Ep. #177 Uber is charging for background checks and would you get a DoorDash tattoo?

Ever wondered about the highs and lows of the gig economy, or what goes through a delivery driver's mind during a snowstorm? Buckle up for a wild ride as we explore the unexpected twists of app-based services, from Uber's latest policy changes to the real cost of convenience when ordering your favorite burger. Plus, we've got some ink to show you that might just make you think twice before tattooing your loyalty to a food delivery service.

Our discussion zips through the streets of the gig economy, stopping off at Lyft's bike-sharing debate, where we weigh the potential for profit against the financial pitfalls. Then we cruise through the complexities of gig worker taxes, emphasizing the importance of professional advice over social media wisdom.

Everything Gig Economy Podcast Related: https://gigeconomyshow.com/

Thanks so much for listening. We appreciate each and every one of you!

Download the audio podcast https://link.chtbl.com/TheGigEconomyPodcast

Octopus is a mobile entertainment tablet for your riders. Earn 100.00 per month for having the tablet in your car! No cost for the driver!

Octopus Tablet Entertainment https://account.playoctopus.com/join/referred_by/GRPodcast

Want to earn more and stay safe? Download Maxymo  https://middletontech.com/gigeconomypodcast

Love the show? You now have the opportunity to support the show with some great rewards by becoming a Patron. Tier #2 we offer free merch, an Extra in-depth podcast per month, and an NSFW pre-show https://www.patreon.com/thegigeconpodcast

Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/451789943399295/

GR Rideshare Telegram Group Download Telegram 1st, then click on the link to join. https://t.me/joinchat/R42wUR2QGhCi2gBD

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gigeconomypodcast?

Subscribe on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_bV7j7o1BzWtB4mt_4R8Q?view_as=subscriber

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/gigeconpodcast

Get Gig Economy Podcast Gear! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/gig-economy-podcast?ref_id=26269&utm_campaign=26269&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=Gig%2BEconomy%2BPodcast

The camera we recommend: Vantrue N2 Pro http://amzn.to/2tYAPWM

How to Start a Podcast Guide: The Complete Guide
Learn how to plan, record, and launch your podcast with this illustrated guide.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Music Hello, good evening. Welcome to the Geek Economy Podcast, episode one hundred and seventy seven. Thank you so much for joining us All. Seventeen hundred of you Wait, whoops, I read that wrong. Tonight we're going to talk about a lot. Yeah, we're going to talk about how Uber is charting for background checks, and would you actually get a DoorDash tattoo?

Speaker 3: 0:52

Would you Hell? No?

Speaker 1: 0:53

Would you? I'll show this picture later. It's legit, it's not Photoshop.

Speaker 3: 0:59

I like the other tattoos that I mentioned.

Speaker 1: 1:02

What you left them.

Speaker 3: 1:04

The other tattoos that I would like up high on the hand.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Oh yeah, I didn't even notice those.

Speaker 3: 1:10

Oh my gosh, they're like so horrible.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Jasper can you tell? Why don't you tell people how they can find us?

Speaker 3: 1:18

So hang on one second, Sorry about that. You go to gigakonomyshowcom and then up in the corner well, I guess anyway, on the page you can listen to the show there or any of the page. You can actually look us up on our social media channels. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us on well, I guess, anyway, there you can just yeah can you go follow us on TikTok?

Speaker 1: 1:44

I was really. I have a jealous moment, I have an envious moment tonight that I found out.

Speaker 3: 1:48

Can I just talk about it?

Speaker 1: 1:50

Sure. So I was on TikTok. Did I not follow us on TikTok? I follow us on TikTok, I think so.

Speaker 3: 1:56

Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1: 1:58

I was on TikTok tonight and I saw a live stream and I was like wait, I know, this guy, ride Share Rodeo has enough followers to go live on TikTok. That motherfucker has 5,000 followers on TikTok. What I know? We only have 250.

Speaker 3: 2:13

So follow us on TikTok, so we can live stream.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Sorry, I totally derailed your.

Speaker 3: 2:20

We definitely won. Everybody now, right now, go follow us on TikTok.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Yes, do it If I don't have 10 today.

Speaker 3: 2:27

Right now.

Speaker 1: 2:30

So anyways, yeah, so you can go to the website gigconomyshowcom, like yes, we're sorry, I want to mention our Patreon members hey, wait, wait, stop.

Speaker 3: 2:37

Oh sorry, we are not hillbillies. We are not hillbillies.

Speaker 1: 2:41

I don't know. Hey, JP, thanks for tuning in. I'm kind of a hillbilly I look like a hillbilly, but I'm not. I want to thank our Patreon members. We had a bad moment. We lost one, it's okay, take a moment of silence, but we gained one, jim, from we don't know Jim.

Speaker 3: 2:58

Yeah, where are you from?

Speaker 1: 3:00

I haven't sent you a message yet, but anyways, larry from Bull and Green, samson from Grand Rapids, steve from Colorado, bud from North Carolina, omar from Detroit, deliverycast from Michigan, jamie from Tennessee, which I haven't heard from a hot second, frank from Philly. You know, I haven't heard Frank in the chat in the last week either. I hope he's okay. Hopefully he is Nate from Florida, john from Chicago Nope, that's a lie John from California, tom from Chicago and Jim from like no idea.

Speaker 3: 3:26

Anywhere, anywhere in the world, somewhere home. What if it?

Speaker 1: 3:28

was out of the country. What if we could say Jim from Africa?

Speaker 3: 3:32

I don't think it would be, jim, no, no, maybe it would be. No, I'm not going to go there. So once you so if you're not already supporting us, you go to patreoncom slash new year. Oh my God.

Speaker 2: 3:46

The GigEcon podcast.

Speaker 3: 3:48

Why did I say new no?

Speaker 2: 3:50

the GigEcon podcast, definitely not new.

Speaker 3: 3:52

Sign up and please support us, because it helps us a ton.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Yes, it does. It pays for our beer when we podcast that we're not drinking tonight.

Speaker 3: 4:01

We are not. It's not paying for our beer.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Also, lastly, before we move on to GigEcon. In the news we have a telegram group that you can connect with gig workers all over the country. If you A telegram is a like WhatsApp or kick or whatever those but it's the best out of all of them, I believe Go to telegram, download the app and then, if you click on the link in the description, it will take you to the group. It is an adult-only group. Well, I mean, obviously it's adult-only.

Speaker 3: 4:26

I'm just saying it can get adult contact at so do you have to be 18 to drive Uber or Lyft?

Speaker 1: 4:34

Yeah, you do, I'm pretty sure, but I'm pumped but I'm pumped. So, anyways, join that. All right, thank you guys all for joining. From Steve's story Steve's stream Super, appreciate that. Check out Steve at Ride Share Rodeo. He has a stream. I think it's called Last Mile. I think he talks about Curry right before this one. So it would be 7 pm Eastern for all your Eastern Standard Time folks.

Speaker 1: 5:00

First article, not article, it's a picture. It's kind of funny. It's a screenshot. It's DoorDash says hey, it's okay if you can wait to deliver my food until 11.38, because that's what time lunch starts and they won't let us out mid-class to get the food Driver. I've already picked up the food and so, mind you, this was at Okay, so he picked up the food at 10.46. The guy wanted him to wait until 11.38. Okay, so I've already picked up the food and I'm in the DoorDash app. It will track me if I'm late or not. I can drop it off in the office he goes. I scheduled it for 11.40 to 12. Okay, I will contact DoorDash. Doordash support has instructed me to drop the order off at the flagpole and take a picture for you. You know where it's located. I mean it brings up an interesting point is all these kids ordering DoorDash Right Now at Grandville and I don't know about. Well, max, I mean Julie's not in high school yet, is she?

Speaker 3: 6:00

No.

Speaker 1: 6:01

No, but at least at Grandville you can deliver the food right in the office. They have a shelf that you put all the food on. But some schools you're not allowed to do that. What do you feel on that? Do you think the school should allow it? I mean, it's kind of like a mom bringing it, don't you think?

Speaker 3: 6:19

No.

Speaker 1: 6:20

No, you think it's different.

Speaker 3: 6:21

I think there's no reason why they should deliver school or deliver this food to the school. Absolutely zero reason.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Why do you think that?

Speaker 3: 6:32

Why should these kids have school delivered food to the school?

Speaker 1: 6:36

Why not? It's 2024. I mean, it's different times. Back when we went to school, what's the big deal if they get food delivered, if they're paying for it? No, no. So I saw a teacher bring up a problem with it, that we don't know what they're sneaking into that bag.

Speaker 3: 6:51

Right, exactly.

Speaker 1: 6:53

So they could be like the driver could somehow have a relationship with a student for whatever, and I mean, you don't think about that with a mom either, but it's less likely that a mom's going to slip in some drugs.

Speaker 3: 7:07

Well, of course, yeah, of course, but there's zero control on that, and it's true. I mean so here, right here, right here, the Steve is saying right, food delivery is not allowed because of active shooters and they have zero control as to what is in those bags.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Yeah, but it stays in the office. I mean, I guess it does leave the office when the kid gets the food.

Speaker 3: 7:30

But why should the people in the office have more work to do? They already have a job.

Speaker 1: 7:34

True, true. I guess I don't. I don't know, I guess I don't see that big of a deal with it. I mean, yeah, you don't want to pay? Somebody have to go open the bags.

Speaker 3: 7:43

It's just. It's always worked Right. They have food service at schools or they can get a lunch from home Right? Why do we need more options than that? That's fair. I'm just spoiling the kids more, in my opinion, yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:59

I mean, I could go either way. I can see your point too. Why, why are we worrying about DoorDash delivering stuff?

Speaker 3: 8:05

No, yeah, but what?

Speaker 1: 8:06

about the teachers.

Speaker 3: 8:08

What about the teacher? Can they?

Speaker 1: 8:09

get it delivered. Why should they? Why can't they? What if they want it? What if they want a hot sandwich from Jersey Mike's? I don't even know if Jersey Mike's snakes hot sandwiches. It's cool, it's cool, it's cool.

Speaker 3: 8:26

It's terrible in elementary.

Speaker 1: 8:28

When I worked at this, when I worked lunch room, I rarely ate the leftovers, but so it's okay. So I mean teachers should be allowed to order food. You're at your place of business.

Speaker 3: 8:39

And that is true, but isn't it different than two If it's being delivered to the, to the teachers room?

Speaker 1: 8:44

I agree, it is different.

Speaker 3: 8:46

I mean, that's at least controlled, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:51

So I'm going to take a little side note. So this JP did get banned, apparently, from our telegram group, so I banned him. Is that you? Was that you delivering naked? Was that your name in the telegram group? Cause he had posted some pretty fucking racy photos in there. Like it was pretty bad. I mean, like I don't mind it too much, but I don't need Janet in there seeing those photos. Okay, like I didn't know that was you, I don't even remember what it was, but I was like, oh Christ, I can't have this in here anymore.

Speaker 3: 9:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:24

So sorry. You can join the group again if you want. I don't I can unban you if you want to come in. Yeah, school food sucks.

Speaker 3: 9:32

Apparently you crossed the line with Jason there.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Oh, I'm not approved by any means. I'm not approved by any means.

Speaker 3: 9:41

But I mean, I think it is. It is talking about some things that you said yourself. Times are changing. Yeah, it definitely is, and I think it's bringing up a lot of things, that new topics that we didn't, we never used to have to deal with, that stuff.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Yeah, I hate that that we're not doing because of active shooters Like that's fucking sick to me. No, I mean it's the reality.

Speaker 3: 10:03

Absolutely. I agree with that. I agree with that, but also all the things that we have to install in the school.

Speaker 1: 10:09

I know everything has to be locked down.

Speaker 3: 10:11

And yeah, we have to put those one of the column things to. You can lock the, lock the rooms.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Yeah, they put a little thing on the floor.

Speaker 3: 10:20

Yeah, whatever it is to lock them in. So yeah, I mean absolutely, it's sickening, but we have to. In 20 years ago, what was that one active school, one active shooter into that? It kind of started with Columbine. It kind of trickled down after that. It's just gone crazy.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Yeah, we're going to get freaking flagged on YouTube now. So, Mark, I love this. Pizza had the best little personal pans. I remember, mark, growing up I lived about two and a half miles from a pizza and every day in the summer I would bike down to that pizza for that personal pan pizza. It's the only pizza I like from pizza.

Speaker 3: 10:55

But did you do it after school?

Speaker 1: 10:56

No, in the summertime.

Speaker 3: 10:58

OK, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:59

Yeah, so like I wake up, we'd play outside, we'd grab our bikes.

Speaker 3: 11:03

Wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop. So wait, you played outside.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Well, yeah, what else was I going to do? No, what else was I going to do?

Speaker 3: 11:10

So you played, you spent energy, you out there, you moved your body, yeah, and you biked down to the pizza All exercise, so you went sitting on your ass in front of the team. Yeah, that's why we have a problem, we have a problem.

Speaker 2: 11:26

All right moving on.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Oh my gosh, I think we are.

Speaker 3: 11:30

We had a bad discussion tonight.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Yeah, we're getting banned for everything.

Speaker 3: 11:35

So talking about moving our bodies, Kind of. This is going to talk about how, in LA, the LA Metro wants Lyft to run their bike share system, and whoever wrote this article thinks that that may not be a good idea.

Speaker 1: 11:57

So just a side note who knew Lyft was in the bike system and A? Why are they focusing on bikes? You're pouring money into investing into these bikes. Who knew I didn't know Lyft was part of it.

Speaker 3: 12:09

They've done Chicago system for years. They're the ones who owns Drivy. I don't fucking know. I knew.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Good for you.

Speaker 3: 12:18

Yeah, I know. So they actually have four other systems and the article is just touching on those. But the cool thing is so LA Metro, let's see here, where does this? Where were? I was going to talk about the specifics first, because now you got me all right, a lot of it.

Speaker 1: 12:39

The history of Lyft. Is that what you're looking for? No, no, no.

Speaker 3: 12:41

So the LA Metro Lyft seems to think they can do it for about half the price over the 11 years than what the system was doing it before and they want about $11 million to do it and the LA Metro seems to think it's going to cost about twice as much. So that's why they're thinking that Lyft should do it and it's going to be fine. The bikes here too. But let's see here, despite the scoring costs, reports from LA's request from Prowsel says the Lyft would cost LA Metro $132 million over 11 years Over 11 year contrast Sorry, I was 11 years, I had it mixed up Half of the current operator bicycle transit systems, which is $265 million off of it over the same time frame. So Lyft wants to charge them $132 million and the current system is $265 million over the same time frame. So that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 13:37

The current system is not through Lyft, it's through another company.

Speaker 3: 13:40

Yes, that's another one. But at this point they're saying the LA Metro board reports that they are likely going to award Lyft the contract.

Speaker 1: 13:49

I don't. I guess this is an opinion piece. I don't understand why people are investing in this bike stuff. This doesn't think there's no profit in it. I don't know. It really bothers me that Lyft is spending their money on this. Shouldn't we be doing food delivery to everyone else? I don't know. I think it's a dumb move.

Speaker 3: 14:09

Well, so it's a good move for Lyft, you do? Well, yeah, because Lyft is making money on it. The city is spending on the money, on the system.

Speaker 1: 14:18

Oh OK.

Speaker 3: 14:21

Because it's a good thing for the city, because the users of the city, they use tax dollars for the system and so when you add tax, if you're a person living in the city, you get access to the system and you use tax dollars and you put a dollar in the system whatever. You don't use it as a pause Sorry, every time you use a bike and it's proven that people like the city bike systems.

Speaker 1: 14:53

It's interesting, I would never rent one of those, I guess.

Speaker 3: 14:56

They used a ton.

Speaker 1: 14:58

And $132 million to them just seems pennies. Compared to you know, this seems like such a little amount of money.

Speaker 3: 15:04

They already just spent $240 million. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1: 15:07

No, no, I mean, it's just pennies like yeah, it just doesn't seem like.

Speaker 3: 15:11

I mean, you have to remember too that this is bikes for a city of LA. Yeah, I mean, it is a little metro. Well, no, you know.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I have a complete side story about like this kind of stuff, so I saw this on TikTok, of course, because that's where I spend 90% of my time. And the city of Chicago was back in 2008, had during the recession remember that was a recession and they needed some fast cash. So they sold all 36,000 of their parking meters to a Dubai LLC for $1.1 billion. Guess for how many years the term was.

Speaker 1: 15:53

I don't know, 75 years, the LLC, in 15 years, has made their billion dollars back. So from here for the next, what is that? 50 years, 60 years, 60 years, it's all profit, it's all profit.

Speaker 3: 16:09

Well, not all profit.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Well, I mean obviously the expenses and stuff like that but it only took them 15 years to make $1.1 billion. Who's doing the business in Chicago? Well, I mean, I'm just saying I can't fathom that how much money that LLC is going to make.

Speaker 3: 16:26

It's paying to park in Chicago. I know it's hell.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Yeah, don't even go, just, actually don't ever go to Chicago, just skip the whole city, except if you're going to go visit time.

Speaker 3: 16:37

But it's the same thing. I mean not the same thing, but what about the fact that every second parking lot in Green Abbot is owned by the same parking company?

Speaker 2: 16:47

What about that?

Speaker 1: 16:47

Well, Alice, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:49

They all own.

Speaker 3: 16:49

Alice, they know they want the new parking lot that they're building in. Where is?

Speaker 1: 16:53

that Studio Park. They're out anymore. Yeah, that's Alice that's going to be Alice too.

Speaker 3: 16:57

Yeah, what the.

Speaker 1: 16:58

You know? You know what? Speaking of parking, have you ever parked in those lots that, like our air park, it says air park, even though it's not an Alice lot, it's basically a privately owned lot and you're supposed to pay to park? Right, I got a ticket from them. It's all a scam. You don't have to pay that ticket, it's they don't have your plate number, they're not going to turn you in or anything like that. I've gotten two tickets from them and I just throw them away because it's a privatized lot. They are just hoping people just pay it because they all we got a ticket.

Speaker 3: 17:29

And 90% probably does.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Yeah, I throw it away. I never pay for parking in those lots. I just pull in their park, go eat and then leave.

Speaker 3: 17:35

Speaking of parking and stuff. So this last weekend we actually went to the, to the acceleration cinema down at the studio park Favorite theater. I love it. So the seats Did you get? Did you get free parking Of?

Speaker 1: 17:49

course.

Speaker 3: 17:49

Yeah, love it. Four hours free parking yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:52

Have you ever been to Tavern one, two, three, not yet Awesome food, yeah, very nice dining experience, super great. I tell people when I'm Ubering people around and they ask about restaurants, I go, you got to try this. And I always say and you get free parking.

Speaker 3: 18:10

But now I love the movie theater and the fact you can get a beer in the theater. That's great.

Speaker 1: 18:14

I know I tried the last time I went to the theater.

Speaker 3: 18:17

we watched Willie Wonka and Megan didn't realize we actually watched that just this weekend. It was great.

Speaker 1: 18:22

So it's weird, like all Wonka's weird anyways.

Speaker 2: 18:26

I liked it too.

Speaker 1: 18:28

I think that guy, that kid, didn't get a lot of love for that performance.

Speaker 3: 18:32

Did you just say that, kid?

Speaker 1: 18:34

I mean, what is he Like? 25?, 30.

Speaker 3: 18:36

I don't know, but yeah, he's a really good actor.

Speaker 1: 18:38

Incredible, incredible. I thought it was great.

Speaker 3: 18:42

It's the same actor from Dune.

Speaker 1: 18:44

I didn't watch Dune, but all those actors were British right Most of them.

Speaker 3: 18:49

I don't actually don't know, but either way, because he's British. Yeah, it's a great movie, though. I love it.

Speaker 1: 18:54

Yeah, you had to really put your brain at like I told my kids I was like it's going to be strange. Remember Willie Wonka and the.

Speaker 3: 19:00

Chalk Effect yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Remember the Johnny Depp one? It's all weird. This is going to be weird too.

Speaker 3: 19:05

Well, so, did you ever see the original one though? Yeah, yeah, not the Johnny Depp one.

Speaker 1: 19:11

Correct the original one. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 19:12

Yeah, that's not quite as dark as the Johnny Depp one.

Speaker 1: 19:16

No, but it's still weird.

Speaker 3: 19:17

Well, of course, yeah, I mean it's still like what is going on?

Speaker 1: 19:20

Yeah, yeah the Johnny Depp one was a little dark, that's another dark.

Speaker 2: 19:23

Yeah, yeah, it is.

Speaker 1: 19:25

All right. So Lyft got bikes. They're stupid. That's the end of that story.

Speaker 3: 19:30

That's my opinion. I'm sick into it, that's your opinion.

Speaker 1: 19:33

So I wanted to show this I yeah, you're not going to see this? I can't even see it. I got to make it big on my screen. I realized how small that was. So this is a tax summary for somebody, and I'm just every year, what?

Speaker 3: 19:49

Every year we have these things.

Speaker 1: 19:51

What? Why do you think I'm?

Speaker 3: 19:53

sharing it, no, I'm just. I want to hear you say it.

Speaker 1: 19:55

No, I was just like. I just surprised that someone made 121,000, but they drove 86,000 miles. Now that's their online miles. That's not all their miles.

Speaker 3: 20:08

Oh, no, no, no, that's probably 100,000 miles they probably drove.

Speaker 1: 20:12

But look at the fees they took out of that $45,000 in fees. I don't know that just seems.

Speaker 3: 20:20

But see, the thing is and this is what drives me crazy Right, this is what drives me crazy. Yes, I'm listening. People will put the $121,000 down as their, as the income they made. Well, that's your gross, it's not, though.

Speaker 1: 20:38

See, when you do your taxes, you put the 121 and then you put the 45 as a deduction. Yeah, I know, that's how you're supposed to do it. It's no, yes, you are.

Speaker 3: 20:48

I know, but it's so.

Speaker 1: 20:50

Well, how do you think you're supposed to do it Just?

Speaker 3: 20:52

put $76,000 on. The fee is not.

Speaker 1: 20:57

So you're serious? I'm actually just serious.

Speaker 3: 20:59

No, I know, I know you're supposed to do it that way, but it's the dumbest thing in the world.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Oh okay, you're just saying it's dumb. Absolutely it is. Oh okay, I was like do you seriously do this?

Speaker 3: 21:07

Why is the fee part of my taxes? The fee should never be my tax.

Speaker 1: 21:11

I don't know. Oh yeah, steve, just don't pay taxes. I like that. He's like kidding. Don't do that.

Speaker 3: 21:21

But I do think it is the dumbest thing. Why?

Speaker 1: 21:25

Well, because they're trying to present it as you're a business owner, you're a 1099. So if you were a drywaller and you made $121,000 and your expenses were 45, that's labor, or?

Speaker 3: 21:38

Well, it's because they want their fee to be our expense. That's what they want.

Speaker 1: 22:17

But isn't it our expense? I mean, I guess it's kind of not, isn't it?

Speaker 3: 22:21

No, it's not. That's the thing what it is, but it's just.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Well, they're basically saying that's their profit is our fee.

Speaker 3: 22:28

But it never made it into my bank account. It never made it into my bank account.

Speaker 1: 22:31

That's a good point. Yeah, I didn't. That's a good point.

Speaker 3: 22:35

I, oh yeah, I never thought about that, I didn't choose to pay it, so 76 made it in my bank account, but 121 didn't.

Speaker 1: 22:43

That's a good point. I never thought about that. I don't know this shit's so complicated.

Speaker 3: 22:49

It's all fake news Travelers said.

Speaker 1: 22:52

I just snotted. Travelers said my miles is so high I don't have to pay. Yeah, I mean, are you traveling? Are you a part time? I mean most drivers are part time but, like, what were your earnings for 2023? I'm just curious, because I always tell that to people too when they're interested in driving. I'm like, if you drive part time and you just do Uber and Lyft not DoorDash, because you don't rack up a lot of miles with DoorDash and stuff you will not pay taxes on that. It's tax free money, yep, yep. But if you're doing this guy, I mean he's gonna be paying some taxes on that.

Speaker 3: 23:25

Well, no, no, no, because you just said to yourself he had a hundred thousand miles and you Isn't there a limit on that, though? Or is there not?

Speaker 1: 23:31

No, it's not, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 23:33

But he has to put a buy new car every two years. I mean, come on.

Speaker 1: 23:38

Oh yeah, no shit, I know man, I hope you have a Honda or Toyota because, you're yeah every two years. So Traveler grows 60K and still didn't pay no taxes. That's fucking. That's amazing.

Speaker 3: 23:49

Yeah, I mean yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:50

It's JP, all I know. Don't ask yes for adjacent yeah.

Speaker 3: 23:53

Don't ask us for tax advice. Yes, don't.

Speaker 1: 23:56

I don't feel like I have to put a caveat, but yeah, please forgot almighty don't, ever, do not ask us for tax.

Speaker 3: 24:05

Ask a tax. Oh my gosh, I know what you said Tax accountant, please.

Speaker 1: 24:09

You know what's crazy. I am so sick of the tax questions already because, you know me, I'm in so many groups. Again, I'm mostly a lurker, I don't even I don't comment very often, I just don't have the time. But I looked for stories and stuff. Every other fucking post, yes, for oh my God, I didn't track my miles. What should I do? Well, you fucking are stupid because you, or just should I file like this? I'm like why? Why are you asking Facebook for tax advice? I don't understand that.

Speaker 3: 24:41

I can only say what I always say is the very first year I hired a tax accountant, I thought I was gonna pay $800 and I got $2000 back in the store. That was as I paid her.

Speaker 1: 24:54

I mean my accountant charged me like $275. I think that's fair for all my stuff and the business tax that we have to and like all that stuff. Some people might say that's too much, but the price to $275 a year to not have to deal with that bullshit is worth every penny. Absolutely Traveler every two years. You also drive across the country for fun. Do you gig work with that man? If you do, I hope you're documenting it. Pair is tracking my miles now for free. Yeah, yeah, it does. I use an app that they stopped servicing about four years ago. You remember Sherpa Share? Yeah, so it was $65 a year. I haven't paid in four years and they still let me use it and they stopped updating it like they're not even in business anymore.

Speaker 3: 25:40

So oh, you know.

Speaker 1: 25:42

All right, where are we at? Oh God, oh, so yeah so that was fun. This was yeah, you know it's good when we don't even know where we're at. So again, I've been seeing all these weird things about. Like the last week we talked about the tax line on the thing. This one says the current cost of your background screening is $80. Every week, $20 will be deducted from your earnings for a period of four weeks. What you think? It's bullshit. No, it's not. Do you think it's real? It's Canadian, oh, Canadian.

Speaker 3: 26:13

It's Canadian. How did you figure that out? If you look down the comments, no, I didn't.

Speaker 3: 26:17

So this is in Canada, but I guess it's in Canada. It depends on what Canadian province you're in. Oh, interesting. And so one of the comments is saying that that he is in Toronto and he has to pay close to $100 Canadian dollars in his area. So from Toronto cost out of two years ago it is, hang on, no sorry, 28 Canadian dollars, two in Thulmance for background check by Checker and yeah. So basically in Toronto it depends on, you have to pay $76 just for the background check and then an additional 2310 for the abstract, which is another thing that you're doing now in Toronto.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Well, it is new because I paid all the way down and Ope says he's in Canada but didn't get that the past years. This is a new policy for him? Yeah, but it is new.

Speaker 3: 27:18

But it is something that they're doing. It's all based on what, as I said, what Canadian province you're in.

Speaker 1: 27:28

Well, I mean, I don't doubt they put it here. See, that's the thing. They've kind of pigeon-toed a lot of drivers into being desperate for work. We talked about that with the strike right Like no one's gonna strike because they have to work. If Uber did this, people would just pay it.

Speaker 3: 27:43

Well, so they have to. So here's the thing you can actually hire a checker yourself to do it, to do your own. It's about $50. So you can hire. You can go ahead and hire a checker to do your own.

Speaker 1: 27:54

Yeah, but Uber's not gonna allow you to do that.

Speaker 3: 27:56

No, no, no no. I mean you're just saying in normal, like life, I can go to checker and I can say do my background checker and it costs me $50. Now I can't report that to Uber and I can't do it that way, but I'm just saying it does cost Uber some money to use checker.

Speaker 1: 28:13

I'm sure their line item for that is very expensive.

Speaker 3: 28:16

Right, but they probably don't cost About 10 bucks. My guess is between five and $10 per Super cheap. Yeah. So the question becomes is that something that they wanna continue eating, and at some point I would think that Americans gonna have to pay for it too.

Speaker 1: 28:36

Yeah, eventually I think it's gonna trickle down.

Speaker 3: 28:38

I'm not sure why they wouldn't do that, but but yeah, so yeah, it's a real thing, definitely, but it's in Canada, oh that was your story, by the way.

Speaker 1: 28:46

I didn't realize that I know, but that's why it took over.

Speaker 3: 28:48

You know, I'm a professional, oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 28:52

So Uber could be brewing a plan to enter grocery sector.

Speaker 2: 28:55

Instacart stock spikes on acquisition whispers.

Speaker 1: 28:59

I mean, basically it's not a huge story. It's mostly just money talk because the stock went up. So of course people are like what happened? So it looks like Instacart stocks spiked on Wednesday following speculation by Wolf research analysts Again, this is from an amulet I'm not gonna say that guy's name because I don't know how to pronounce it that the company would potentially be a potential acquisition target for Uber. It doesn't surprise me. Uber is on a rampage to take fucking everyone over and they're just gonna ruin everything. Not that Instacart's already running like a final machine anyways, but so I mean, we talked about it last time, right?

Speaker 3: 29:40

So now they're just killing Drisley Yep. So they bought Drisley and killed Drisley Yep. What's the next thing gonna be? Do you think they're gonna buy and kill them?

Speaker 1: 29:50

Well, I mean, why not? Why not buy Instacart? Why not buy?

Speaker 3: 29:55

I mean, I don't think they'll ever be able to buy Dordash, but there's not enough money in the world for them to buy Dordash, but don't you think at some point they're going to be stopped, because there is such a thing they can't. I mean, what is it that?

Speaker 1: 30:08

It's monopoly.

Speaker 3: 30:09

Yeah, exactly, they're not gonna be allowed to be the only one in the market.

Speaker 1: 30:13

You say that, though, but how does the hospital that my wife work own the insurance company that they use? Oh, I know See that doesn't seem legal to me. That seems like somebody's anyways.

Speaker 3: 30:28

That would be the left hand, like greasing the right hand. Yeah, it's a complete scam.

Speaker 1: 30:36

But yeah, there does have to be, whether it's the FTC, Federal Trade Commission to be like, hey, no, no, you can't do this. But what other grocery app is out there other than they got Instacart and shipped? That's it. Those are the two big ones, right, I can't believe I forgot shipped. But like all those are trying to get I mean some of the Dordash pictures I see from people they're like it's like $15 for a three mile ride, right, that sounds great. You have to shop for 75 items for $15. No way, who the fuck is doing that? Right, that's crazy. But I guess my point is all these apps are going into the shop and pays anyways. You know what I mean. So it kind of makes sense for Uber to buy Instacart, but Instacart is just as bad as Dordash as far as like base paying stuff like that, if not worse.

Speaker 3: 31:24

Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1: 31:25

Is this? I don't know. It's crazy. We'll see what happens. I wouldn't doubt that they do buy them at some point.

Speaker 3: 31:33

So so the other day I was in and maybe this is something new, I'm not sure, but the other day I was in all day and somebody comes in and say I'm picking up an order, but I was under the impression that so it's all the employees who pack the orders, right?

Speaker 1: 31:54

But I thought that that they came into the store and asked yeah, so it was an employee.

Speaker 3: 32:00

It was, but it wasn't. They weren't picking up their own order. It felt like it was an Instacart order, sorry, like a delivery driver that was picking up an order to deliver.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Yeah, they do have those that they do they just deliveries.

Speaker 3: 32:14

See, okay, but.

Speaker 1: 32:16

I've never seen them on like. I've run Instacart before when it's like God awful slow in the summer, but I've never seen that. I've only saw the shop at deliveries. I never saw just delivery delivery pop up. Cause like so when my wife orders through Aldi it's through Instacart. Aldi employees shop it and then they walk it out to my car.

Speaker 3: 32:38

Well, exactly that's what I mean. So you have to go pick it up.

Speaker 1: 32:41

Yeah, but I think you can actually get it delivered and not be shopped by an Instacart shopper too.

Speaker 3: 32:50

I guess that's what I was surprised by. I have never seen that situation.

Speaker 1: 32:54

Mike does the same thing with shift you can just shop. I mean, you could go work an eight hour shift and just shop all day, but never leave the store. You could do that, or just deliver too. It's weird. Hey, janet, haven't heard from you in a while.

Speaker 3: 33:09

It's been a while. Hope you're doing well down there.

Speaker 1: 33:13

You know I need to check in on Frank too. I just was thinking about the telegram group. He is not. It's been a hot second so hopefully he's okay.

Speaker 3: 33:22

So, JP, they bought corner shop postmates and dressy. They killed dressly. So let's see how long, how long before they killed corner shop and postmates as well.

Speaker 1: 33:31

Well, I think you can still order on the. In some areas you can still order on postmates. It goes through Uber, but I think I swear you can Somebody. I thought I saw somebody say that.

Speaker 3: 33:41

Right, so you can still order on dressy so far, but they're gonna kill it in April. They say it's shorter than down April.

Speaker 1: 33:47

Yeah, all right. Moving on Middleton Technologies, one of the sponsors of the show, gary's Apps. Click on the link in the description Full disclosure. If you sign up for subscription subscription, we get a little bit of money, not even drinking. So you have Maximo FlexAlert and Driver Utility Helper. Driver Utility Helper, aka Duh, the purple one, that is just for DoorDash, and Maximo's for Grubhub, uber Eats, uber Lift, pretty much any other platform. And then the orange one is for Amazon Flex. These apps help you make more money. They keep you safer on the road so you don't touch your phone as much. I like it because they make more money for me. I mean, I wanna be safer too, but you know, on DoorDash you have to hit the button like seven times if you wanna decline something. So this kind of eliminates that you can set up all the parameters. Is that the word? The settings, the parameters? That?

Speaker 1: 34:42

you want, like how far you wanna go, how long of a delay you want. It's amazing. So and the cost is fucking dirt cheap, I think Driver Utility Helper is $10 a month and Maximo is $5 a month.

Speaker 3: 34:53

So, speaking of those things, when is the last time you took a flight drive?

Speaker 1: 34:57

It's been a hot second. It's probably been November. Maybe you know Christmas didn't surge like it. It was the worst Christmas I've ever worked Like cause last year not 2023, but 2022, I cleaned up. I made like three grand in the month of December. Oh, wow, Cause it? Just they were ballin' it was 40, 50 bucks an hour, but it just wasn't like that this year. So, and with the weather like this, all those slushy roads, my little electric car I don't wanna it's still my baby I don't wanna trash it yet you might get.

Speaker 3: 35:30

you make a 10, 15 miles out of that one, yeah, going through the slush Brrr.

Speaker 1: 35:36

All right, jesper, the five guys.

Speaker 3: 35:39

You are going to play this video. It's about somebody talking about ordering five guys on DoorDash.

Speaker 1: 35:46

It's just a unique perspective of like seeing it on this end.

Speaker 2: 35:51

Everyone knows five guys is super expensive. So I made the dumb decision of ordering it on DoorDash, and you're never gonna believe how much it costs. We're gonna keep things simple. I literally just got a plain cheeseburger and a little fries and I mean that's just ridiculous. But whatever I get it, they give you a lot. All right, this is the price with no tip, and if you know DoorDash, you pretty much can't get an order without tipping. So here we go. We have $4 in delivery fees, $4.50 in extra fees and estimated tax, whatever that is, and then we have a total of $28. And with DoorDash's recommended tip, the total came out to be $34, $34. How, how Like you must have to be rich to order DoorDash, because there's just no way, normal people are ordering it.

Speaker 1: 36:36

It's true you either be rich or you fucking put it on a credit card.

Speaker 3: 36:41

I mean it was. I mean what, what?

Speaker 1: 36:44

What, what, why are you dying?

Speaker 3: 36:46

It's not even cheaper to put it on a credit card.

Speaker 1: 36:48

No, no, no, I'm just saying because you don't have money, you don't care, you just put. I'm just saying people that aren't good with their money will just oh, we'll just charge it.

Speaker 3: 36:56

That's what I'm saying but it's still $34. Well, yeah, I know.

Speaker 1: 36:59

I'm just saying I was like that back in the day I didn't have any money, so I just put it on a credit card. It's same money.

Speaker 3: 37:05

But the same burger is $8 at McDonald's.

Speaker 1: 37:10

Now, that being said, five guys is expensive. My wife and I, after my colonoscopy last Friday, went to five guys. We each got a burger and we each got a fry. It was $36. But you got two burgers and two fries. And two fries. But I'm just saying like $36 for burgers and fries. I still say bottom line, five guys is the best burger I've ever eaten.

Speaker 3: 37:35

They are good burgers.

Speaker 1: 37:37

There's no doubt. But yeah, if you're gonna order DoorDash, you're gonna order five guys. You're gonna be paying out the ass. I don't care what you say, but I, like he says, you know, for you can't get food delivered without a tip. I don't know if that's true Now I mean I think you can. I don't know how warm it's gonna be.

Speaker 3: 37:53

Well, it's gonna. You might wait like two days.

Speaker 1: 37:55

Yeah, to get it, but yeah so we had an interesting topic on that.

Speaker 3: 38:00

Now you know, since we have time, I'm gonna talk about it. Maxwell, my son, he's in Houghton. Yeah, he had no food the other day and he had ordered food from Walmart to be delivered and this was during the snowstorm.

Speaker 1: 38:18

Okay, all right.

Speaker 3: 38:21

Right and he had put I think he put $15 tip on it. It was a nice tip he had put on Like and it was like not a giant order, but he done well and he still did not. He couldn't get it delivered that day off.

Speaker 1: 38:35

I mean, if it's a blizzard, is 15 enough? I think on a normal day that's an incredible tip, but if it's snowing like a bitch, I mean, obviously it wasn't enough, because he didn't get it until the day after. Oh, so the day after is not horrible.

Speaker 3: 38:47

No, it wasn't, but he was kind of bitchy because he was like where's my food?

Speaker 1: 38:52

Oh my gosh, we've gotten so lazy, haven't we Like I'd be the same way. I'm like this is bullshit. I tipped well, he tipped 20%, even though it's like coming down an inch an hour.

Speaker 3: 39:05

It wasn't a big snowstorm, was it? Well, yeah, like, no wonder it didn't get to them, and they probably don't have a plethora of drivers up there Less Thursday, right yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:14

So how much snow did they end up getting out of that storm?

Speaker 3: 39:16

They got a ton, a ton they got a ton load.

Speaker 1: 39:20

So, yeah, Amazing, All right, this video. I feel so bad for this guy. This is a video. Why did what is going on with the? What am I? I'm on the struggle bus, there we go. This video is about a DoorDashDriver delivering kind of an ice storm for one.

Speaker 3: 39:35

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Please, please, take my advice if you're a gig worker, don't drive in that shit. It is not worth it. They do not pay enough to risk your car Cause. If you damage your car now, you're double screwed right. If it's damaged beyond repair now you don't have a car, for what? A $4 tip on an ice storm Like? It's just not worth it. But I felt so bad for this guy I didn't know when, as you watch it, you're like, oh, he's not going to slip.

Speaker 3: 40:03

And then he fucking slipped, so we'll play it.

Speaker 1: 40:10

I mean, if you're not, if you're only listening, that's him trudging up the the icy steps. So what I liked about it. He's like, okay, I'm going to go in the mulch here, cause like that will give me more, or stones, that's cool, that's cool. And he's looking down. And he's looking down and he just steps in the slug and oh, he's laying on the food right now. He kind of laughed but like he had three giant like strawberry lemonade and once he falls you can't see him. He's laying on top of them. But like, oh my God, I would feel so bad. Yeah, delivering drinks and all that. This is where everyone shits on McDonald's. They have the best delivery system. Everything's in the bag, even the drinks they have. Like, oh, it's amazing.

Speaker 3: 41:11

But if you land like that, they're out of the bag. Well, yeah, if you land on a Mc.

Speaker 1: 41:17

I'm just saying cause he was trying to like focus on holding the drinks and the food. At least they have handles and you couldn't be like he landed on them.

Speaker 3: 41:26

They're out of the bag. That was a big boy.

Speaker 1: 41:29

I mean, that would have smushed it but I felt so bad for that guy. Oh, and then, of course, whoever owns the camera fucking shares it on social media. So there's this guy's ass hanging out sliding down a driveway just trying to make a buck.

Speaker 3: 41:47

Definitely a boy guy yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:50

All right. Yes, for the moment of truth.

Speaker 3: 41:51

I would not have done it. No, I would not, I wouldn't be out there the moment of truth. This is just horrible. Who does this?

Speaker 1: 42:01

Now, if you haven't seen this on social media, I've seen it so much, I'm so tired of it, so I'm not going to act like it's a surprise, but for the audio listeners and I'm sure you've seen it it's two hands and they have DoorDash tattooed on their fingers. And I'm telling you it's legit, it's right around those ears. That's what it looks like when you get a tattoo the skin's all inflamed everywhere. They literally have DoorDash tattooed on their fingers. And then yes, we were talking about the tattoos on their hand.

Speaker 3: 42:31

They have two snails.

Speaker 1: 42:33

Yeah, but in my head I thought it was something like really bad or whatever. But I mean, you got to be like what would possess you to get a. Doordash tattoo.

Speaker 3: 42:46

Well, you know, if you had dead dasher.

Speaker 1: 42:50

I guess you're dedicated and I swear to God, I saw this today on TikTok speaking of tattoos. So it was a court appearance and this guy has the word crud tattooed on his forehead. Have you ever heard about this?

Speaker 3: 43:03

No.

Speaker 1: 43:04

And apparently he did well, okay. So he says there was a radio contest. He read the rules. They said the first person to get the call station letters tattooed on your forehead wins $250,000. He said he read the rules, everything looked fine, whatever. So he goes and does it. It's literally says crud on his forehead and big black letters. He ends up winning $500,000. The judge gave him the 25th, told the radio company to pay him the 250 and 250 for pain and suffering. So now what do you do? Do you go get those removed?

Speaker 3: 43:43

Well, yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:44

Or do you walk around with the word crud on your forehead for the rest of your life?

Speaker 3: 43:49

So why did he had to sue the radio station?

Speaker 1: 43:54

Why'd he sue the radio station? Because they said that they would give him 250 if he did it. And he did it. He walked in the radio station. They laughed at him.

Speaker 3: 44:02

They said, oh, they call bullshit, they call it oh.

Speaker 1: 44:05

They said it was a April Fool's joke.

Speaker 3: 44:08

I get it, sorry, I didn't say that part. Yeah, yeah, just give him the 250,000 miles.

Speaker 1: 44:13

Yeah, they said it was bullshit, so who knows, he's probably had that on for two, three years while he's trying to sue them.

Speaker 2: 44:19

I get you?

Speaker 1: 44:20

I mean, would you If you were broke? No listen listen, if you were broke as a like super broke, you just can't make ends meet and you were gonna get $250,000, if you tattooed the word crud on your forehead, would you do it?

Speaker 3: 44:36

No, how am I gonna get the money to tattoo crud on my forehead If I'm-.

Speaker 1: 44:41

Well, yeah, that's true, he did say it was really expensive because he literally heard it and ran down to the first tattoo shop. So he wanted it rushed and he said it was a little pricey. But I mean, I don't know, I don't think I would do it anywhere but my forehead.

Speaker 3: 44:57

I mean people always say don't tattoo your face.

Speaker 1: 45:00

I know, once you go face, or even sometimes neck, depending on the tattoo. I don't mind neck tattoos. I've seen I actually like neck tattoos on chicks. I don't know what it is Like. Any kind of neck tattoo, like right under here, is hot to me. I don't know, I just love it. But on a guy it's like, yeah, so I mean, the only people that are good with face tattoos are gangsters and post Malone, that's it. Those are the only two people that I can do it, so, so yeah, no, I would not.

Speaker 1: 45:31

Charles said no or Steve said no way he should have walked up that and that's how people get sued. Have a frozen walkway and order food. You are asking for a lawsuit. I mean, if he doesn't get hurt you're not gonna get sued. But I don't know. I just God I'd walk out and get my food If I actually did that. I'm like, and I knew my driveway was like that the guy's an asshole all around the driver and the I mean, if you order that kind of food, at least put some salt or something, do something.

Speaker 3: 46:00

Yeah, I mean don't, yeah, no, don't be an ass.

Speaker 1: 46:03

All right, yes, we're added this story and I'm so tired of these fucking apps. There's a million of around. So apparently this isn't Grand Rapids and it is a app called Kickback, and it's. Whether it's lawn care, snow shoveling or something else entirely. Kickback is an app designed you to give the ability to let someone else handle it. There's a million of these fucking things, like we started with Handshake or whatever the fuck it was back in the day. And there's just so many of them.

Speaker 1: 46:32

I mean I'm glad the kid did the app, but I mean it's stupid. There actually is another local guy that created an app for snow plowing. I think it's called he's in the Hudsonville group because I see him talk about it all the time. I can't remember the name for it, but like the one off plow time, it's an app for that.

Speaker 3: 46:49

Yeah, was it called plows, I think it is called plows. Plowc, yeah something like that.

Speaker 1: 46:55

Now, that's a cool app. People need that, because I don't know how many people on that fucking Facebook group are looking for a one-time plow. I'm looking for a one-time plow.

Speaker 3: 47:04

Just like use the app you don't have to post in Facebook. Yeah, yeah, plows, yep.

Speaker 1: 47:09

Is it Okay, I'm ranting here PLOWC.

Speaker 3: 47:13

Now this one here. I looked at it a little bit. This app here, basically.

Speaker 1: 47:17

Did you download it to take a peek? No, but yeah, most, most and plows, no I think this was a different one, but I know of that one. Anyways, keep going.

Speaker 3: 47:26

No, I was just gonna say the way that he works is that he takes 5% off of both, so the tasker can set his own price, and then he just gets 5%, so he does run the payment then. Yes.

Speaker 1: 47:40

Okay, see, that was different from a lot of them. They don't actually do anything with payment. So, okay, this app is a little bit better then, because at least he's like, because remember that one guy he's like I don't make any money on this, I'm like, why the fuck would you do it? Like for charity, like I mean it's fine, but so at least 5% is not bad.

Speaker 3: 47:59

He takes it off both sides.

Speaker 1: 48:01

Oh, so he's getting 10%.

Speaker 3: 48:02

Yeah, he takes it from the yeah, from the yeah, from both yeah, from the buyer and the seller and the seller huh.

Speaker 1: 48:09

I gotta find this stupid group. This is just killing the show. Ha ha ha. It's gonna bother me so much, not knowing what this fucking app costs.

Speaker 3: 48:21

I'm doing the Vena White song. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. No, it's not the Vena White song.

Speaker 1: 48:27

I don't even know what the fuck you're doing.

Speaker 3: 48:31

Yeah, well, I'm filling out empty space, whatever.

Speaker 1: 48:33

Oh, we built an app. It's called Quick Plow Quick.

Speaker 3: 48:36

Plow.

Speaker 1: 48:37

Yeah, look it up, his name is Ryan Crawley. He's from the area. Yeah, it costs. He says pricing ranges from 40 to $120 per plow, and obviously I mean 40 bucks for like a small regular driver it's the song? What the song I? Don't even know what the fuck you were singing.

Speaker 3: 48:57

The Vena White.

Speaker 1: 48:59

That's not singing again.

Speaker 3: 49:01

No, I'm not.

Speaker 1: 49:02

No, now you're doing it no, no no. So Quick Plow, we should get this guy on the show.

Speaker 3: 49:08

Anyways so.

Speaker 1: 49:11

I'm glad I spent all that time for that.

Speaker 3: 49:13

I know right, that was big stuff.

Speaker 1: 49:15

So, yes, oh, we gotta do this real quick. Octopus, octopus, octopus tablet. This is a great tablet to get if you are a rideshare driver, if you are a doordash driver. Do not get this, because you can't do it. You gotta submit your Uber stuff anyway. So it's like whatever.

Speaker 1: 49:33

Octopus tablet is, a tablet that runs in the background, as you can see in the picture, behind your headrest. Customers or riders can play games, they can play trivia, all that stuff. There's information about you as a driver. It asks them to tip your driver, all this stuff. And what it is is they show ads and you get a portion of the ad revenue. You get paid on driving around and you get paid for on people touching and interacting with the app. I'm actually getting a 1099 for them this year. I just realized I have a list of all my 1099s. I don't have them on the list because I actually won $1,000 from them. So they're very driver-supported company. They're very nice. They do giveaways all the time. They're giving away a free phone Friday to three people and it's just really cool what they do. You can earn up to about $100 a month. That's probably for full-time driving.

Speaker 3: 50:23

I would say yes.

Speaker 1: 50:24

Yeah, yes, brin, I have kind of talked about that. But if you're already out driving, it's simple, it's free. They send you all the equipment, you set it up in like two seconds and you just drive around, like people like it. Yeah, and that's the best part. I would even keep it up there if people didn't like it, just because I wanted the money.

Speaker 2: 50:40

But people actually like it.

Speaker 1: 50:42

They often say do I have to pay to play this? You might, no, what is this Olive Garden? You know they pay you. They charge you for Olive Garden, that little computer that they have on the table. Have you been Olive Garden lately?

Speaker 2: 50:53

I mean it's a lot of the chain restaurants.

Speaker 1: 50:56

Applebee's Olive Garden On the border, that kind of stuff, but it's a little thing and kids can play games. Oh yeah, they charge you three bucks. I got the bill like a couple months ago into Olive Garden. My son was playing on him three bucks. I'm not kidding you, so I don't even say that it charges you, either you just know. That's probably why they ask Is this charge when you're playing with the tablet?

Speaker 3: 51:20

but Don't know where I would do that.

Speaker 1: 51:24

Yeah, all right, you're up door.

Speaker 3: 51:25

It has suspends, something oh yeah, yeah, so this was actually was this happened last week? It was actually, it was during our show last week actually, but we obviously didn't talk about it. But there's first time in a long time, and so it was just. I figured it was interesting to put it on. Basically, in Nashville, tennessee, they had a big, big, huge winter storm, so door dash Temporarily suspended all Operations across Tennessee, including Nashville, as winter storm blankets most of the state and snow and ice. Okay, as a precautionary measure. Basically, they they stop the delivery service as the winter storm delivers potentially dangerous blizzard conditions, including heavy snow and strong winds. The temporary pause of deliveries began 1145 on Monday, january 15 will continue until 1030 on the 16th. So, as long as weather conditions improve, a coin. So there was, there was basically that. I think it's cool that they are watching those things and they are making sure that we are safe.

Speaker 1: 52:38

So I Mean, I like that they did that. I mean, I think when those apps first came out, they didn't. They got sued like I think it was a hurricane that happened and they weren't like Shutting it down. Now, people, they must have been overly cautious this last winter storm because people I was seeing people post all the time. What does this mean? Was this mean like they didn't know that that door dash would shut down? So I don't know. I even got one for me For this area when we had our winter storm. They never did shut down. What is your thought about that? Do you think it's good for them to do that, or should it be like we're 1099? We should be able to do what we want.

Speaker 3: 53:14

I think it's good that they do it. I do too, because they want to keep our drive. They should keep the driver safe.

Speaker 1: 53:19

They should, they really should I mean because they're your biggest asset if you don't have the drivers I mean not that all of them would die in a snowstorm, but no, no, I think there's, but I was also thinking the wise different.

Speaker 3: 53:31

for instance, for food delivery as opposed to you know, right, sure?

Speaker 1: 53:35

Right, yeah, they don't shut that down, do they?

Speaker 3: 53:37

well, but they might right.

Speaker 1: 53:39

Yeah, but I mean they did.

Speaker 3: 53:41

It is different because food delivery driver, food delivery, getting in and out of the car all the time. That's true and, and it may be just saw it right, the guy who yeah.

Speaker 2: 53:50

I fell in his ass.

Speaker 3: 53:51

That's true, getting out, deliver, the delivery, the food up to the, to the pet, to the house.

Speaker 1: 53:57

Well, I think, I think the uber and lift stuff they got in trouble was was the surge gouging that was happening right during that hurricane, because everyone's trying to get out. Sure. So they were trying, you know, making money hand over fist. But Troutler says they don't care about us. I mean truly they don't. They'll just replace you with someone else.

Speaker 3: 54:17

And, and, and I think you're right. Right, they don't care about us, but they do care about the Messages they send.

Speaker 1: 54:25

Yeah, I mean they have to keep a some sort of Like said met. What am I trying to say?

Speaker 3: 54:31

Well, public presence, yeah that, whatever that is persona.

Speaker 1: 54:35

They have to keep a good company persona, even though I think they are stupid idiot. So, yeah, right, sure didn't even shut down a COVID. I mean you can argue that ride share has become like public transportation. It really has. You can't just shut it down. People rely on that to get to work like it's. It's a thing now. So I I'm glad that they didn't. They didn't shut it down. During COVID I did not drive, I did all food delivery for almost two years, which was I was ready to get back to rides, but I I think it's become such a staple in our economy and our way people move that you can't just shut it down.

Speaker 3: 55:13

How often do you do a rise now?

Speaker 1: 55:15

It's. I haven't done it really any gig work since Christmas, but I am going out this weekend. I haven't got a Decent bonus, decent in quotes. I got a 60 ride bonus for a hundred bucks, okay. So it's better than what it's been, oh that's okay, yeah, and then if I do 70 it. If I do 10 more it's like 70 more dollars, so ends up being like a hundred seventy five dollar.

Speaker 3: 55:37

That's not too bad yeah.

Speaker 1: 55:39

I mean, but I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna. I don't even know if I'll hit six weeks. I realize I have to work as my other job. Yeah, I don't know, I'm gonna be out this weekend doing some sort of work. Yeah, as long as it's not a fucking snowstorm, I'm not driving in that snow. That's another reason I haven't driven, like last weekend. We have the storm and then before then and so, but I'm ready to get back out. I'm I'm jones into to make some money so, but buses shut down New York City.

Speaker 1: 56:05

They're a bunch of bitches over there. They don't know what a winter storm is. Okay, last is a. This is kind of Strange, this woman. I don't know if it's fake or not. We'll watch it and then we'll talk about it. This is my door desk driver. Assumed I didn't leave a tip and put something in the bag Again. Why are you fucking delivering it if there's no tip? She's wearing crocs.

Speaker 2: 56:49

Ignore it, you keep that. Well because I didn't see a tip on the app and I put a little card in there, so please, I don't think it was set up.

Speaker 1: 57:07

So then she goes inside and the note says I don't remember, I have to wait till it pops up again. Lucky for you, I didn't bother the food, but next time consider tipping your driver. So, whoopsies, now why wouldn't you just have the note ready, like, like, have your finger in the bag and then, if you didn't see a cash tip, like you didn't have the foresight to think maybe they're tipping cash? You dumb motherfucker.

Speaker 3: 57:38

When yes, so travel is saying she's embarrassed absolutely season.

Speaker 1: 57:42

Oh yes, she's embarrassed that she did that.

Speaker 3: 57:44

But why even?

Speaker 1: 57:45

do it. I don't know. You clearly took it without a tip, right.

Speaker 3: 57:50

Exactly, You're just trying to crack. You shouldn't be doing this job Honestly. I'll do something else.

Speaker 1: 57:56

The only person in this whole scenario is a dumbass, even without the awkward interaction Is you for taking with no tip.

Speaker 1: 58:03

Right unless she got had a bundle one and she didn't realize it wasn't a tip on it, I don't know. But oh man, that's so awkward. I was just like, oh no, I still would have took the cash. No, I would have like well, the notes in there, fucking I might as well take this cash while it's at like. Did you think the lady hopefully won't report her, but obviously she blasted it on tiktok so it's probably fired anyways.

Speaker 3: 58:24

But hey, what is? Why is people so stupid?

Speaker 1: 58:30

I don't mind them putting it when they're texting them. Like I see people. I've seen people they accept the order, they talk shit to the customers, say you should have tipped, and then they unassign it or cancel it. Like I think that's funny as fuck just to fuck with them. But like man leaving a note in there like a handwritten note, that's like next level shit.

Speaker 3: 58:50

So that's just.

Speaker 1: 58:52

I don't, I don't even get it any closing thoughts, jesper, on this episode no no, I don't have a hell in here.

Speaker 3: 58:58

I forgot to turn the heat on, so the heat's cranking in here. Okay, it's okay.

Speaker 1: 59:03

Um, not too many closing thoughts couple of things coming up that I'm excited about. We we talked about I don't know how to pronounce it. Is it ready, righty?

Speaker 3: 59:13

I think it's righty.

Speaker 1: 59:14

I think it's righty too. We talked about is a convenience store light cargo, but not quite that. You put on the back of your seat that's completely locked and they pay on an app and it unlocks. You don't have to do anything and you can put your own products in it and you can charge whatever you want. They take a percentage. We're gonna be interviewing them in the next month or so and I did connect to somebody on tiktok, surprisingly, with my small following that wants to come on the show for like a b-side interview. So that's what we got coming up, other than that, just Continue as normal cool Stop as always, don't put up with anyone's a bullshit.

Speaker 3: 59:50

I will see you on the road.

Speaker 1: 59:52

Good night. This podcast is produced and edited by hey guys media group. Want to start a podcast? Check out hey guys media group. Comm you.