Driver Makes $4,000+ on Grubhub in June 😲 | Uber Passenger’s Nightmare! | Shift Hustle Ep 4

We explore new developments in the gig economy landscape, from testing out Amazon Flex after a long absence to examining DoorDash's push for "portable benefits" legislation similar to California's Prop 22.

• Completed a $107 Amazon Flex route after finding Walmart Spark deliveries too slow
• DoorDash emails promoting "portable benefits" that would provide healthcare, PTO, and retirement options without employee classification
• Introduction to the Gig Spot app for mystery shopping with tasks ranging from $9 gas station audits to $65 apartment shopping evaluations
• Discussion of a California gig worker earning $2,700 in one week, with $1,759 coming from Prop 22 adjustment pay
• Reddit story about a driver holding a passenger's keys hostage for an increased fee, eventually resolved with police intervention
• Brief look at whether mystery shopping gigs provide comparable value to food delivery for similar pay

Join us on Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern for the Gig Economy News show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Back to Flex: A Profitable Route
• 3:20 TikTok Hate and Waymo Teen Accounts
• 4:48 DoorDash's Push for Portable Benefits
• 8:23 Exploring Gig Spot for Mystery Shopping
• 14:10 Prop 22 Earnings and Lost Uber Keys
• 20:10 Wrap-Up and Show Announcements

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

that's what I like to see. Show the comments. There we go. Bubba, sue, nice to see you. All right, we are live. Live for the Shift Hustle show. Hope you're all doing well.

Speaker 1: 0:34

I just got done with a flex route. There we go. Just got done with a flex route. It was pretty good. I haven't done flex in a long-ass time. Uh, it was pretty good I got. I haven't done flex in a long ass time.

Speaker 1: 0:49

And I was out doing Walmart today and I was just like Walmart spark and I'm just like, oh my God, it's so. It was just so dead. And, um, I was like you know what I'm gonna? I'm gonna dabble with flex and if you have a flex alert, uh, which you should from Gary's apps it'll auto refresh for you. And then actually, it's technically not a bot, so don't come at me, because it does not go to a server, it has to ping your phone.

Speaker 1: 1:15

But I was in doing a pharmacy order for Walmart Spark and it grabbed a route for me. I put my $25 was my threshold for getting a route and I came out of the pharmacy order and it had a fricking route for me this afternoon and I was like shit. So I just went home. I put in 25 an hour, like I said, and so I think I ended up getting. I got the. What was it? It was a four hour route for 107, so obviously a little bit more than 25. But you know, on this show we don't do math. So, um, I don't, uh, I did it and it was pretty good.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Crazy, though, uh, kind of just local to us. I was in the city of Lowell and there was a huge like black plume of smoke and um, I was like, oh shit, like that's a fire, and there was a ton of fire trucks and uh, come to find out, was an airplane that that crashed into a storage unit. So, um, I don't know any about loss of life, but yeah, it was pretty wild because even an hour after I was, I had saw that fire and heard the trucks. I, I was driving home in the highways, are down my route and there was a fire truck coming down the highway so they had called in a bunch of people from all over the place. So it's kind of wild when that stuff happens. Doesn't it feel like there's been a lot of plane crashes lately? Are we just seeing them more? I don't know, but that's what it feels like A couple of things before we get started in the articles. I got a laugh.

Speaker 1: 2:46

I actually got a little hate on TikTok. It was a video about us talking about Waymo adding the teen account. You know, because I put clips on there and they're just little snippets of the show, right, you don't really get the full picture of what our show is about. And so you know, the purpose of the clips is for you to go check out the show. But and this guy follows me too, like we're like friends on tiktok I can't remember his name and I can't go in there now because if I do, uh, it'll kick me off the tiktok that I'm streaming right now.

Speaker 1: 3:21

But he had said something like we had said. I think it was like maybe a 30 second clip. It was about, you know, we were excited for the teen account. You know, like we thought it was more safe to, you know, have our own kids go in the waymo account than like some creeper. And he was like I watched this and I don't think you guys know a lot about ride share, you don't know what you're talking about and that I popped back to him and said, hey, what do you mean? And he said something just like it's against the law to have kids in an Uber. And I'm like, yeah, we understand that, but there are teen accounts.

Speaker 1: 3:59

And then I said, well, hey, you know, we've been gig workers since 2016. Said, well, hey, you know, you know, we, we've been gig workers since 2016. We have, like god, I would say like between larry and I probably 20 000 rides, maybe 15 000. And he's like, well, I've been doing it for 10 years. I have 15 000 of my own or 20 000 of my own.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I was like, okay, but he still didn't. He still didn't respond back of like what we didn't know, what we were talking about. I'm like we're not the, we never claimed to be the experts, but like I think it's pretty obvious what we didn't know, what we were talking about. I'm like we're not the, we never claim to be the experts, but like I think it's pretty obvious what we were talking about in that tiktok. I don't know. I guess it's good if somebody's hating on you but I wouldn't say he's hating on me, but like questioning it, but just fucking respond. Then, geez, should I send this clip to him so that? And then, um, I had my list of what I want to talk about. And then I get so many emails from doordash. I feel like this needs to be a a trend of what doordash has sent me for emails.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So first is this one is interesting and I don't know if you guys got it and maybe it's um local to me, but it talked about tell Congress to support expanding benefits to independent workers. You dash for the freedom and flexibility it gives you, but outdated laws make it hard for companies to offer benefits for independent contractors. Congress can help companies explore ways to provide independent contractors more access to things like paid time off, healthcare and retirement, without taking away your independence. This bill would be a big step toward a future where independent workers can access the support they need. And so it says take 30 seconds to tell DoorDash to support exploring benefits for dashers. So I click on it. I get a 404 page not found, so I don't know if they sent this out to all dashers, and then you know the ones that it doesn't apply for. So they actually kind of explain this a little bit. I have not heard anything about that and in fact even on Steve, with Steve, I haven't heard anything either. But they have four bullet points what are portable benefits. So if you know anything about this rule at all, please definitely let me know. I'll have to do a little bit more research on it. That's one of the things we don't do research on the show, right?

Speaker 1: 6:13

What are portable benefits? Portable benefits can provide independent workers access to contributions for benefits such as healthcare, retirement savings, pay time off, while maintaining the flexibility that dashing offers, which kind of sounds like Prop 22 in California. Number two they can help make dashers have more support in case of unexpected setbacks like illness or unexpected health expense. Three it fits how people work today, offering real support without forcing everyone into a traditional nine to five. And number four Congress can help with a law that would allow companies to explore providing these kinds of benefits without taking away your independence. If passed, this law would be a big step toward making portable benefits a reality. So that's like a new term, like the portable benefits. I haven't seen that. I do see another button to take action. Let's see what it does. Yeah, it still does 404 for me.

Speaker 1: 7:06

I'll probably be diving into this a little more, the portable benefits thing, just to kind of see what it's about. It's very vague too. It doesn't say anything about which state or anything. So if anyone else got this email, bubba Sue says Steve has talked about it a bit. Okay, if anyone else has gotten this and has a little more insight, definitely let me know about that, because I'm interested. It sounds like it really does sound like Prop 22 with a little bit of twist, but it's like they are pushing it, though. So that makes me think it's not, or would that? Do I have that backwards? Because usually the gig apps are fighting against that right, like Uber and Lyft paid all that money in California to fight against this kind of stuff. So I find it odd that DoorDash is pushing Congress and pushing us to support expanding benefits for independent workers. Usually it's the exact opposite. So, yeah, I don't know. Seems strange. Okay, I am going to try for the next couple of weeks, too, is to try to highlight a app for a new app that you may not heard of.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Thanks to Mo for giving me a list of things, and the first thing I want to talk about for this week, or the first app, is called gig spot. Um, I don't know if you have heard of gig spot, but it is like uh, why did it do that? It is like mystery shopping. So I created account, um, I don't know if you've done any mystery shopping before, but it's, hang on a second, not thirsty, but like have gross stuff. Well, that didn't sound good either. It's like, if you like to do, um, mystery shops and I've never been a mystery shopper at all um, so I I kind of looked at it. So this first one is for sitco gas stations. I don't know if you have a sitco near you, um, so it's like a gas station convenience store and this is nine dollars for compensation. So it's like, oh, okay, and then it will. It will, um, give you up to a dollar to cover your costs, like you know some of those you go, like out to dinner or whatever, and they'll cover up to 30 bucks.

Speaker 1: 9:32

But it seems like a lot of work. You have to take nine pictures, you have to go in the bathroom, um, you have to look at the gas pumps, you have to look at all this stuff. So it's, it's, it's not like when it's a mystery shop, it's not like you're just shopping. I don't know, I guess I kind of thought it was more just. I mean more just, easy, easy. You know what I mean, but I mean I guess it. It could be easy if you got good at it. But you have to take a picture of the building and the canopy and the gas sign and the in the gas pumps and then the bathroom, and then you have to answer all these questions and stuff like that. And then I'm thinking and then you have to answer all these questions and stuff like that, and then I'm thinking, well, once you got good at it, I guess you could bang it out real quick and it'd be fine. But I don't know if it's worth $9.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Now this one for me is right around the corner, like it's less than a maybe a mile. No, it's a half a mile from my house. So, so I mean, I guess it wouldn't be too bad. But this is called Gig Spot Check it out, I think it's just gigspotcom, and so there's a bunch of gas station ones. And then there's one on here for an apartment. You have to, like, go in and apply for a for an apartment, but it's $65. But again, that one's, it's quite a bit of work too. Burlington Coat Factory $20.

Speaker 1: 10:52

That one's, that one's, it's quite a bit of work too. Burlington Coat Factory $20. That one's new, that wasn't up there earlier. Basically it says sizing audit, no purchase required. So again, you're probably just trying on a few outfits or something like that. But oh, here's Ross Dress for Less. Isn't that a woman's shop? I probably shouldn't have gone there. That would be a little odd, cube, smart, self-storage $15.

Speaker 1: 11:21

So yeah, if it's something that you know you want to do to make a little extra money, I guess you know, sometimes times are slow and you know here's one there's 1,751 web jobs. I wonder if you have to like this one's in California. I wonder if you have to be. So check it out gigspotcom. I mean, obviously none of these are going to be. You know, I don't have like a referral code or anything like that, but like I wanted to go over each app and try to just get a little piece of what it is, I don't know, I might try it.

Speaker 1: 11:58

I'm kind of lazy when it comes to gig work, as you guys know. Not like lazy, but I'm kind of. I kind of want to do to make the most. I mean, I guess that's not lazy, right? You want to make the most money you can with the least amount of effort, isn't that kind of smart? And to make $9, I mean I can go do a Uber Eats delivery and make $9. And then I don't, you know, I have to basically get out of my car, get the food and deliver it To make $9 with taking a bunch of pictures and uploading them and writing descriptions like that. Uh, I don't know if that's worth it.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Uh, going back to, um, the stuff that we talked about earlier, I wasn't. I don't really look at the comments all the time. I don't sign anything. Doordash wants us to sign. Well, I mean, they're, they're, they're pushing to reach out to your, your congressman.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Uh, also, she said this is their way of not making us employees, in which way government is trending in some states. But that's the thing. Like, I mean, if we got all those benefits and still got to do the same thing, what would? What would your opinion be on that? Because, like I, in fact, one of the stories tonight we're going to talk about is I say we, because it's always usually we is prop 22. I don't really think prop 22 is such a bad, a bad thing. I mean, it looks like they get to do everything they want and they still get benefits and like extra cash. Uh, I think the only bad part of it would be. You would see more the markets be more saturated than they already are because more people would get on and do it. Because now, if they're going to get extra money and we can just jump into that one right now, let me give me a second to get to the.

Speaker 1: 13:45

I want to read the comments too. So, uh, this guy posted oh, I do have a picture, not that it matters that much, but this guy posted not a bad June, I guess Kind of slacked off. In the days I made $1,100 a week due to working only eight hour shifts. On the days I made $1,700 a week. Plus I usually work 10 hours per day easy money. If you look, he made $ twenty seven hundred dollars. But if you kind of break it down delivery pay 650, uh, tips 293 and adjustment pay is 1759 like damn. So that, I assume, is Prop 22.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Bubba Seuss says Prop 22 is garbage. Make less money since floor meets ceiling. I am not smart enough to know what that means. Some of the comments adjustment pay you can't work more than 11 hours in Cali. Somebody's mad that he's using the double subsidy payout as an example of weeks pay. Yeah, I don't know, it's just prop 22. Okay, sorry, I'm reading the comments. Yeah, I mean he's. I mean it smells like california adjustment pay is a dead getaway. Yeah, I'm not sure why you like brag about, uh, the prop 22, like I mean that's not really your, I mean, I guess it is your earnings. Uh, I mean I guess, but I mean that that money probably equals what he can live in, uh, in california with the adjustment pay, because otherwise, you know, although that's a shit ton of money, $2,700 for a week, that's wild. So, yeah, I thought that was funny. See, what else did I want to talk about? Okay, here's a little Reddit story too. You know I love Reddit.

Speaker 1: 15:48

So this was 13 days ago on subreddit Uber help please. I have an Uber and this is for mostly ride share people, but I have an Uber driver refusing to turn my keys. I went through the app process and he told me to text Uh, he said $30. I said LOL, isn't it 20? He ignored and blocked me. I cocked it contact. He ignored and blocked me. I contacted him on my work phone and he was like oh, I have internet problems. I asked again to return my keys and he said no, come and get them yourself. I tried to reach Uber. God, what is wrong with me? I tried to reach Uber it's all AI, which we know.

Speaker 1: 16:21

As you saw that, larry and Gabe last Wednesday. I wish I would have waited for that one because I wanted to do a little skit with it. Last week they this person had a wild customer service exchange trying to get the driver more of a tip and it just went worse and worse and worse. Uh, so it was kind of funny, uh, but anyways. So they said I tried to reach Uber, it's all AA. What should I do? Edit, got my keys back Hand, delivered by two cops, but keep quacking useless piles of turd.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Maybe they're mad at the comments and don't forget to do exactly what we say or you won't get your stars. Oh, fucking losers. Yeah, so I don't understand why people hold on to stuff or like as a as a ransom. And the guy said he wanted 30 instead of 20. First comment hopefully he'll simply drop it at the nearest police station. They'll contact you. You can pick them up from there. He might also toss them out to be a dick, but hopefully it's not that. Yeah, let's hope he. You know, obviously he didn't do that. Oh, my god, the commas. You left your keys. But he's the asshole you should have to get them yourself.

Speaker 1: 17:33

You want a driver to lose money to accommodate your inability to keep track of your property? I hope that driver throws them out. No, that's not what he said he was gonna do. The 20 tut, 20 bucks, it's fucking wild. Yeah, that's weird. I mean I did always make the joke that said, hey, you know, if you ever get a phone, just throw it out the window.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Um, but they do make it really difficult to get your stuff back, uh, in an uber. Thankfully, I've never left anything in an uber, but, um, yeah, that definitely, uh, that definitely is a pain in the ass, because what is Uber supposed to do? Really, what they should do? They should suspend your account until you return. That. I mean I know that's against a driver and that's me as a driver, but to get your stuff back, they should. They should suspend your account until you return the stuff.

Speaker 1: 18:28

If you threw it out, then I mean mean, it's kind of on you, right you? Maybe you should be more responsible with that stuff. I mean, again, it's the person forgot it. But, like, how many times have you forgotten shit? People make mistakes. Like, I don't think we need to hold these people hostage and, and you know if they're the asshole. I mean, I just don't understand that.

Speaker 1: 18:50

So, uh, all right, well, I hope you all had a profitable gig day. Uh, I did so. That route paid good and I had a little bit this morning. Uh, that's about all I got on the shift hustle show. So definitely, uh, enjoy doing these by myself a little different, for sure, but I'm getting more comfortable in the seat.

Speaker 1: 19:10

I don't have a time limit on these. If I have a lot to talk about or there's a lot of people in the chat, then we can keep going, but I'm just not going to ramble on if I don't have a ton to talk about. I do want you to go if you're listening live, go to TikTok. Go look at Maureen's live stream. She is talking to a tax expert to kind of break down what the new tax law is, if it's legit, if it's not legit, those kind of things. I know she started at seven, so definitely check that out.

Speaker 1: 19:42

We will be live again on wednesday for the the gig economy news show. Oh, lala, lala on TikTok wants me to coast. No, I, I don't want to do that. I don't know who you are. I don't like that. Um, tiktok can just do that, it's wild. But, yes, check that out, check out Marine show and then, like I said, uh, we'll be back Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern for the new show. And thank you so much for listening to the Shift Hustle. Come on, you had one job the Shift. That's hard to say the Shift Hustle Show. I appreciate you guys so much and have a great night you.