• Squizzy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      That isnt the point. Also is the US famously lacking in social safety nets and appropriate methods of bettering yourself are generally paywalled? So an unemployed person with no in come hs very little choice in getting work and have to take what they can.

      Boot licker.

  • hark@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    This must be that innovation which is making the world a better place that these tech parasites keep gushing about.

  • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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    4 days ago

    For drivers, the results are unpredictable and too often unfair. Data obtained by the Star shows Uber Eats’ platform can offer two food couriers different wages for the exact same trip.

    Labour advocates charge that the app collects data on driver behaviour and can use it to decide who it can pay at a lower rate, allowing the company to pocket the difference and boost its revenue. This concept is widely referred to as algorithmic wage discrimination.

    Wild

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      3 days ago

      It shouldn’t be a massive surprise. The whole platform exists as a way to circumvent minimum wage laws for drivers while taking a massive slice of restaurant profits.

      No hygiene inspections either, half the places listed aren’t even restaurants or takeaways, it’s just in somebody’s house…

    • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Par for the course based on Uber’s history. I stopped using them in lieu of a local/community app…which is honestly absolute garbage, but it is essentially completely pass-through and free for my local area restaurants to use.

      • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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        4 days ago

        I maintain that it would be relatively simple to create an open source version of an app/protocol like this that serves people’s needs for this exact use case, and if it were designed for any community to use, it could be essentially free as you say and high quality, and be a single point of service for everyone.

        If this were done right it could put all these thin platforms out of business and allow delivery drivers to establish fair terms for themselves.

        This would be a really good fit for federation I think.

          • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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            3 days ago

            I’m a developer too, and I appreciate the offer very much, but I’m not really in a situation where I could work on something like this. It’s just an idea though, anyone could run with it.

  • gearheart@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    I hear the smallest violin Everytime I hear about UberEATS executive complain about the company not being profitable.

    I know GrubHub is bad too but I typically only pay a small fee of 3$ for their service and a tip of 20% to the driver.

    Yet UberEATS usually includes a $10-15 UberEATS fee which the employee sees none of. Yet “oh no UberEATS is not profitable, oh no my 3rd yacht isn’t big enough”

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I only use eats if there’s a solid promo, and then I pick up the food myself. They don’t get the fee, I don’t have to tip, and I get the deal. A lot of time the price per item is cheaper on pickup too. Their fees are absolutely ridiculous, and they are just a middleman. They for sure are losing money on me.

  • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I feel like you gotta go out of your way to make so little money doing this. If they actually did it correctly there would be no article to write. Not saying they would get rich but there’s no way they did this honestly.

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I delivered pizza from high school through college. And now I own 2 business that we use third party delivery at. I can assure you literally no one makes this little on these apps even the people who are illegals and doing profit sharing with people with legal accounts make more.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Many of the food couriers I worked alongside were young international students struggling to earn an income while they make their way through school. Others were refugees or undocumented workers, navigating precarious lives.

    I honestly wonder if pretty much all of the surge in illegal immigration over the last 5 or 6 years comes down to Uber Eats.

    • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Given you need proof of residence, proof of registration and insurance, and a valid driver’s license (and valid itn or SSN) to do it, the article writer is either entirely making that part up, or the far right is correct in the absolute ridiculously improbably widespread unreported, unnoticed identity theft required for that to work.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    So how many lemmy users are going to stop using food delivery to avoid being complicit? Especially asking if you refused to vote for Kamala Harris because of Gaza - or you can rant about how it’s “not the same thing” lol.

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      This is… a weird gotcha. “You claim to be aginast murder, but sometimes you like to order Taco Bell! Checkmate, progressives!”

      I personally voted for Harris despite being in California, but I can’t afford doordash for going out. It’s often:

      • Meal Price (often but not always extra charges because fuck you, they can)
      • Service fees
      • Driver fees
      • Tip to get someone to deliver in my rural area

      Meanwhile I can often walk to there and put in my order in the same amount of time. It’s often even cheaper to take the bus someplace, then take the bus back. Doordash makes more sense in an urban area, but I don’t live in one. And when I am in one, I’m often with a friend who knows how to drive.

    • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I live in California where we attempted to pass a law that would force these companies to hire their drivers as employees. Every gig worker i know bought the corpo propaganda and voted against it. That was when I realized exactly how much of an education and media literacy problem we have in this country.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        My buddy who was a driver at the time would try to convince the Uber drivers in the lot at the airport and they all believed the propaganda from TV and radio that was clearly paid for by Lyft and Uber. The majority of the American public are just not intelligent.

      • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        That law still pisses me off. I heard that it got a court check because of a clause in the amendment required a 7/8ths majorty vote in both the Senate and Assembly, but I don’t recall if the judge ruled to keep it or abolish it.

        California can be such a great state, but sometimes we vote for the dumbest shit because companies lobbied for ads that make no sense but to the dumbest voter. The most recent set of props come to mind.

      • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        The problem with that law is many that qualify to deliver now, wouldn’t if they were considered employees, and a lot of homeless/near homeless deliver instead of begging.

        • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          That argument is just a regurgitation of the propaganda that these people bought into. You can’t possibly know what would have happened because the law was voted down. I think that if those companies severely restricted the number of drivers they allowed, quality of service would decline and they would end up losing market share. In the end, there probably are somewhat fewer drivers, but those drivers are guaranteed to be making at least minimum wage plus mileage and access to health insurance.

          • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            No, that’s my personal experience and prediction knowing how shit corporations are. Yeah, in an idealized world we’d all be w2 workers, but there also wouldn’t be homeless and there’s be easy to enter programs to make money if you are.

            But until those programs are in place you’re risking the jobs of tens of thousands of people without other options. For no reason.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The education and media literacy problem has been brewing for decades. Our culture is so entertainment addicted, lots of people can’t even take a shit without watching something on their phones. I had high hopes in a progressive victory and a slow turnaround, but Trump winning after everything that’s happened tells me we’ve gone over the event horizon into Idiocracy and collapse. Not looking forward to it.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      I don’t buy through food delivery apps, I only order delivery if the store itself provides the service.

      And I didn’t vote for Kamala Harris, not because of Gaza, but because she sucks in a lot of areas. I also didn’t vote for Trump because he also sucks in a lot of ways. My state is heavily partisan, so me voting for one or the other feels like more of a wasted vote than voting third party, because everyone knows which party will win my state before the primaries even start, so I might as well juice the third party numbers a bit.

      • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Last time I tried ordering food I spent an hour trying to find a restaurant that still had delivery drivers on staff.

        Fucking capitalism is killing everything.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      So how many lemmy users are going to stop using food delivery to avoid being complicit?

      I generally avoid food delivery apps because of the extra cost either way…but if you have a problem with the wages, just tip more. Tip cash if you have it – there’s no way for the app to get its hands on that money!

      • Tregetour@lemdro.id
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        4 days ago

        but if you have a problem with the wages, just tip more.

        enabler | noun

        en·​abler i-ˈnā-b(ə-)lər

        : one that enables another to achieve an end especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (such as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior

        https://psychcentral.com/health/are-you-an-enabler

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          Someone using the service is already an en·abler (i-ˈnā-b(ə-)lər).

          Tipping well enables the drivers to pay their bills, at least.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I either pick up the food myself or eat there and highly tip the server, because that’s how the system works right now - but long term it would be better if they got more wages and didn’t need to rely on generosity.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          Definitely. I wish we’d ban tipping in North America.

          And also put the taxes into the sticker/menu prices. No more of this price jumping at the register.

          • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I see the justification in adding the tax on afterwards because putting it on stickers and menus imposes more work on the business whenever the sales tax changes. If you’ve ever done a store inventory you’ll get it. Also if you live in a place with sales tax, which in America means almost everywhere, you get used to mentally approximating it, or at least knowing it’s going to be added on - and a sales tax amount is mandated, it isn’t something people agonize over deciding like a tip.

    • dx1@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I didn’t vote for Harris because she’s one of them. I also don’t use food delivery. Enjoying your feeling of superiority from pointing out the hypocrisy of random group intersections?

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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      4 days ago

      Not sure how many but when I suggest boycotting these parasites a while back, I was down voted and told to get fucked lol

      Fuck kamala and loser DNC komissars who shill owner class agenda against pedons

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          4 days ago

          Life will be shitter just the same way it gets shitter with each new presidential term. The trend is set, you have to be naive to think that regime white kamala would reverse the trend.

          Two party system is to maintain power of the owner class.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    4 days ago

    Uber eats is such a scam. When these new VC companies come on the block offering things that are to good to be true I am constantly saying “we shouldn’t support this unsustainable vc funded business, once they have market share they will have killed the competition and then they will raise their prices”

    So many places used to deliver at reasonable prices but after years of uber delivering at way cheaper rates they stopped. Now uber delivers at $10 more.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah I liked the idea of Uber at first because taxis have been shitty for a long time and Uber was shaking up that industry.

      But then I learned that Uber wasn’t making money and immediately realized that they were just looking better than taxis for as long as they needed to to drive them out of business so they can be even worse, while providing even less than taxis companies do. At least taxi companies have a relationship with their drivers while Uber was just a platform for connecting anonymous riders with almost as anonymous drivers and handling the financial aspect of it (so that they control it all as middlemen with control of the wallet).

      So now I just use taxi services when I need a ride (while cursing the state of mass transit in North America and GM plus corrupt politicians for their role in making this like this).

      Similar story with hotels/airbnb, though they’ve made it even worse because they are affecting the housing market itself rather than just the luxury service of staying somewhere while away from home.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        Many reports of landlords evicting their tenants so they could turn their homes into airbnbs… Disgusting

    • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Which means it’s financially viable to compete with them again using their own drivers. Uber just trained an entire sector on delivery driving which is a larger pool of labour places can now draw from. And they can start by talking in person to the drivers who conveniently come directly to their business every day.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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        4 days ago

        No because after uber cornered the market uber raised the bar for what kind of fuckery is acceptable. Takeaway shops would do normal prices plus a $10 delivery fee. Now they can double their prices and have contractless uber drivers manage all their deliveries.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    The awful part is, even without tipping the driver the food is drastically more expensive. The restaurant takes an extra cut, The delivery service takes an extra cut. This person’s delivering your food practically for free and the meal is already sit down restaurant price.

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      My wife and I ran the numbers and, in our area, Uber Eats was pulling in about 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of the meal between charges to the restaurant and the customer. We were discussing opening a non-profit delivery service in our area. Turns out it’s pretty hard to do.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Just one note, restaurant prices go up because uber eats charges a percentage based fee for each menu item. So, restaurants need to up the prices on the app just to make the same amount of money. Just some good ol’ under-the-table fuckery courtesy of Silicon Valley bastards.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        In any case, when it cost me $20 more to get the meal through delivery, and f**** over a delivery person I’ve got a lot more incentive to drive 10 minutes to pick up food.

          • rumba@lemmy.zip
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            4 days ago

            Voice dictation censors, getting to the setting is a pain, I use dictation for work a lot so it’s better for you to be imaginative them me to screw up and get in trouble.

  • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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    4 days ago

    I was just commenting on a thread about public transportation (there’s none where live) and someone commented that they’re moving to micro transportation by just buying a $3 Uber every time they need to go somewhere. Even if uber is only taking $1 of that, $2 isn’t paying someone to drive you somewhere. Uber drivers should make at least $30/hr.

    • wellheh@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 days ago

      I haven’t done the math but if you don’t drive that much, did it beat their yearly costs (maintenance/insurance/gas)? Honestly that scheme is wild but makes total sense for a customer because not having to deal with car maintenance and insurance seems like a good tradeoff. I wonder when the dominos are all gonna tumble for these driving companies

      • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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        4 days ago

        I don’t know where the person who commented that lives, but you can’t get an Uber five blocks for under $10 around here. If I was that close and walkable I’d just walk. I do know uber is losing drivers locally though because they don’t pay enough, certainly not enough for people to maintain their cars. It’s predatory employment at this point, and it is becoming normalized.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          I took one recently and found out Lyft was taking the ride at a loss. (They must average out the rides). I needed to drop my vehicle somewhere for maintenance, called a Lyft and it was something like 5.42 before I added a tip. I asked the driver when it had gotten so much cheaper and he said he had been doing well and checked and was getting paid $9 before tip for the ride. Told him I was giving him $10 for going out of his way as a tip, and the app actually wouldn’t allow me to tip that much, I couldn’t get above 9.58 or something. Anyways, slower areas they must be taking a loss to try to get more market in the area.

          Also, Lyft has always been better for me when needed, Uber won’t allow me to schedule a ride, so you have to wait till you want to leave, and in a slow area that just means… There might not be anyone. If I schedule it with Lyft for a set time I’ve never had an issue with that.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Had a colleague that did it as a side gig and no matter how many times I told him to do it, he always refused to do the calculation to figure out how much he was making after expenses.

  • Nusm@yall.theatl.social
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    I was going to do it as a side hustle, but then I found out that I would have to change the type of car insurance I have, and my rate would go up. If I didn’t and had an accident while delivering, my insurance company would 100% deny all claims - assuming they found out I guess. I wasn’t willing to risk it , and the higher premium cost made it unprofitable.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Honestly, I’m surprised insurance companies don’t actively pursue this. Like doing a side gig such as this would very easily increase the possibility of claims because you’re on the road, so financially speaking it would make sense for them to try to partner through those delivery apps or Research into whether someone is doing it professionally on the side.

      Then again I guess it is more financially Justified for them to just milk your insurance money up until the point that you get into an accident and then deny your claim there for being a gig worker

      • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        externalizing costs. vehicle maintenance, insurance, wages… it’s all a ruse to get anyone else to pay their overheads without realizing it.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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          4 days ago

          That’s the foundation of the entire economic model imposed on the plebs.

          If you are not exteacting, you are not winning.

          • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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            4 days ago

            Let me be 100% clear. People who commute on bikes in my area are dead. Or they gave up because of a near death experience. I have lived here 18 years, I have seen one regular bike commuter. He caused major traffic backups, which was his safest option, at least they knew he was there. He lasted three weeks. I hope he’s not dead. You can not commute on a bike everywhere.

            • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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              4 days ago

              Even in places with good infrastructure and generally non-murderous drivers it still gets very sketchy.

              The majority of drivers just havent ridden a bike since they were 3, and just don’t understand that you’re part of the traffic, as though you can magically just slip around between all the cars.

            • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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              4 days ago

              American drivers believe that they can kill people with cars and they do get away it a lot. Wouldn’t want to ruin their lives