver, all of our stadiums and concert venues are centrally located and I live right in the middle of that. So if there’s a concert at the Pepsi Center, I can sit at my kitchen table two blocks away, turn on the app and — bingo! — get a fare and be over there in a couple of minutes. I can make $80 bucks in an hour and go home. It’s easy for me but if you do this full-time, it gets frustrating. Sometimes you’re just doing a lot of sitting around during the day and nothing happens.
What about the paperwork? Is it a lot of hassle?
Not really. Businesses like Uber do a decent job on the backend, compiling your information from the year. They send me a statement that says how much I made during the year. Of course when you receive it, it’s your responsibility to work that out when you do your taxes. For me it’s a pretty easy thing. And I can take all the deductions for my mileage and with Uber I end up owing pretty much nothing. That’s something the Uber drivers talk about on the forums: what’s the most advantageous way to do your taxes? We exchange a lot of ideas there. But I don’t think it’s difficult at all.
Is there any sense of community among Uber drivers? Do you organize and join forces when you want to discuss something with the company?
You might see other Uber drivers and wave at them but it isn’t a community that comes together physically. There’s more support online. On social media and specifically on Facebook there are several forums for Uber drivers. There are also women driving communities online. In terms of lobbying for better wages and better conditions, there are a select few who are trying to implement changes with the corporate side of Uber but the social media channels are mostly just a way to connect. I wouldn’t say people are getting together or organizing or anything like that. Sometimes it’s just a place to vent.
Speaking of corporate — do you follow the news about Uber? They sure had a tumultuous couple of years. What do you make of all that mess: the harassment claims, firing the CEO, Google lawsuit, misleading regulators, and so on?
Thanks to the social media forums for drivers, I hear about these things before they even hit the news. Somebody will find it and post it immediately. So you hear the news like you said: the CEO being fired or the big stories from last year, or that they were going to add tipping to the app which has been a big point of contention.
After the CEO was fired, Uber made a big effort with the drivers to improve the conditions. This was the big feedback they received. They went on this 3 or 4 months-long test, like hey we’re gonna do everything we can to help the drivers. It was nice. The app changed for the better. It became much more friendly to the drivers.
I don’t see how people make ends meet that way. Payments on your vehicle, gas, maintenance, plus regular living expenses. You’d need to put in at least 14-hour days, 7 days a week. I don’t understand why anybody would do this full-time.
So following this difficult period for the company, their relationship with the drivers is improving?
Yes. I can’t speak for everybody but I think a lot of drivers noted that efforts are being made.
Do you yourself rely on services of the so-called shared economy: Uber, TaskRabbit, and such?
I travel a lot so I use Uber globally. I just came back from a trip in Boston and I used to Uber all over.
Do you think the model of work offered by Uber will become dominant? Is it sustainable?
I think it’s sustainable but I don’t know if it will be dominant. For me, it’s good to have a side hustle. I actually have two. I’m a dog-sitter for Rover.com. As we’re having this interview, I’m making money watching somebody else’s dog. And I’m working from home. These kind of little side jobs are great for people because they provide flexibility and they’re good for consumers. For example for dog sitting, I can have somebody by tomorrow. I can go online and find a person who’s insured and ready to go. The same with Uber.
It’s going to knock out some of the legacy businesses but I don’t see people leaving the more traditional jobs for this. I don’t think it will become dominant. But it is a great way to supplement what you’re currently doing.
