Uber's Latest Safety Scare, Amazon Delivery Fails & Gig Work Gone Wrong

We trade war stories from the road and unpack how app design, customer expectations, and bad incentives turn normal deliveries into avoidable chaos. We also dig into bigger gig economy shifts like Waymo stepping away from Uber in Phoenix, DoorDash moving deeper into on-demand delivery, and a frightening Uber safety story involving a child taken to JFK. 
• back-in-studio reset after a disastrous livestream and tech glitches 
• Pensacola trip recap and why the Naval Aviation Museum is worth the day 
• Walmart delivery breakdowns including post-checkout cancellations and messy multi-order loading 
• Viral Amazon delivery clips and what they reveal about professionalism and damage risk 
• Curri courier offer mispricing a route across Lake Michigan 
• why finishing an Amazon-style route early rarely pays off 
• BabyQuip update on transfers, clunky dashboards, and setting a hard spending cap 
• DoorDash debate on stairs, elevators, and what delivery service really includes 
• Safety concerns for hotel deliveries and how drivers manage risk 
• Waymo robotaxis no longer available inside Uber in Phoenix 
• DoorDash auto parts delivery expansion and why speed matters for DIY repairs 
• Uber taking an 11-year-old to JFK and why drivers must refuse unaccompanied minors

Transcript

Back In Studio After Stream Fail

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Oh fuck, I forgot to hit the button. Oh my god, I hit the button so fucking late. I was like sharing it on Facebook. I know, I know. Uh hi guys, welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast, episode 308. Back in the studio after a disastrous, absolutely disastrous live stream last week Wednesday. Uh if you watched it, I apologize. Yes. Um you know, I didn't tell Larry, but even I didn't even uh try to attempt to extract any audio. I just said fuck it and uh uploaded a uh quote unquote best of. I actually took the one episode in the last two years that had the most downloads and threw that up there. But um, so yeah, episode 308, gonna talk about a lot of stuff. Uh Uber left a child at JFK. Waymo splits with Uber and Doordash DoorDash's big delivery expansion. Uh, how's it going, Larry?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

It's going well. Yeah, it's uh good to be back in studio. As you said, last week was uh a nightmare for my else. It was not good. Uh so yeah, um, but yeah, good to be back in the studio behind the mic.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I do appreciate you being uh the not the voice of reason, but just like rolling with the punches and just like being calm because like when I wasn't on camera, I'm like, this motherfucking shit fuck like I was so pissed because like we had so much fun the week before we had a little bit of issues, but like once we got rolling, it was yeah, it was great. It was great. I really enjoyed talking to you uh through the stream and stuff like that. But yeah, maybe it wasn't meant to be. Uh Larry Briefle and I talked on the pre-show, which you can get at patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast, uh free seven-day trial. Uh, that the iPhone iPhone 14 has had trouble since the recent iOS update. I don't know why it's the 14, but there's lag issues, there's battery issues. So because I like I had said to Larry before, I had streamed by myself and it was never an issue.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

But yeah, you stream all the time.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, so I don't know what the fuck it is, but it is what it is. So it's not the summer for that, I guess, until unless I get a fix for that bug. And I don't think they're coming out with anything until iOS 27, which is in December. In December. No, September. So yeah. Uh any stories from the road

Pensacola Trip And Museum Stories

SPEAKER_00 2:50

from you? I didn't see any on there. I figure you have been on VK. I mean, we can't even give a story from the road from the week before because I mean we kind of drove.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

We were the story.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

No, we were the story. The the car crash.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Yeah, no, uh, we went to my wife and I went down to Pensacola for a few days uh with one of our daughters. Uh so we went down there, had a good time. Saw there highly recommend if you're ever down that way, go to the Naval Aviation Museum. It's fan freaking tastic, man. We were there from it opens at eight, closes at four, and we were there from about 7 45 till 4 o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yeah, I was gonna ask because you and I talked last time because I had been there too. It's a really, a really a cool thing. Even if you're not super duper into aviation, which I'm not, it's still cool to see that like the the massiveness of some of those planes that they have inside that. I mean, I would say glorified hangar is just insane.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah, and I mean there's a couple planes there that they they drug out of Lake Michigan that had been at the bottom of Lake Michigan for 40 years before they drug them out, and now they look you know pristine. I mean, they're super and we did the uh we did the guided tour. Oh um, they have guided tours and they have retired naval uh people um doing the tour. So our guy was he was probably mid-70s, he went through flight school in like 72, full of energy though. Great storyteller. We thought, oh, this this tour will be like an hour, three and a half hours. Oh my god. And I mean, of course, you I mean you could walk away and go when you wanted, but we stayed with him the whole time because he just had story after story that was that was just wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Kind of the guy you kind of want to go to a restaurant and sit down and just kind of listen.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, just let him go. That's great. So yeah, highly recommend that. It was it was fantastic. And if you go on like Tuesdays or Wednesdays, you can actually watch the Blue Angels practice. Yeah. So we were there on Friday.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Well, depending on what type of or what part of the year they do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I think when we went down there, they were not Yeah, they do three months before their season.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

I think at the first part of the year out in Califor, I think California. Okay. Um somewhere. But yeah, during during during their tour season, like from April to I don't know, uh September or so, November, I think is their last show. Um okay. They do that that's their home base, so they're there practicing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We we did see a couple of their flank planes flying around, so I don't know who was flying them because they were at a show somewhere. Okay, but probably the maintenance guy, like oh, I gotta get probably I gotta fix this thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I just gotta see if it works.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah, really zipping around because they were. I mean, things move, but yeah, wonderful. We we had a great time. My wife like enjoys that stuff too, and I really like aviation and uh anything to do with that, so very cool.

Walmart Delivery Chaos And Cancellations

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Well, uh, stories from the road. I don't remember all of them. A lot of them are Walmart. Uh, I've been doing a lot of Walmart deliveries pretty much um every day in the morning. Try to grab a couple. Uh today I had a a couple decent ones, and then shit, it just dried up. I bet I sat from 9 15. I was gonna wait till 10 and then call it. I ended up picking an Amazon route up, which I got back at like 5 30 today. Um, but I was gonna uh you know stay out longer, but it like it just dried up. I mean, there was a couple just poverty ones on there that they wanted me to take, but I'm like, no. And me knowing that I had that route this afternoon, I was less likely. But yeah, I think at like 10 to 10, I was like, I bagged it and went home.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

But yeah, it seems like that seems to be going around. I know Sue's been saying she's been having some some rough Walmart days.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's and and honestly, I forgot about Tuesdays because like last Tuesday I went out and it was the slowest day of the week. And and then uh Susan and Gabe reminded me like Tuesdays suck. So this week, uh Tuesday, I didn't go out. I I stayed home and did chores and stuff like that. Uh did a lot of laundry if you if you care to know. But um, you know, so um, but I've had some stories for Walmart. Last week I had um, I don't know, a double or I don't think it was a triple, probably a double shop. And I get all the way out. It was it was like one big one big, like 30 items and one five five items. And one of the five items had some cat food in it and a couple other things or whatever. Yeah, so I got I couldn't get the cat food that they asked for. So, you know, Walmart suggests a sub, so I sub it. I go to checkout. Um, as I'm I'm already checked out and bagged, I haven't left the store. I see a little notification of a chat. And you know, we've talked about how DoorDash doesn't really tell you in how we've both have messed up on that. Yeah, so I look at the chat and she's like, Oh, my cat uh is allergic to beef. I think it subbed it for a beef. It was like one of those little, you know, the little cans where you rip open or whatever. Yeah, and I'm like, you know what? I messaged her, I was like, okay, I will go back and look. I go back there, they had salmon and tuna and chicken and something, and I give her that, no response, and I was like, you know what? Fuck it. I I'm already going above and beyond. I've already checked out, like it's not my problem anymore. So I I left my cart at the front, walked to the back, grab the tuna and salmon, and I get out in the car, I start driving away. They fuck she fucking canceled the order.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Really?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, cancel the whole order.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Over one can of catfuck.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I guess and it the other items were like uh like a bulk pack of chips, uh, a case, 24 cans of coke, uh something else, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

So yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, I was just gonna say, so do they make you bring it back, or what do they do in that case?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Well, see, here's the thing. With normally in that kind of stuff, it'll it'll prompt you to bring it back. You go to curbside, uh, and they come out and grab it. Didn't prompt me to do anything. And so I guess I could have kept it, but I decided to bring it back because I really didn't want it. Most I mean, I don't need the cat food. Sure. Um, and so I brought it back. I go to customer service, I was like, explain briefly what happened. She's like, Yeah, just leave it there. I mean, none of it was actually perishable though. It was all like, you know, pop chips, yeah, the cat food that just sits on the shelf. So I think I still got paid for it and the tip, but it was really annoying that they allowed her to cancel it, knowing that I had checked out, because they know when I check out because I scan the little barcode, yeah, and I start to bag it up. So once I scan that barcode, that's indicating to everybody that he's checked out. They don't know how far I am in the banking process, whatever. So I'm surprised they let her cancel it.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah, I've never understood why they let people do that. It's just it's the same thing as people being able to cancel an Uber ride after it's started. Yeah, they should never be able to cancel it. They should they can end it, yeah. And the same thing with a shop. After you've checked out, they should not be able to cancel it.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

That's a really good point about the canceling the ride mid-ride. They shouldn't. I mean, I guess ending and canceling it is the same thing, but ending it means you end it and then you you're paid till that point, right? You're paid to that point, right? And then you pull over. That's interesting. I never really thought about that. So I don't know. I never really heard anything. I didn't reach out to support. Um, and then oh my god, I don't know how I can abbreviate this one. Um basically I had a loader that completely fucked up my car and this two weeks ago and loaded shit in the wrong spot. So I had a three-order plus some GMDs because they're they're now adding that. And I had asked him because I was kind of helping him, and there was a basket with no sticker on it. And I'm like, hey, where's this go? And he's like, Oh, it goes here, and then there was another one, he goes here, and I kind of trusted him. I get to the first stop, she sees the stuff because she had booze, so I had to talk to her. I she's like, That's not mine, that's not mine. Ends up fucking the entire the rest of the order up, and then come to find out there was a glitch on the app. So when I went to the second one, knowing that everything was fucked up, I talked to the old lady, I looked at the app and I was I gave her everything on there, and she was old, right? She probably didn't exactly remember what she ordered. Oh no, I had shit when I went to the third one and went down the list. I had shit from the old lady, and then it was a fucking nightmare. And so I I reached out to support, they're like, it's fine. Uh just bring it to the store. That stuff I brought home. Honestly, it was uh bananas, apples, uh salad mix. I'm like, all that shit we'll eat. Uh chicken. Uh yeah, I was like, I brought it back. Uh and support was like, Well, we've been having problems of all the items showing up in the app. And I'm like, okay, well, that's a problem. That's a big problem. Not that I really ever need to look at it once I deliver it, but if you do have an issue like I did, I I mean, I'm able to pick through it. It was it was a nightmare. And to the point, by the third one, I almost expired. Like, you know, you have a certain amount of time because it's I almost within like one or two minutes that I was dropping it off. Oh man. Oh my God. I was like, I know in the uh telegram group, which you can join, um I was ranting about it. Three, four, five-minute messages in there, and you know, everyone can't imagine. Yeah, Cody in there, he was like, Oh man, I can't wait to hear this on the show. I actually forgot about it up until I started talking about the other one.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

So yeah, you blocked it from your memory.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Well, it's you know, when you go when we're doing every week, like we're gonna go back to every week because obviously the streaming isn't working, it's a lot easier to remember, but that one was like two weeks ago. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if you don't write it down, man. Well, even if you write it down, I'm like, I wrote Walmart disasters, and I'm like, even sitting down tonight, narrow it down more than that. Even sitting down tonight, I was like, Yeah, okay, the calendar. Yeah. So anyway, more specific. Yeah, you gotta be more specific. Yeah, for sure. All right, uh, gig economy in the news.

Amazon Drivers On Lawns Gone Viral

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Um, I don't remember. Oh, is this the Amazon? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Oh my god. This is this is this is I I just couldn't believe it when I saw this. This is out of there. So yeah, this Amazon driver, Amazon driver. Uh, she just she just don't don't give a care in the world, apparently. I don't know if she even knows what she's doing. Yeah, it it really, yeah. We'll we'll play it and then we'll then we'll yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

If you're an audio listener, please search this. Just search um Amazon driver on lawn and you'll be like, what the fuck? All right, here we go. Yes. Is there no audio? Oh, there's no audio. They can hear us. Okay, so she's driving up on this gorgeous lawn.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

I mean, like zero percent on the driveway. Zero. She does not hit the driveway at all. She goes right next to the driveway, but at a diagonal across the yard, straight to the front porch. Yeah, very nice lawn. I mean, it's full of weeds, though. She gets out, walks the package up there, puts it on the front porch, walks back to her car, meanders over there, and just like a three-point turn backup and back out through the through the nice yard.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Someone commented they were surprised they that well now it was a heavier box, but I mean that that she didn't yeet it out the window.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah, just drive by doing airmail. I don't even understand, like yeah, it is really bizarre. I mean, she is out in the very middle of their lawn and leaves tire tracks.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Well, yeah, it's clearly freshly mowed and like got dew on it from the mall.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

It's got dew on it, yeah. You can tell because yeah, she she leaves marks all in it.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

If she would have won, she would have won an award for not touching the driveway then the entire delivery, because that's literally yeah, but it was so funny.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Like, like when she entered the yard, I mean right next to the end of the driveway, but at a diagonal.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

But she was right next to the driveway. Well, yeah, she did eight of she did like how the crow flies from the point of the road to the door.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

She did not just right there. Yep. She's like, hey, Walmart's gonna do how the crow flies, that's how I'm gonna deliver.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. Um, yeah, don't do that. I mean, obviously, if you're on a busy road and I look at it like this, even on some nicer driveways, if it's really or uh lawns, if it's really busy, I'm probably gonna put my back wheels on that grass because I'm not backing out. Like you live on a busy road, you clearly have a nice lawn and have a nice house. Put a turnaround in there, like yeah, you know what I mean. But that's egregious.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

I mean, that's that yeah, that was no attempt whatsoever to to hit the driveway at all. She and and yeah, I mean, it wasn't like she was in a hurry because she meandered when she got out. It wasn't like she was you know rushing to get that package delivered and she was late for somewhere else or anything like that. She was taking her sweet little time, but she drove right through the lawn, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:21

And that video has gone viral. I've seen it on so many different uh sources. Sometimes you know, you only see it on one source, but that one has gone viral, and we have another one uh coming up next, not next story, but um, so a lot of you know that I drive or well, a lot of people do, and I haven't much this year for Curry.

Curri Offer That Crosses A Lake

SPEAKER_00 16:41

And this is actually a video, I believe. Let me see.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Package Let me use the stairs, leaderboard garbage.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, so this is a video. I took a screen record of it, so we'll kind of talk through it because I kind of want to show everybody uh what happens. But I got uh I saw it pop up, it was a trip from somewhere on in Muskegon, which uh for the audio listeners, I live in Michigan. Muskegon's right on the water, the the big lake, and there is a ferry that goes across from Muskegon to Milwaukee. Well, this trip was going to somewhere, I mean, maybe 10 miles away out of Milwaukee. Well, Curry gave it to us across the lake. They gave me the the price, and we'll play it now. But so basically it's uh hi hi Jason, rush delivery from West Olive to somewhere falls for $182. I was like, You guys do realize the mileage that you're coding has the car driving across the lake and you need to redo it. She's like, I can't redo it, I can only negotiate pay. And then they went up to 200. I go, no. She goes, what price would work for you? I was like, 550. And then they're like, I see the route issue. Can I increase it to 210? I go, no. I understand the route is an idea. How about 240? I go 550. I can offer 250, 250 for the trip. Does that work for you? I clearly I should have recorded longer because I can't even read it. And I was like, no, and then I went down to 525. I'm like, okay. Are we in?

SPEAKER_01 18:08

I'll bend a little.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I'll bend a little 525. Because remember, I gotta go underneath the the lake. Like in and mind you, I live in West Michigan, so that's like through Chicago, then up, you know, and then into Wisconsin. And they were like, no, can't do it. Sorry, we'll we'll we'll think of you next time for a oops. I gotta go back to uh we'll think of you next time we have a delivery. But I'm like, I can't change the mileage. I'm like, and and I saw it go away for a while, and then it did come up again. Really? Same, maybe it was a little bit more, I think, but not anywhere. I mean, I wanted a dollar a mile. I figured out it was like 225 or something like that, 225 miles, which my car I wasn't gonna do. I was gonna take my wife's car. But then Gabe and I in the chat, we were coming up with all these scenarios like, okay, if I took my EV and then I took it crossing the ferry, and then if I brought an electric scooter, because it was like a one-pound part. Oh, yeah. Like, how can they not wait till next day? Like, what is it like a factory that needs that it could be?

SPEAKER_01 19:18

I mean, that you know, a factory that's down, and but you think it was a factory, they'd they'd be willing to pay a lot more. Well, I mean, they're losing a bunch of money, probably.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Well, they probably were like, oh, really? That's all it's gonna be, but then not realizing that they quoted it across the lake.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah, instead of instead of going around, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

I mean, yeah, because you would you would think an overnight part like that would probably be like 75 bucks, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

You know, I'm like, why didn't you just overnight it? Like it had to been some sort of factory that was down and they could not do it without it. But anyways, uh, so that was fun. Um, obviously I did not take that one. I would have I if they said 550, I think I think I was working well, I was working for the baseball that night. I was like, I guess I'm calling in sick. But you know, be worth it. Yeah, but they're not listening. But no, I was like, I'll take Megan's car. I'll fucking call in sick for that. But um, nah, didn't happen. So all right,

Package Tossing And Route Pace Reality

SPEAKER_00 20:18

moving on. Uh, this next video, um, I I mean it's not as bad, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Right, it's definitely not as bad, near not nearly as egregious as the first one. But no, it's not great either.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

No, we'll watch that real quick, and I don't know if this has sound or not. Oh, I guess it does have sound. So he pulls up, he kind of drives in the grass a little bit. Yeet! He gets back in his car. He shouldn't have thrown that package because I heard that thump.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Okay, so in this video, it is it is a narrow driveway.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

It is. I'm gonna give him that. I'm taking back all my shit talk because I would remember I said how I would have backed up. That road was fucking busy.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, that road, the main road. So it's a pretty long driveway. Uh, but but driving in, I mean, it's like he's not paying attention. He he goes off into the grass. Yeah. I mean, there's no reason to and he went way, he went, he went pretty significant, even parked off the grass.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Well, for okay, a couple of problems. One, he threw that package and you could hear the thump. Yeah, like clearly that's not a throwing.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Go ahead. Yeah, he aired my from about 15 feet away.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah, that is not a a throwing package. I mean, when I have clothes, I'm I'll I'll I'll be honest with you. I'm lazy. I'm gonna throw it because I can feel that it's soft. But that thing landed, and I'm like, well, whatever was in it, hopefully it was lazy.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Sounded like it broke.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

And then, yeah, he's driving a Honda Fit, which is a tiny car, and he drives the entire Entire car in the grass and then takes off. So don't do that. Again, put the back wheels on it. And even if you have to do it like a three-point turn, just just but again, that road was busy.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah. And he was, he was, he was hustling. You know, he he kind of jogged up to the porch. You could tell he was trying to, you know, be in a hurry and get things done. But yeah, that when that hit, man, I I cringe when that hit. It sounded like something broke.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Yeah. You know, I haven't done a lot of flex this year, but I've taken the ment I used to be like, and you know, Gabe and I, you know, we've talked about this. Like, you always want to hustle during those because you make more money if you get done. But I'm like, who the fuck cares? Like, take your time, enjoy your route. I mean, you're you're already getting your money. It doesn't matter if you work faster or slower. I mean, technically, I guess if you go over your time, you've made less per hour, but you already got it. There is no advantage for finishing early.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah. And and you know, especially if uh, you know, if you know you're gonna make your money for the day and you don't have something you have to get to. Um, yeah, I don't uh that I never I never much worried about how much I was making per hour. So much. I mean, you we didn't take you know I didn't want to take trips that were unprofitable or or wouldn't worth my time, but I didn't focus too much on the per hour stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

I think I only did really is for uh routes like this, or like Amazon routes. Like if I do a DoorDash or uh a Walmart, I might like think about it in my head of like where I'm at, but I don't really stress about it. But I used to like just hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle trying to get unless I was trying to get another route like in the afternoon, right? Or in the evening. That's different. That's different, that's different. But yeah, the last two routes I've done, this one today, and oh, which was a fucking doozy, Larry. I think I I think door to door I was 150 miles.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah, I ran in I came into the garage on orange tonight with my with my battery. It was uh um, I mean, I guess I could have stopped and charged, but I was like, eh, I can make it.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

But uh you've had it long enough to know what know how to judge it now.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah, well, you know, with my battery uh gauge, there's a minimum and a maximum. So I always look at the minimum what it thinks because it's the guest guesstimate. Like you have your like let's say it's a hundred miles that you have left, and it'll say like 125 on the max, and let's say 75 on the minimum. If I'm 20 miles above the minimum, I'll roll the dice.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

And that I was, I was 25, so I knew I would be fine, but it is always a little nerve-wracking. Sure. Rolling in when it's changed to orange from green to orange. You're like, okay, guy, let's let's let's get home. Time to charge.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Let's pay attention here.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Yeah, but yeah, today's route was um going back to like just the chill. Yeah, once I got in route, I was like, it was an easy route, but it was just driving down there. Was I mean it was 52 miles one way to get to my first stop. So, you know, so 50 miles there, 50 miles back, and I guess 50 in between technically, but I'm sure it was more on the it wasn't that much, it was a pretty tight route. But anyways. So think about that when you when you grab your routes. I grab mine at 25 an hour. They're not going much above that, and I'm a little I mean, it's a roll of the dice, right? You might get a good one. Last week I got one to my where I live, basically, and I drove a total of like 50 miles door to door. Yeah, so you never know what you're gonna get, but I I definitely got a little bit burned today.

Patreon Plug And Community Shoutouts

SPEAKER_00 25:49

So Patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. I'd love for you to join us there. Um, you can try it out for seven days for free. Uh, we do an extra podcast, uh, Larry's Dying, an extra podcast uh after this one each night, and you get some merch, and it's all kinds of fucking great stuff. I want to thank our current members who have been members for a shit long time. Uh Samson, I think, has the record. I I talked to him one time when I gave him a t-shirt like five years ago, and the fucker uh I mean uh maybe he doesn't know he's still paying. He's probably gonna listen to this and go, oh shit. Uh Samson from Grand Rapids, Bud Dickman from North Carolina, Omar from Detroit, Frank from Philly, which we haven't heard from in a hot second. Love you, Frank. Tom from McHenry, Jim from Connecticut, Miguel from GR, Linda from Tampa, Jerry Gillette from Kentucky, Faith from Las Vegas, uh Metal Kickass from Louisiana, and Anna from uh New York City. Um, so yeah, join the Patreon. We would love for you to do that. I did make a note. Did I make a note in here about an update? Oh, yeah, baby quip.

BabyQuip Reservations And Price Limits

SPEAKER_00 27:06

So do we have time for this? I'm looking at the time. Yeah. Um, so it's been interesting. I have not gotten an original reservation for myself. Um, I've gotten a few like transfers where people are like, oh, I don't want to do this, uh, and then transfer it out. The first couple like got taken away from me, so I'm like trying to figure out exactly what is happening. But I got one over the weekend, and instead of me looking at the item, I accepted it right away. So I look at the item that they that this person, so when they transfer it, you're basically transferred from their store. Okay. So the item they had on there was like a kind of like a wagon stroller-esque, like you pulled it like a wagon, but it was for like four four kids. Okay. $800, Larry. The wagon was eight hundred dollars. And yeah, and so I accepted it. And it's uh, you know, I'm not fucking buying an eight hundred dollar wagon. You can fuck off. Like, I I I'm just not doing it. And so I uh I ended up transferring to somebody else, but in the meantime, I realized I didn't know they had transferred it. Like it's their their dashboard's a little clunky. So I reached out to support. I was like, hey, I'm not, I don't have this item. Um, I'm not willing to spend $800. I'm like, can I offer an alternative? She's like, yeah, as long as the customer accepts it. So I emailed the customer. It's really kind of weird. So like I emailed the customer, asked if it was okay. She didn't respond. I emailed again today saying, hey, if I don't hear from you at the end of the day, I'm gonna have to cancel it. But realizing she's like, well, it already got transferred to somebody else, so I'm all set. So I guess I did transfer it back to somebody else. That being said, today I immediately go, well, I got another transfer again this morning. Okay, and I go look at it, and it's for tomorrow. I'm like, I don't, and this stuff that was on there wasn't that expensive. I was willing to purchase it, but I don't I can't get it by tomorrow. Right. So I cancel it. But it made me think to myself, I should probably go into my store and actually see what I have for reservations because what if I have this $800 like wagon in there? Well, come to find out, I did have one expensive thing because basically what you do, you just when you set up your store, you just go add, add, add, add, add, add it. You're not really looking. So what I did is looked at what I had, went to Amazon. Okay, I would be willing to purchase that. Like, I'm at like a max 200. Okay. Like, I'll spend 200 because a lot of the stuff that was reserved was like $150, $200 for the time. So I'm like, okay, one or two times, I've broken even. Right. It's quality stuff, it's gonna last me years and years and years. Yeah, but uh, yeah, you uh I'm glad I went in there and got rid of because I had like I think I had one stroller that was like $400. I'm like, fuck you. $400, and I guarantee this lady that transferred that $800 one, she didn't fucking have it. She had it on there and then said, Oh, I didn't mean to. Fuck this. I'm gonna transfer it to somebody. And then my dumbass instead of well, I was up north and had limited, very limited sell signal.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Yeah, so it's hard to yeah, hard to check anything out when you don't have much connectivity.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Yeah, and so I I I ended up seeing it was eight hundred dollars. I about dropped my phone, and then I thought I was like, well, I think I told Megan, I was like, I think I transferred it, but I don't know. And and then when I got into town, I looked, and again, I I thought I still had it, but I guess I didn't. But $800?

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Like, hey, hey kid, sorry, we're at to sell the C dude. It was fun when I last dude. We gotta trade it for a stroller. We had two great weekends with it.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

We gotta, yeah, we gotta, we gotta invest in baby quip. That's right. Oh fuck, man. I I was like, I couldn't believe that. I'm like, you dumb bitch, why would you have an eight? And I shouldn't say that because maybe she's new too. Because I like I said, I didn't know if I had something really expensive in there.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah, yeah, you just load up your store when you're first starting.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

You know, I know how it is. But why is baby quip put I mean again, a California person, maybe the the cost of living is different. Maybe an $800 stroller isn't that big of a deal, but it's fucking it. No, $200, I'll invest in. So, anyways, that's my baby quip. I still have not done a successful reservation. Um, and I I often wonder like the person that reserved that, did they go, oh shit, she's got this one. I'm gonna rent this one, it's bougie. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, you know, because I mean the rental was like $15 or $18 a day.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

But remember, we make money on the delivery, that's where the money comes in. So the the actual rental is not the money maker. Um but she was I think she's probably like, oh, I want to I want to rent this bougie ass fucking stroller on vacation. We're gonna have the we're gonna have the eight hundred dollar stroller, we're gonna be a style, yeah. And I'm like, okay, you can get the two hundred dollar one, it's gonna work just as good. Fuck you. No. Anyway, so that's the update. That's where I'm at. I have not done a successful one, hopefully, even though this is like the busy season, but um, you know, it takes time. Takes time. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

We're we're looking forward to that day when you come and have stories from the road and it's a baby quip story.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, hopefully. Um, so this picture is you know, we talk about package delivery, and we often say, you know, would we do this? I'm not gonna lie, that for the audio listeners, it's a uh 51.9 miles, 52 miles. Um, so that's just one way. Yeah, obviously you gotta come back for $206.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

I do it all day long.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

I think I do it all day long too. Like as much as it's probably drugs.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Um not my problem.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Not my problem. I mean, these usually pay a little bit better than rides, but this one's really good.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Yeah, that's true. I mean, I used to do that in Nashville for $95 for rides for rides for passengers. Yeah, now yeah, package, yeah. I mean, yeah, like we talked about, uh, unless I mean unless it was something just blaringly obvious, but I mean, you know, they're not gonna do it, they're gonna have it wrapped up, whatever it is, and yeah, not my circus, not my monkeys, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Yeah, I mean, I'm out there to get paid, and it if it's great, I'm gonna take it. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna take that for I would do it. Yeah, for sure. So I just wondered, uh just I'm surprised that you said yes. I know, I know, you know, you've said uh face says I'm taking it, that it's usually drugs, which it definitely is, but um, yeah, I definitely I think I definitely would take it too. So uh all right. Oh God, yeah, a lot of pictures tonight. Yeah. Um I have to piss so frickin' bad. I've been drinking beer. So here you go. I'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we will be right back as uh Mr. Jason has to go take a whiz. Leave you with this soothing music here. How you doing tonight, Faith? Have y'all got any more rain? Or is that the only rain in y'all's forecast that you got the other day? I know it's the first time y'all had rain in like three or four months. You know we don't do any planning for this show. What are you talking about? Nice planning. We just wing it. Document, and we just wing it from there. He's getting old. He can't uh he can't hold it like he used to. Oh, that's your only rain for the summer. Oh man. Yeah, we were uh we were in Pensacola this weekend, but apparently it it rained pretty bad here, but uh not as bad as the northern part of the state. They flooded. They they had a state of emergency here. The place that's really flooded out. I think we just got a little bit of rain. Or we got a decent amount of rain from what my co-worker said, but nothing like they got up uh near Lowell. All right, and I think our host's co-host is returning. All right. Yeah, we're we're just talking to Faith about her rain. She got her one rain of the summer.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Okay. Uh you didn't have to talk. You could have gone take a pee break too. Uh that's why I put it up.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

I'm good, man. I'm I'm good. I'm playing. I I went to pee beforehand.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

I did too, but I slammed, like, I slammed uh over on, and then I'm like sipping on one now. I'm like, there ain't no way. Yeah, I'm gonna freaking that's right.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Faith's gonna send you some depends.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Uh some adult diapers. No, I'm not peeing in I at least I'm hydrated after the topic. Bring the Gatorade bottle with you. I mean, I did take the thirsty goose off. Oh, I know why, because we had my son and uh daughter-in-law came from Hawaii in May. I'm like, well, I guess I'll take the thirsty goose. I also have a half, I have a half-naked um, well, it is a naked statue of a lady and a guy. It's the weirdest thing. I got it from my from my in-laws. We like somehow took it from them. Anyways, I should show a picture of it. Okay, moving on. We're already on fucking stories or we're story six, and I can't stop talking. I'm sorry. We're good. We're good.

DoorDash Stairs Argument And Expectations

SPEAKER_01 36:59

All right, so yeah, uh, so this is uh this is DoorDash. Yeah, so yeah, so here's the conversation between the dasher and uh the customer says, Hi, your elevator is not working. I will leave your food in the lobby. They said manager is fixing it or something. Uh thanks. And then uh person says, It's your job to bring the food to me. Uh Dasher says, No, elevator, how to bring it. Sorry, miss. And the customer says, There are stairs. And uh Dasher said, Nope, sorry. Customer, yes, I live in this building. There are two sets of stairs on each end of the building. I'm putting in a complaint against you. So this person probably got a complaint like I did when I left it at the hospital. Did you get a complaint? I don't know. I haven't looked, I don't care. I I should look. I should I'll I mean they're they're gonna reach out to you. Oh, okay. Then I have not.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Yeah, I would almost almost guarantee they would reach out. You may have gotten a ding like a like a lower star. They don't reach out for that, but if you got like a like a typed up complaint or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Yeah, I know I haven't got any emails from or anything, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

I mean, what do you feel about that dasher not bringing it up? Um Yeah, I mean, I think you should bring it up. I think you should too. I I think it's kind of your I mean you roll the dice. I mean, not at least in my when I'm delivering, I would say 98% of my deliveries are no stairs, it's front door of the house. But you know, if you live with a lot of apartments, it maybe that's 8020 that you gotta do more. And it's it's just I mean, I did one today. This morning I did one Uber Eats. It was it was a hotel. We talked about this, I think, on the last show. I bring it up there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Yeah, I've I've I don't know if I've ever left it at the front desk of a hotel. I think I've always taken it up to a hotel. One time go ahead. Yeah, when we have a fair amount of apartments here, so my limited you know, food delivery, but over over the years, you know, especially during COVID stuff, yeah, there's a fair amount of uh apartments, so you know, taken up and yeah, I didn't I never had a problem taking it up to the apartment.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

So today I did an Amazon delivery, and there's this long note about you must deliver it to the door. We have theft, blah, blah, blah. Um, so it had a code. I was able to get in. I'm not kidding you, Larry. I got lost in this fucking place. It was it was a little bit. I mean, I feel like projects is kind of offensive, but it was kind of a a lower end apartment complex, but it was like a a giant C, I think. And the numbers were not in order, and I I got lost when I came out the door, the one door, I was like, I don't know where my car is. So I had to literally follow the building around to get to my car. But I found it, I found it was 1428. I remember the number. But I almost just said fuck it. So I was like, I'm spending too much time on this, but um, but normally if it's like you know, the hotel was like second floor to eleven, I'm gonna take the elevator up. It's like Yeah, yeah, that's no big deal. And and Faith says I'd never deliver hotel room. Really? Always lobbying. I text a customer not allowed to for safety reasons. Well, oh, so you because you're maybe it's a woman thing, you're worrying about getting snatched, which I mean, what's the difference about getting snatched at a house over a hotel room, I guess? I'd actually be more comfortable with a hotel because there's probably cameras in the hall. So I curious what she says about that. I never thought about the safety, but I also am not a woman, and I don't typically have to think about that, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Yeah, ain't nobody snatching you.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Hey, they want this, they want this beard rubbing. They might snatch the beard in certain spots, not on their face. Oh, goodness. Uh, this is interesting, and uh, I don't know if Gabe saw it, but this is a um an because we talked about it, an Uber leaderboard. It's basically a contest complete until June 21, which is already past 8 p.m. to win up to $180. And it's like the amount of trips you've taken, and I guess the top guy was at 177 trips. I don't know anything about it. I don't know how long a time frame. I I assume it was probably for a week, but um kind of interesting. Uh looks like it has to do with maybe the soccer, uh, the World Cup that's going on right now. Um but I mean if you're gonna be out there grinding a hundred, I mean might as well try to get an extra hundred and eighty bucks or up to it says. Um but have you ever seen anything like this?

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Uh I mean, not in our area. I've seen people post this kind of stuff. Uh well, yeah. I mean, not in my area as well, but no, definitely not. But um, yeah, I mean, uh 177 trips.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

I mean, it's gotta be for a week, right? I mean, yeah, I would think so. 177 doesn't seem like a lot for two weeks, especially if you're a grinder.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah, it depends on how far the week they are. If this I mean, with this the end result, because I I mean I know there are people who do more than that in a week. You know, you knock out 30 in a day, yeah, and you do more than that.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Also, it's interesting, it's the Uber Pro Gold League. So, like, so it's blue, gold, and diamond, right? For Uber tiers. I don't know. No, none of us even pay attention to that shit.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Not anymore. Yeah, no, I used to be. I remember Pete was you know the diamond bitch, the diamond bitch for sure. And and that was a deal, that was a big deal back then.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

Well, again, I know I know there's blue and diamond, so I guess gold would have to be in the middle. Why why they do it like that? Can you just do it like how everyone else in the world does it, like bronze, silver, and gold? No, they gotta be different. Yeah, they fucking gotta be different. Like, come on, guys, like fucking knock it off. Uh, back to faith, delivering to a house, the company I'm delivering for knows the address I'm going to, delivering hotel, each room is an address more dangerous for a woman. Creeps hang out in CD hotels and order shit for the I mean, I guess don't go to a CD hotel.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

I mean, yeah, but if you're delivering to a specific room, that's got to be on the order. It is on the yeah, because you got still has to know where what room you're you would be at.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

I mean, yes, but I guess I guess maybe what she's saying, like the pin would be like right at the house. You would know exactly right where it's at. But a hotel, it's big, they would have you know the the pin might not be accurate to the room, which it never is. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

I guess they could order it to another room and take you to a different room that's on the order. Oh, way to get creepier, Larry. I like I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

What the fuck? Uh of course, of course you are. I just realized that um I didn't read this.

Waymo Splits With Uber In Phoenix

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Waymo ad because I thought it was a fucking video. Waymo in the news. Alright, no video, but looks like Waymo. Get over here, you little fucker. Waymo and Uber Uber quietly part ways in Phoenix. So it says the Waymo Robotaxis are no longer available on Uber's Ride Hail app in Phoenix, ending a nearly three-year partnership. Okay, so that they had a three-year deal and it's done. It's not like drama, um, I would assume, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Yeah, I mean, I think some people were surprised they didn't uh continue it, but uh like Uber's got their yeah, Uber's got their, you know, they're they're seems like they're throwing everything at the wall to see which one's gonna stick.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Right. Uh tech TechCrunch, uh Waymo told TechCrunch that the vehicles Uber used for this pilot program have already been integrated in its own Phoenix fleet available through the app. I mean they keep saying the quiet end of the partnership. So yeah. So both companies praise the collaboration. This is a pro uh productive pilot that paved the way for future expansions and partnerships around the globe. After hundreds of thousands of trips with Uber, we have integrated these vehicles back into our Phoenix fleet. Oh, so Waymo is just saying like we still have the cars. Right, yeah, yeah. That just not on Uber anymore.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Yeah, there's Waymo, yeah, plain Waymo cars.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

Uh where they'll continue to serve riders through Waymo, including our public transit uh with via and delivery with DoorDash. Um so yeah. Uh it doesn't say what they're partnering with Uber, but I didn't see it because you know I didn't read it, and so I was doing it on the fly. But yeah, I mean I I mean it like I said, it seems a little clickbaity uh that they like it was like a quick ending. Yeah, big blow up that they got in a big fight. So they said I'd be dead before they even started looking for me. Well, yeah, I mean, but at least they can find your body to bury you. I mean, I would I do want to go to your funeral. So um, all

DoorDash Expands Into Auto Parts Delivery

SPEAKER_00 46:19

right, Larry DoorDash is now, which again, when I see these, I think they're already not doing this. Have we not talked about this in the last year?

SPEAKER_01 46:28

It seems like it, yeah. It seems like it sometimes for sure, because they've just added so much stuff. So right, yeah. So this was from uh uh actually my birthday last Wednesday. Uh the stories DoorDash announced it's entering into the auto parts category in the United States. It says millions of consumers now can shop more than 200,000 auto parts and accessories. Uh, with has the gives them the ability to match parts to their specific vehicle by make model a year. Uh it's delivered on on demand through autoparts.com through the DoorDash app uh and network with uh a partnership with network of independent automotive parts distributors. So you're talking about how much more people um you know, I guess you know, because this stuff's gotten so expensive, nearly one in thing one in three consumers have moved from doing having a professional do their oil changes to do-it-yourself oil changes. Really? Yeah. Wow. Um yeah, motor oil and filter sales have been rising over the last few years. And they quote, you know, says auto parts is a category where speed isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. Getting auto parts used to mean dropping everything to go to the store, hoping they had what you needed, or phoning somebody to try to help you. Um, but starting the summer DoorDash is changing that. Uh, if you have a missing filter, a dead battery no longer means a repair that stretches out for days. Now it's something you can disorder and finish that same afternoon. So that's a good idea. Again, another way to keep you in their ecosystem. And um, you know, it I I can imagine how handy that would be if you're doing some work on a car and you need to part, and uh especially if that's just your only car and you've got it taken apart or something. Yeah, you can't can't drive it, but not having to break the flow of things and you know go to the store uh would be handy. So I imagine it'll do well.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yeah, what's interesting is um I work for the old people, but part of that is I'm in charge of like clean so clean the buses, and then they've added a few cars. But one of the things is I I need to order some things, and Amazon, you can't well, you can order washer fluid, but it's insanely expensive. Really? Like you can't buy it in bulk because it's so heavy. Yeah, yeah. But if you go to advanced auto parts, and may I'm sure AutoZone has this too, but sure, for $25, they'll deliver it to your front door.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

Really?

SPEAKER_00 48:54

So yeah, if you're ordering, like I'm ordering six to eight gallons that free delivery, and I don't know who's delivering it. Like, I mean, it could be DoorDash or whatever, but um, that's typically how I order just my fluid. Everything else I order through Amazon, it's just easy. I send it to my boss, she just click, click, click, click, click. But yeah, you can't order washer fluid. And honestly, I'm too fucking lazy to go in and get it myself. If I can get it delivered to my location, I'm gonna order more than $25. Why would I lug all six to eight gallons of washer fluid through, put it in a fucking cart if I'm going to Meyer or you know, like a grocery store or the auto park? Fuck that. Just deliver it to my door.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

Yep. Have somebody else lug it.

Delivery Addiction And Shipping Impatience

SPEAKER_00 49:40

I I honestly, Larry, I don't shop for anything now. It's fucking delivery. I'm I'm walking in the uh 4th of July parade this weekend for for busing, and we usually I end up hustling a couple hundred dollars for candy. I'm already fussy. I gotta go to the fucking store and buy the candy. I I can't even get it to I mean I can, but it's too late. I waited too long to buy it.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

You waited too late. Man, you have fully embraced the online shopping.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

And the funny part is is I don't I love shopping for like Walmart. Like, yeah, I'll go in or Uber or Doordash. I'm like, that's no problem. But if for me, not yourself. No, I'm home. I'm in my air conditioned house. I'm not leaving the house. Fuck that shit.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

Yeah, let some other schmuck shop for me.

SPEAKER_00 50:23

Now, I have to ask you, because you're kind of old school because you are old. You turned the big 6-0 this year.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

I did turn the big 6-0.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

Do you get anything? Do you get your groceries delivered? No. Do you shop for your own groceries? Uh, my wife does. She does. So she shops and right at the store.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

At the store.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Okay. Um, do you buy, do you have an Amazon Prime account?

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Oh, we wear that out.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

Okay. It's a missing game.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

But I mean, it's not as I say that, but for for me, it seems like it, but I don't think we do it as much as because you see people in there like, oh, I get patches every day or you know, every other day. We're not like that. But we do uh if you know if I see something, um you know, I'm not I if I know I can get it from Amazon, I'll probably order it from Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 51:14

Yeah, and you don't look anywhere else, do you?

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Generally not. It depends on the depends on what it is, but generally not.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

Well, we have the Walmart program and they're trying to compete with Amazon, so I'll actually look if it's something that's not like a subscribe where I get my vitamins every, I'm not gonna research that. I don't give a shit. Just come from Amazon. But if I'm making a purchase that's maybe fifty dollars or more, yeah, I'll go to Walmart and Amazon, whatever cheaper. They're both gonna ship it to me for free.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

Yeah. And and but and I will, yeah, if it's over, it's over a certain amount, I will definitely look around and check. Like, oh, if it's if it's you know, if it's uh a little cheaper, I have to run over to Best Buy, and although they'll deliver it to you too. But if it's something you want right away, like I don't mind running out.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

So speaking of uh shipping, I'm like a hoe to Amazon, and so I'm used to like same day or next day. Oh yeah. We don't get that. I asked for you're gonna you're gonna fucking love this. I asked for a striping kit for my lawnmower. So I saw this guy in TikTok. He he making them himself, and it's actually a a a broom with like heavy duty uh bristles on the end of it, and it and it attaches to a um most mowers already have like a little attachment right at the handle, attaches right on that, has some springs, whatever. I'm super stoked for it. I asked for it for Father's Day. It's been two and a half weeks and they shipping from Canada, so I got stuck in customs, and I'm like, I understand you're a startup and you're just starting your own business, but fucking figure it out. Like, why am I waiting? Two and I mean it's July 1st. She ordered it at what was what was Father's Day, the 21st. I think she ordered it on the 15th, so not quite two and a half weeks, but still don't have it, and I'm annoyed.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

Yeah, I mean, we're used to that now. We're used to you know one, two, three days, something like that. And what is it you ordered again?

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Oh, it it stripes the lawn as it mows. So, like on commercial mowers, since the RPMs on the blades, you know how they it basically just pushes the grass down. That's how striping happens. It's not how sharp the blades are. It's but with the small residential mowers, it doesn't have enough pressure to push the blades down. So I know it's fucking nerd shit. But like think about it like like uh like a baseball field, how it looks striped like that.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Yeah, and I got you. Yeah, yeah. I thought that's what it was, but I wanted to clarify, make sure I wasn't off base.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

But yeah, the shipping was like $25, and I'm like, Jesus, my wife was like, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

Yeah, yeah, I know. You get so used to the free shipping and and you know, delivering that like every now and then we'll get something here. Like very, very rarely we'll get something next day. I mean it's two days is usually usually uh which is still fast. Yeah, it's still fast. I mean, and and sometimes it's obviously more than that. Uh, but I know some you know, some people in in bigger cities where there's Amazon stuff, I mean they're they're just used to, you know, that same day, you know, or our next day at the latest. And but we you know, we're so used to it now. That's such a that microwave mentality. We want it, you know, right now.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Yeah, I mean, and I get and I'm I'm definitely flexible because I understand he's a startup, but and then when I started doing research, I'm like, oh, he's in fucking Canada. So I started reading the FAQs, or like it's not our responsibility how long it gets hang hung up at customs. I'm like, yeah, why? I mean, maybe maybe it's different with Amazon because they can circumvent a lot of that stuff, but I'm like, but yeah, I I don't know. And then of course the post office said it was gonna be here yesterday. I looked at the tracking number, didn't show up yesterday, didn't show up today. And the post office is known for that. You might see the tracking number and it'll show up two days later, even though it said it was gonna deliver that day. Yeah. So while my father's day give fuck. Anyways, uh Larry, talk about drift.

Drift Air Freshener Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_00 55:18

I love drift, and my car smells amazing.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

It does, yeah. So drift is a subscription um air freshener service. Um if you're um it comes, you can get it different kinds.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

I have a boy, he's broken out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

And I think uh Jason has the uh was it slate? Um there's uh there's a also a metal one that they've come out, but basically they soak it in these uh different kinds of essential oils. The smell is it's always great. It's a different different scent every month. Uh it's not overwhelming, it's not like super sweet, it doesn't smell artificial. I get tons and tons of people, uh passengers that get in and give compliment how nice the car smells. Uh you can't go wrong with it. They they do a really fantastic job.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

For sure. Check them out. The link is in the description for sure. Okay. Uh so I don't have any art um video on this, but oh man.

Uber Takes An 11-Year-Old To JFK

SPEAKER_00 56:19

Parents pissed after Uber takes autistic child alone to JFK. So um this kid, now I don't know his level of autism. Like my son wouldn't do this, but it doesn't, you know, there's such a spectrum to that. That's why they call it the spectrum. But uh basically he ordered an Uber at 554 on Sunday, walked out and got in the car. Uh, the on the video, the boy is clearly heard saying, hi, are you the Uber? He then opens the passenger door, pulls his back suitcase in the car with him, the driver whisks him off to um JFK, uh, which is crazy because JFK airport is huge. Let's see, the mom was pissed. Why would you drive off? She blames Uber and the driver. Um, apparently he's really obsessed with Japan. So that was part one of his trip to go to Japan.

SPEAKER_01 57:14

Um he said he he was interested in Japan, he wanted to see what it was like. Yeah, and he was 11.

SPEAKER_00 57:21

Right, yeah. He got in the TSA line. They obviously realized he didn't have a ticket, so they they worked it out. But um said the parents are calling uh first responders from from both agencies, heroes. They're not heroes, they just did their job. However, they're not using such uh language to describe their rideshare company and its drivers. I just want Uber to be more responsible and make sure drivers that are aware that you should never pull out without an adult. So, and then they said something about uh what say what you say?

SPEAKER_01 57:53

Do you know my favorite my favorite paragraph in the whole story? So the the parents said they only heard from a safety agent from Uber after they tried to cancel the forty-seven dollar and five cent charge they had been billed for the ride. Right. Why are you trying to get a refund?

SPEAKER_00 58:10

What do you mean why are you trying to get a refund? Hey, your kid ordered the ride. Well, yeah, I know, but of course they're trying to get a refund because they feel well, it said somewhere in the article that they quoted their that Uber's own service, yeah. It's own policy that we don't, you know, you don't take minors.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

And obviously this was unless it's a child account, which they but but he would be too young for that. And he yeah, he would be too young for that.

SPEAKER_00 58:34

So why why why did this driver do this? We've talked about this several times about the that guy that got charged for taking those kids over state lines or whether the child got sexually assaulted. Um I don't understand as a driver why would you do that? Well, no, I do understand they're trying to make a buck.

SPEAKER_01 58:53

Yeah. I I only had um I remember having one one time I pulled up and this this young kid walked out. He wasn't 11, but he was probably about 13. You know, it's hard to hard to judge. Um, but I don't think he was any older than that. And he starts to get in. I'm like, oh, oh, you know, I didn't unlock the doors. And uh like, where's your where's your parents? She said, No, it's just me. And I'm like, no, no, you you you you can't do that. You have to have a uh you know, an adult accompanying you, especially that that kid had a suitcase.

SPEAKER_00 59:25

Because I mean yeah, I can see sometimes children, kids, young teens, they do look like adults. So then you kind of question them, okay, you know, how old are you? Where are you going? Like, let's let's get the lay of the land. And usually they're like, Well, you can tell when they're lying because they pause, yeah. But you know, oh, I'm 14. Oh, sorry. No, I can't do that. Or yeah, what you're reborn, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So don't do that, don't take kids like this. Um, although I did read in the article, like, oh, we usually have alarms set up, but they didn't work that day. I'm like, 'cause so clearly, this kid is a a mover, and we had to deal that with our son. Um, we don't have to deal with it now, but younger when he was like four or five, he would run. Like, we had to put like these deadbolt locks high above so he couldn't get like it, it was scary. Um, yeah, and so they may be dealing with that too, but like, mm, Uber. I mean, of course, Uber, they're not gonna do anything. I I'd sue him. Yeah, I'd sue him. I would be like, nope.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

I think they'd have a good case too.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

Yeah, I mean, and and again, we've talked about how you know um you they're starting to sue and win these, you know. I mean, say this is sexual assault stuff and those kind of things, but they're starting to win a little bit because you know it's always about well, he's an independent contractor. We we don't deal with him, you know what I mean. But I'd sue him. Fuck it. Like, what's the worst can happen? Yeah, what do you got to lose? Exactly. So yeah, so um, all right, Larry, any gig work this weekend?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

Let me think. Um yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think if uh had anything going on, but I I don't think so. Uh yeah, big uh fourth of July this weekend, so yeah, it's gonna be hot, it's gonna be humid, hot, humid, but happy 250th.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

Let's go. Um for me, no, I got baseball all weekend. Um I don't know, I say that every fucking time. Or and Megan's working, so it's like usually when Megan's working and I have baseball, I might go out in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm I'm gonna try to go out this weekend because uh following Saturday, um my wife's I gotta take her to Nashville because she's fine. Uh her and one of our daughters are going out to San Diego for a few days. Okay. And then that night, I mean uh two of our sons that live up in Cincinnati are going to uh monster truck.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

Oh yeah. It's been a while since I've been to Monster Truck, but that's a me too.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

I took I took my son uh when he he was younger, him and a friend of his. Uh we went a couple times, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:05

Bring some earplugs. Yes. All right, in five minutes, we'll be on Patreon.

Weekend Plans And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 1:02:11

Go to patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. And as always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. And we'll see you on the road. All right, peace out.