How To Keep Earnings Steady With Flex Veho And BabyQuip

We trade notes on what it takes to keep gig income stable during a slow summer stretch, from stacking apps to chasing the right kind of delivery routes. We also break down the latest platform moves that hit drivers and customers at the same time, from new DoorDash fees to deactivation rules, AI support cuts, and robotaxi competition. 

• juggling multiple gig apps when demand drops and forgetting to turn on key platforms 
• Amazon-style routes that pay well when mileage and stop density line up 
• Veho’s route posting system and why “unknowns” can be a dealbreaker 
• BabyQuip rentals as a low-mileage side gig plus storage and seasonality trade-offs 
• DoorDash’s new fee structure including distance-based fees and “farther away” labels 
• NYC deactivation transparency rules getting blocked and what fair appeals could look like 
• why dash cam timing and complaint details matter for driver defense 
• how a filthy delivery bag changes customer trust even if the food is sealed 
• a ring-camera child abuse case and the reality of always being on camera 
• Uber cutting customer service staff while pushing AI and forcing hub relocation 
• customers tracking drivers on stacked orders and when to unassign 
• Waymo and Uber partnership tensions and the robotaxi app endgame 
• Amazon cart tracking, wasted resources, and big-company inefficiency 

Transcript

Welcome And The Weather Check

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Hello, hello. Welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast, episode 312. We just keep setting them up and knocking them down or 312. That's crazy. How's it going, Larry?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

It's going well. Yeah. 312. That's that's just hard to imagine, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 0:42

I know. And there's there's definitely more than that. I don't know when I started counting, but uh there's definitely more than that. But just a number, just a number. Um, yeah, so weather report, you know, this is what we do now. I I almost for we should just write it in the rundown. How are we doing on the weather? Beautiful here.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

It cooled off a little bit today, the last two days, though. Yesterday, uh he I think heat index was like 106. Damn. Yeah, it was toasty. Yeah, it was then the day before that was really hot, but it has cooled down. I think it was only high in the mid 80s today, so yeah, not quite so bad. And uh, yeah, hopefully we'll get a little relief this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Yeah, it's been beautiful here. We had a bunch of rain earlier in the week, so that was actually nice. We had been toasty. Like you clear all that smoke out. Oh god, yes. That's I I I don't understand the smoke. It's just like I get it, but it just all depends on you know how the whatever you know air movement or front is coming down. Um I gotta throw a picture in here. You'll die at this. Um, so we're talking about like I I love my lawn. It's it's green. Like it's it's really green. Sure. And and I'm gonna pay for it. Like, I mean, it's not free. And obviously I, you know, fertilize it and mow it correctly and stuff like that. And but I have to share this picture. Uh let me add it real quick. I took this the other day. It's talking about how dry it's been. That's what triggered me to remember it. But um, so this is my lawn and the neighbor's lawn, okay? Now obviously we're getting rain. That's that's yeah, but look at the line.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, that's your demarcation line.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Isn't that wild? And it obviously I need to mow, it's already long, and then we had rain. I think I ended up mowing it yesterday, but and then, but yeah, it is like wild where how that line is. But and and you know, and there's no hate on him, everyone has their thing, you know. I you know, you don't spend any money on you're literally not gonna have a water bill. Mine'll be 500 in September. I mean, it's just people spend their money on different stuff. But I the other day when I got home, I was just looking at that. I was like, God damn, that's a line.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

It looks like a painted line.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

Literally, I mean it looks painted on there for sure. Yeah. So, but anyways, yeah. So we needed some rain, yada yada. So my sprinklers got to turn off for two days basically, and now they're back on again.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

Summer Slowdown And App Stacking

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Stories from the road. Did you do any gig work over the weekend at all?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I did. I went out Saturday. Um, it's still pretty slow here. Yeah, college kids haven't really rolled back in except for uh some of the athletes. Um, but it'll they'll be rolling back in the next week or two, so it will definitely pick up. And then I just got to remember all the apps I have on there. I forget about stuff. I'm out there doing it, it's kind of slow. Like, I never even thought about turning Spark on. I'm like, got home and I was like, what am I doing here?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Right. I mean, I think I I think about those apps because I'm I'm half not well. Yeah, I kind of have to. I mean, I I mean it's kind of I would say it's probably like 60% of my income in the summer, maybe a little bit more. And yeah, probably 75. I mean, the other jobs are there's short times or two, three hour shifts, four hour shifts, you know. I'm making 75, 80 bucks or whatever it is. Um, but yeah, for me, it's like when it's slow, I turn on Instacart. I turn, I mean, I always got Spark on. Uh, I look at Roadie. Uh, I'm just trying to get a couple of dollars here and there. Now, knock on wood. I've been successful almost every day getting an Amazon route for a minimum of 25. Uh, the other day I got uh one route for 144, and it was literally Wyoming Granville where I live. Like, but it was 48 stops, which was a lot. I mean, I could barely close my doors, it was busting out, but I still finished in three hours a four and a half hour route.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Oh, well, shoot, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

I mean, it's because it's so close. And then yesterday I got I think I got a route for 124. Now these are four and a half. Um, and then I had uh five packages.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

Really?

SPEAKER_03 5:02

And it was a little in the boonies, but I was done with that in like three and a half. And you think five packages? Three and a half. Well, it was some driving. I mean, I had 52 miles to get home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

So, but still, I mean, those two days, I mean, I can't I can't complain too much.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

No, those pretty good routes. I mean, like I said, it is a little bit of driving, but uh getting done, you know, way under time.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Yeah, the one that was close to my house, it w it felt like I drove I would drive like four houses down and deliver. I mean, that's how the the there were little clusters were so tight. It felt like a regular DSP driver that has 500 packages where he's just like going down the street. Um, so I'm pretty thankful on that.

Veho Routes And BabyQuip Wins

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Um, for me, for stories from the road, uh, I am officially on V V Ho Veho V-E-H-O. Uh it's like Amazon. Uh Gabe's talked about it quite a bit. He's done a few. They VHO is a little weird. So they post the routes at nine o'clock at night.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

And then they give you a price range and uh I think an area, but not like it's just like a blank area. Like it's gonna be right here, let's say. Like I'll just use Wyoming, Granville, uh, Jennison. You know, I know it means nothing to you, but I know what you're talking about. My my little area, and then has a range of price, and then overnight in the morning, if they have been taken, then it has a heat map where actually all the deliveries are, and then it has a more dialed-in price. Surprising, well, not surprisingly, people are taking this shit right at nine o'clock at night. Like, I really I haven't even had a chance because I'm not gonna take it. I mean, maybe I will just for the show at nine o'clock, not knowing exactly how many packages I have. Like, I might not be able to fit that in my car.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Because they range from like a two and a half, like when I see it the next morning, um, when it's got the heat map, it's got actual the time too. Like the night before, it's an estimate, and nothing is for sure. So, like I I guess they want. I mean, is it like a blind bag, you know, in a store where exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

It's a little kind of weird.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

It is and it isn't because you do flex that way, you don't even know the area. You're you know the exact amount of money you're gonna make in the time that you've committed to. That's it. So it's it's almost like the other apps are like being more transparent, but they're not. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. So I haven't tried that yet. And then uh baby quip, I just got another order today for so I'm I'm I'm like six hundred uh like six or seven hundred dollars gross so far for that thing. So yeah, I just picked up my last crib. Uh actually my friend did because we were on vacation. She picked it up Saturday, and then it got rented today for this Saturday for a whole week.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Yeah, so and this one's close. This one's right in Wyoming, so it's like seven miles from my house. But yeah, I mean, I'm like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

I mean, yeah, it might I mean, yeah, who knows? This might build into something pretty decent.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

My guess uh again, we talked about the winter time, it's gonna be slow, just sure. It's just yeah, just for the fact that it's winter and no one fucking wants to come here.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, but people come for Christmas and see, you know, yeah stuff like that. They come see family, so there'll still be some business.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah, all of mine have been Airbnbs, except one that was a car seat at the airport that I dropped off to a guy, and then he just needed a car seat, and that's it. So, like, I don't know where he was staying, but obviously didn't want to travel on the airplane with a car seat, which I don't blame him if you can rent it. Um, because you got to check it and it probably beats it up and stuff like that. So, yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised with the baby quip. Uh, I actually added another crib to my inventory. I haven't bought it yet, but see, I can just change the number that is rentable. And so may I mean I haven't told Megan the other that I'll be like, oh honey, I got another crib I need to buy. But god damn it. We just broke even from the the stroller and the other crib.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Hey, you gotta invest in your business.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Yeah. But it just, but then she's like, where are we gonna store all this? And I'm like, that's a good that's a good ass point. I don't know where we're gonna sell. I'm getting to the point where if I if this builds up, I'm gonna have to leave my car outside and run the the charger through the garage door to charge outside because there ain't no way she's let me putting that stuff on her side of the garage, which don't blame her. I don't want her to have to shovel her her car in the wintertime, you know what I mean? Uh so yeah, so that that's where we are on that. Um been kind of excited about it. Uh got my first review and uh this lady, this last one, she so she was perfect, but everything was fine. She sent a mattress to her Airbnb and she said, Do you want this? It's a hundred dollar mattress, so she gave me that. Then she reviewed me today five star and gave me a sixty-five dollar tip.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Look at that.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

I know, so it's it's it's kind of turning into something. I don't, you know, obviously you're gonna have to do volume to really make a ton of money, but I'm not looking for that. I'm looking just for some extra income, just like I would do for all the gigs.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

So exactly. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Yeah, I'm I'm pretty excited about it. All right, gig economy in the news, unless you got anything else for stories from the road. I think I'm good. All right, gig economy in the

DoorDash Reworks Customer Fee Model

SPEAKER_03 10:46

news. Uh, this has been kind of going around it. Actually, there's a couple of things that drop in the last 24 hours that I don't have on here because I already planned the show, but one of them is uh DoorDash's new fee structure and and what that means for the customer and uh for us.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, so um the fees on on DoorDash are gonna change or could change depending on uh how big of an order the customer makes and how far the gig worker has to travel in order to pick it up and make the delivery. Uh since they're overhauling the way it charges customer fees, it's gonna roll out the structure across most of the United States in the coming months. And under this new fee system, uh customers pay could vary more than it does now, depending on, like I said, the size of an order uh or the distance that they have to travel. Orders that require trips of more than 10 miles may incur uh a separate long distance fee. Um DoorDash's delivery fee will remain uh as a fixed charge that varies depending on what merchant, you know, what restaurant you're buying from. So you know they throw it that they're trying to make it uh better reflect what it takes to complete the delivery. Um but the funny thing is um let's see, it says also adding at features that will make it fees more transparent for customers. It says a new farther away label will appear on orders from restaurants that could incur higher service fees.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Oh, so they see it and go, Oh, oh, that's gonna be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yes, definitely. Um, but the funny thing is the rollout will initially exclude California, Chicago, Colorado, Washington, DC, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Seattle.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Oh, all the ones that have the ones that have the hourly rate and all that stuff. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

How convenient. It just says initially it's gonna exclude them, doesn't say forever, but initially. Well, you know, the places where that usually are the first to get everything, you know. Yeah, yeah. Those places the big cities. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Does it um so I do have a picture for this? Um pull that up there. What is this? So this is like for the customer DoorDash now, better reflect your distance, dash or pay, and other costs. So when it says dasher pay, does the article say are dashers gonna get paid more for like the base pay, or is that not bad?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

They didn't address the dasher side of it at all.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Uh in the stuff that we uh looked at.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Okay, yeah, I I was just curious on that because I saw a little little chatter about that online, of course. Reddit, that's where I get most of my stuff, and people were saying, yeah, though that we probably won't get any of it, but I don't know, man. Like I feel like people are just tired of fees through DoorDash, anyways. I mean, obviously it's people still use it, they don't care, but I do see a lot of people complaining about the fees, and like you got this fee, this fee, this fee, this fee.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

And yeah, there's so many.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

I mean, when are they gonna get to a point where either the customers, well, yeah, the customer, when are that they gonna get to the point where they say, Fuck it, I'm done with this. I'm sure some of them already have. Well, where when is this an opportunity for another? I mean, we talk about this all the time with rideshare, another company to come in and not just rake them over the coals. Like obviously you have to have some fees, you have to pay your bills, you have to pay the.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

I mean, yeah, they they have to eventually make a profit or or you know, they're not gonna stay around. So yeah, I mean, uh if it's just these companies being greedy, then yeah, they they they could face this kind of stuff. But yeah, I mean, it would be tough for another company to come in and start from scratch and build the customer base and still you know hopefully have enough money to to pay the workers fairly.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

I know a company that could do it. Lift. They already have a customer base, like they could they could revamp the system. I don't know. They don't buy it.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

That's crazy talk.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

That's crazy talk, Jason. I know crazy talk. Not that they have the money to do it, but it it's just it's interesting. And and the crazy part is too, a lot of that fee the restaurant raises the prices to recoup their cost that they have to pay to Dora. So not only are you getting dinged on the fees, but you're also getting, you know, you're paying 30-40% more of for that cheeseburger.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Exactly. Yeah, just similar to the way a lot, you know, the grocery stores, some of the grocery stores do if you order delivery.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Yeah, well, that's why I love like Aldi, um, and then Walmart. We we we used to do the Meyer, which Meyer, our local Meyer or the Corporation Meyer doesn't charge it either, but we're the we're having great luck with the pickup. It was whatever. It doesn't matter. But Aldi, uh, you go through Instacart, you use the Instacart app, but they don't upcharge anything. It doesn't cost or I think it cost or maybe because I don't know. I think it it might cost two bucks. I mean, it's two bucks. And then Walmart, we pay every year for it to do it. But um they don't raise the prices. But yeah, like Doordash, I'm sure, raises the prices. You know what? Also, I noticed, and you know, I know you've done some food delivery, but I noticed like if I shop at Walgreens for somebody, they they keep the they want me to put the receipt in the bag, but like most other stores, like if I shop at a grocery store, they want me to throw it away. And I don't know, maybe they're not raising the prices at Walgreens, and they're then I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Yeah, every time Walgreens, they tell me to put the receipt in the bag, and maybe that's this specific to Walgreens. They worked out a deal like, hey, we're not gonna hide it, we're not gonna upper prices, but we want the customer to have it to return stuff. I don't know, but yeah, definitely anytime I shop food um at a grocery store, they always say throw it away. So I don't know what the difference on that is, but yeah, that's that's interesting. Right. Uh okay, so we always talk about you know deactivations and stuff like that. And of course,

NYC Deactivation Law Gets Blocked

SPEAKER_03 16:41

this is in New York, it's a big win for Uber and Lyft. A federal judge has templarly temporarily blocked New York City new driver deactivation law, which would force the companies to give drivers advanced notice before kicking them off the platform. The city wanted to make deactivations more transparent by requiring things like a 14-day notice, which is that's crazy. That's a long time. Yeah. An explanation for why dri uh a driver is being removed and some cases giving drivers a chance to challenge the decision, which I feel like is like the most important thing of like, hey, can we or some transparency of why I got deactivated?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, you yeah, they they should have to at least tell you why, and there should be some kind of um some kind of appeal process or something.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Yeah. Uh yeah, exactly. Uh of course, Uber and Lyft argued the law would make it harder to remove dangerous drivers quickly and could even expose private passenger complaints. Uh, you know, imagine somebody reports a driver for harassment and now the company has to hand over details or wait two weeks before taking action. Obviously, they said put riders at risk, which the 14-day notice is stupid. You should be able to remove the driver right away and in a timely manner investigate it, and then at that point, if you decide to remove that driver from the platform, then you can uh file an appeal and say, Hey, I, you know, I don't yeah, I fight, I'm fighting this. But yeah, I don't I would hate if the city wanted to, you know, make them wait to kick a driver off for 14 days for something, or have some some different like some step levels, like if it was sexual harassment, okay, you're gone right away. If it was like, you know, uh I see a lot of drinking well, yeah, that's gone right away. But like I see people getting like dings for like playing weird music or something. Like, okay, we can we can wait. We don't need to pull this driver off the road. But the uh the it said the judge agreed for now, he ruled that like that the law likely violates the company's constitutional rights and said it and fears too much with their ability to manage safety on their platforms. So obviously, not the final world word, the lawsuit's still going on, and they can still deactivate how how they see fit. So yeah. I mean, I think I you know this is just a summary, but I I I definitely would love to look at exactly what the bill or whatever they were trying to think. Obviously, we just got a little snippet of it. Um, but yeah, the the be able to know details to a point. Like I just you don't even have to tell me who it was for. I don't need names, I don't need addresses, I need like this person said this. Right. But more details, like you'll see it like you, you you uh the music thing. We didn't like the they didn't like the music, they thought it was inappropriate. Okay, well that's okay, I guess that's self-explanatory, but like if they said, okay, sexual harassment, okay, what did I say? What did the customer say I said? Like, I need those kind of details.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Right, or those and something they'll say something vague, like you know, uh hostile environment environment or or threatening language, or you know, you're like, I what what does that mean?

SPEAKER_03 20:00

Yeah, I I mean, especially for some like me, you could see me probably use some language. I mean, I use it on this show for you. You rarely curse. If you had gotten that, you'd be like, Are you kidding me right now? You're looking for a free ride. What did tell me what this person said I said, you know, and and again, it's he said, she said, sure, but then oh, it makes me think about the dash cam. Like, when can we introduce that footage to be like, okay, here's the ride? Because they have to tell you like the time of the ride so you can go back and reference your camera.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah. And and like how much the the only thing about the dash cam thing is like how you know, if it's two weeks later or a week later, it's I'm not gonna have it.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

That's a good point. That's a good point. I'm I'm fine with timely, like we're taking you off the platform. I don't have a problem with that.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah, if they need to, I I can certainly understand that they they have to take because you know, heaven forbid they did, and they got say say that you know, some this driver, some driver got accused of you know, sexually harassing or saying you sexually harassing things to to a person and they didn't they didn't take him off, and then two days later he rapes his passenger. Right. Think of what kind of liability you're looking at there. So they have to take it serious and do something, but there has to be a way to to say, okay, look, you know, if if uh if they cut me off right now because some this person said I was drinking, they should have somebody to be able to, you know, I don't know, do a FaceTime with me or something. Let me let me do it, let me do a sobriety test or something for you. Something, you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

And I have I have seen people go to the police station and get that and they'll do it, and then I think you have to pay for it or something like that. But what I'm saying is though, like you're talking about the dash cam, either supply it from Uber or within 48 hours, you got to give me the the time of the ride. And and I know what they're trying to do, they're trying to protect the passenger so there isn't any retribution because like if If you thought about a ride two days ago, you probably and the time, you probably could figure out what it is. Like, I mean, although you could can you go in your app and look at the no, because they take the map out of there right now, right? You just no, I guess you do see the map, don't you? Uh when you're looking at your pay, what you paid on it. You'd have to look at it. But I guess my point is I want to protect the the the driver or I'm sorry, the passenger. But also, like in your in your defense, the dash cam's gonna re-record over, and I'm not gonna have that data. So I don't know. I don't know what the answer is, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah, again, yeah, there's if it was a clear-cut answer, you know, it would probably already be implemented, but it's it's not, you know, there's not just a really good clear-cut solution to the problem.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

As much as I hate all the regulations in New York, I do feel this is the only way that the Uber's gonna do anything about it, like the deactivations and all that other stuff, because right now they have full control.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

And and there's no there's no fairness at anyways. And and again, it's gonna take regulations to say, nope, can't do that anymore. Like, I mean, yeah, if you want to if you want to still be in this city, you're gonna have to follow these rules. And again, I don't agree on all of it. Um unfortunately, with the government, they do one good thing and fuck up ten more. So um, but I think we kind of need to wait on this and and get them involved so we can get some fairness on that.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, because yeah, we said we we've you know just so many people gotten just deactivated and have no idea why. Um you know, I luckily it hadn't happened to either one of us. I know.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Knock on what I feel so bad, and again, we always say don't put your eggs in all in one basket, but I do feel bad for the driver that's got like 20,000 rides in their five-star, and they just get cooked for for like no reason. This is driving me nuts. I can't believe I didn't switch it because the way I look at you straight ahead, I'm like, I felt myself angling. Um, they just get cooked on that and they're just devastated. I mean, obviously, they say it's my only job, and I'm like, Well, you're dumb for that, but yeah, you know, do other things. But again, give this guy a break, like let him know what's up. Like, it's just it's terrible that that that happens.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

It is, and and although you know, I'm not dependent on the income. If I got like booted from Lyft and could never drive again, that I would be I would be upset. Yeah, that would that would uh that would bum me out a lot, right?

SPEAKER_03 24:38

For either platform, especially for me, because I mean I rarely do Lyft because Uber has the food delivery on there, and that's important to me. And yeah, that would that would be a bummer. I you know, knock on wood, I haven't got deactivated from any platform yet. Yeah, um, and I hope it doesn't happen. I mean, I I I feel like, but again, I was thinking to myself, what I was gonna say is I feel like I do the right thing, but like what about that driver with five stars and everything? I bet he was doing the right thing too, and it's just somebody wanted a free ride, and it I don't know, it just somebody was just having a really bad day, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

It may not even be just looking for a free ride, it just may well be one of those days when this person didn't matter what you do, it's gonna piss them off, you know, and they're gonna complain.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

And you do you definitely do run the risk in ride share. You're much more easily deactivated than food delivery. Although obviously some of you, the OGs that are listening to the show, remember Ben, who used to be on this show as a host and the threads, and he got deactivated from food deliveries like late late in his career, but it had dipped down a little bit. I'm like, Ben, what are you doing? Are you are you taking a leak on the on the frickin' orders when you when you drop them off? Because it's really hard to like fuck up food delivery unless you're being shady. Like if you're doing everything correctly.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Yeah, if you're if you're you know, if you're getting the food and getting it to the customer, I mean, you know, yeah, it's it's not rocket science.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Yeah. And and and neither is rideshare, but what happens is there's a lot of like face-to-face time exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Food delivery, especially since COVID, is almost all non-contact. Yeah. You know, rideshare is all contact, and all contact. You get you get you get two people, yeah, and sometimes they're gonna clash. It's just the way it is.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Yeah, that's why I I don't mind talking. Like, I love it when it's a great conversation. Like I get done and I just have not chills, but I just like God, that felt good. Like yeah, yeah, energizes you. Yeah, it yeah, that's a good, that's a good description. Energizes you, it keeps you going, and then of course you get a dickhead, the next one. But my point is is I really like that. But there's sometimes people are in a bad mood, and we've seen hundreds of videos of just dickheads, and it's just like in uh God, that's that's I can't believe Gabe's still like chugging along with that. That's I mean, that's where the money's at for him, but that's why I kind of like I don't want to have to deal with other people's shit.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I just yeah, don't want to and you will do and ride here. You you will. I mean, I've done I don't know how many rides I've done now, 14,000 something. Yeah, but uh I mean, out of those, I can I can probably say I'm kind of on one hand, maybe two hands. Yeah, probably say we're or two, we're or what I would say bad rides.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Yeah, you know, bad rides. Yeah, well, we know you've never kicked anyone out, and I've definitely kicked some people out.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

I have not. Yeah, that's I would have one time, but I was on the interstate. Yeah, that's pretty incredible. I wouldn't cock him out on there. Uh, but I would have, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

You got pay you got a lot of patience because I definitely wouldn't leave my dash camera alone.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

He kept turning it. I know. I was like, dude, don't touch my camera. And he turned it out like, dude.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

Oh, that would make me so I'm like gritting my teeth right now. I'm like, I would fucking yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Oh yeah, and the thing was uh after the after I dropped them all off, I I found a phone in my car. I was like, oh man, if it's his, it's going in the river. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

I'm going down the highway cracking the door and just dropping it out.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Uh it was going in the river, but it was not his. Uh it was the it was the guy in the back, and he was a nice guy. The guy in the back was a nice guy. I was like, I dropped the phone off too. I was like, dude, your friend's a fucking asshole.

SPEAKER_03 28:27

He's probably like, Yeah. I know, I know. Like, don't be friends with people like that, they're gonna bring you down. Yep.

Car Smell Fix With Drift

SPEAKER_03 28:34

So, and one other thing you have to deal with, passengers, is like stinky armpits, and we we got we we got a solution for that. Well, maybe not for stinky armpits.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, so drift is a subscription air freshener that uh Jason and I both use. I've been using it for probably like four years now, and it's fantastic. They they give you a new um scent every month. Um, mine's a little piece of wood that uh goes on my visor. A little wood? A little piece of wood.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

A little piece of wood?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yep. Okay. And then uh I think Jason has a slate version. Um but yeah, they they come in really just unique sense. They're not overpowering, they're not artificial smelling, and they last the whole month. Um, you will get used to it though, if you and and you won't be able to smell it, and you'll swear that it's gone, and then you'll have somebody else get in the car and they'll tell you how good it smells. Of course. They can smell it. But yeah. Um, the scent I got this month is the first one that that it's a little like uh almost a little like flowery smelling. Yeah, but I did see that they just introduced like their first, I think, perfume.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

So I was like, maybe they're testing, maybe they're testing, maybe they had some extra, and they're like, ah, the these thousand people are gonna get this little extra smell.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

There you go. We'll throw that in there. Yeah, but yeah, mine runs about twelve dollars a month, very well worth it. Get lots and lots of compliments from passengers for sure.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Check out the link in the description. Uh, we each get a referral. Larry's up next for the free one, so he wants a free one, so somebody order it, god damn it.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Yeah, help us out.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

All right, sometimes when you're out delivering, you see some nasty ass shit from people, but typically the bags seem

Filthy Delivery Bag And Food Trust

SPEAKER_03 30:12

to be okay. But this short 21-second video.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Yeah, this this was uh yeah, this will make you want not want to order food.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

Yeah, so we'll play that real quick and uh tell me what you think.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Look at that bag. Could you imagine your food in that skip the dishes bag from this dude? That is absolutely no more skip the dishes for Robert. No more skip the dishes.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yeah, so this dude's bag, it had like oil, it looked like oil stains on it, and I mean just stained all the way through the bottom. It looked in rough, rough shape, and then he went to put it in his back seat of his car. Car looked pretty rough. Oh, I didn't even notice that. I was like rusted and rusting out.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Yeah, the funny thing is like I'm not well, honestly, I don't even barely use a bag. Um yeah, not much anymore. Sometimes I do if I get a double. Ever since that one guy, I've I've really thought about it. I know, you know, you I don't know what episode it was from, but like if I'm getting a double, I I typically would throw the second one in, depending on all depends on the distance, what kind of food it is, yada yada. But I don't really have a pro I mean this made me make me gross. I don't really I don't really have a problem with the bag. Although if he was delivering my food on the porch and he pulled it out of that bag, like if he kept it in his car and I didn't see it, I think I mean, I guess if you don't you don't know, you don't know, you don't know, yeah. Right. I guess it I guess it is a bad look for the customer, right? Because then it just kind of says you're dirty, like in general as a person.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Right, yeah, yeah. And yeah, so you wonder, you know, uh, you wonder about how clean their car is, you know, where they're washing their hands after they go to the bathroom, you know, all sorts of stuff starts going through your mind. But I think it's probably a good thing that that we don't know what happens at restaurants that you know behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

Exactly. I mean, we've all eaten spit uh pubes, hair, like and and and honestly, most of that stuff is 99.9999%. It's an accident, obviously. You know, somebody washed their hand or you know, someone sneezed or whatever. And and it's gross to think about, but like we've all survived. But yeah, I'd I would hope that I'm sure it's the food is in a bag, I'm sure it's gonna be fine. But then you think what happens if there was like a bed, not a bed, but like yeah, is it bed bugs that move or or maybe a cockroach? Something that was in that bag that got on cockroach, yeah, that got on the delivery bag, and now you have it in your house. I mean, it's a possibility, but yeah, it's it's presentation.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

It is, yeah. It it it sets the i mean, it's like you said, set your mindset. Your food is more than likely fine, it's not gonna soak up through the bag into your the food bag, into whatever container that your food is wrapped in. You normally, you know, unless it's something just sop and wet, and this looked like it was dried oil stain or something. I don't know what it was. Yeah, what's he doing with that bag? I don't know, man. It looked like he set it down in his garage right in the middle of where his car leaked oil, is what it looked like. It was a big, it wasn't like a little step. This was this was a big whole side of the bag, and I don't know what that company is. Skip the dishes.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

Yeah, I um we've definitely talked about them like years ago. I I my guess is Uber probably bought them. I mean, I don't know, but um, yeah, the guy talked about it like it was super common, but I'm sure it's like postmates or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

No, that bag probably must have been like one of the original.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Well, it's all about presentation with that. Now, honestly, if if if my dashers are wearing PJs and slippers, I don't give a shit. A lot of people get all fussy about that. I'm like, yeah, to me, does it look bad while you're in the restaurant? Probably, but I don't care. Like if you want to dress like that and that makes you comfortable, I guess. But that bag, yeah, no, that's yeah, man. Yeah, I draw the line there.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

It just starts making you think too much stuff. Yeah. Whereas, you know, if it's a bag, you know, it's nice and clean and and uh you know everything looks good, and the person looks like you know they're they're clean and I stains all over their shirt. It's a psychological thing.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

I do feel bad for people I was thinking about like people that are like clean freaks or OCD or whatever. Can you imagine living that life? Because they think about like what happens in a restaurant all the time. It must make you crazy. You'd need medication because you because, like you said, we don't think about that stuff. We know it probably goes on, especially at the well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

I mean, I worked in a restaurant and I know what happened, but you know, some of the stuff that goes on back there.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Did I ever tell you I worked at you got y'all got famous days down there? No, okay. We had them up here. There's still a few around, but they've kind of closed up. But they were they were uh a rib restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Really good ribs, you know, and chicken and pulled pork and just basically barbecue. And the yeah, the uh not like Texas barbecue, but like, you know, northern barbecue. Sure. And so I started that restaurant. Actually, when Megan and I met, I was working there and I I was there when it opened or whatever. But talk about nasty. Now, this won't be nasty for the customer that you'll think I'm gross. This had nothing like this was food. So people would order these full rack of ribs, right? Now, ribs are expensive and they were fucking good.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Oh man, good.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

I love ribs. Oh, I love ribs. I haven't had them in a while. So they order a full rack, right? They eat three, and I and I clear their plate, I bring it back. The rest of the ribs are fine.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Oh, I'm eating it.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

I'm eating it, dude. I'm eating I start on the other end and I go like three or four ribs in, and then I dump the rest. Like, I literally just sit there and go off the bone. They're St. Louis style, so they're bigger. So I'm just ripping it off. And my coworkers be like, You're fucking nasty. I'm like, they're like, what if you they sneezed? I'm like, it's fine. It's fine. And I was older working with a bunch of young kids. I'm like, your parents baby dude. It's fine. I used to drink out of the hose every day when I played fucking woofle ball outside.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

You don't get to be this age unless you've been exposed to some things, kids.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

But I to this day, I I tell Megan it we it sometimes comes up and she's like, You nasty. I would never do that. I'm like, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Especially back when I was working at a restaurant in high school, I would have done that.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

It's ribs. I'm not taking cold fries off a plate. I it's it's literally meat that's not been touched by human hands. Right. Except mine, baby. Yep. All right, moving

Ring Video Shows Child Abuse

SPEAKER_03 36:54

on. Uh, so this is kind of hard to watch, but a woman has been charged with child abuse after a ring video camera showed this on a delivery. I I'm gonna play it, trigger warning. I mean, I was abused as a kid. I'm it's a little rough. I mean, it's good to see though, because she's a piece of shit, and I'm glad they didn't take it down. And I hope she never sees her kids. But this this shit's going on, and this this also makes me really think that as and this is just a little squirrel, as a bus driver, a lot of that shit goes on. I mean, I live in a pretty decent school district, but you know it goes on, and that's why if you're a bus driver or people that have you know close contact with kids, it's good to like connect with them. Not just to like catch the parent, but like they may have a shitty home life and sure to give them like a little bit of light during the day. I'm not patting myself on the back, I'm just we talk about this all the time. On hey, I need a pro speaking of that school bus banter, check that shit out if you like podcast. Um, I just actually added another episode, it's going coming out Saturday. Um, it's an interview, but anyways, that's my podcast. Don't tell anybody and uh you should check it out. It's good. It's about bus driving. All right. Speaking of uh assholes, I don't know why I said that. Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 38:22

I'll carry it back.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

What is she doing at home? Yeah, yeah. How old do you think that kid was? Maybe seven. I don't think he was that old. And those water, those cases of water are fucking heavy.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Yeah, so for the audio listeners, this lady's delivering and she's got a bat, like a basket that she could have let the kid carry. And she's like, No, here you carry the water. Gives this kid a case of water. I thought this kid was maybe five, maybe six. Not very and then he was a small, small kid. Yeah, not a big kid at all. Then probably didn't get fed at home from that freaking lady. Yeah. And uh as soon as she gave it to me, he's like, I can't carry it, I can't do this. I can't carry it. And and he drops it. And of course it split, you know, splits open. Yeah. And she comes over and you know, whacks him on the side of the head, tells him he's a you know freaking POS and that he's worthless, and and just my heart breaks for that kid. Uh my, you know, my wife being a teacher, she's in the same position like you are as a driver. You know, they they have kids at school that uh you know, a lot of them will act out and things like that, but as they get to know it, you figure out why this is going on, it's because their home life is horrible.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Yeah, it's just it's really tough uh to see that. But I'm glad it, I'm glad it got recorded because then that might make that kid's break. And a lot of people say, Oh, you know, it's they're better, you know, a lot of CPS. This is where I feel like CPS drops the ball because a lot of them say, Well, they're better off at their home, you know, and they let these parents do all this stuff. And I'm like, Man, are are you though? Yeah, are you with that person?

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Yeah, like doing stuff like that and and telling you you're worthless. Yeah, how can that be better?

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Yeah, and you could see that when she was yelling at him, he was already flinching a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Oh, yeah, he was cowering. Yeah, he knew it was coming.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

God, fucking idiot. Anyway, so I don't know. The maybe we'll see the follow-up. Uh, we've been pretty lucky in 2026 getting uh follow-up stories. So that's true. Hopefully, we can see a follow-up on her. Hopefully she gets some jail time and the kid gets taken away. But and and just another note, not that uh any of our listeners would ever do any of this, but saying you're always on camera. You're always on camera. Like she probably didn't even realize that there was a camera there. And I don't know if that was um the customer. It's a ring camera. Oh, yeah, it's a ring camera. So that was from like, and I have seen that a lot now. Apartment complexes, uh, the the people are putting it right out in front of their own door. Like it's not the it's not the management putting out there, it's you know, just Joe Blow. And yeah, you just never know when cameras are rolling, which they are all the time. So just yes, they are pretend that they're rolling. So uh okay, another Uber sad story, AI

Uber Support Cuts And AI Reality

SPEAKER_03 42:03

story. How I don't know however you want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Yeah, well, um, it's it depends on who you talk to, whether it's AI, but uh Uber's cutting 10% of its customer service workers. Um they say it's to simplify operations and embrace AI. Uh they're also starting to require remote workers to relocate to an Uber hub office. So yeah, making people stop doing the work-from-home thing. So according to Uber, uh it's part of an effort to simplify operations and uh continue to embrace AI. Uh which they should, honestly. Sure. I mean, it's not going away. Uh, but what some people are saying about is that you know, a lot of a lot of companies are uh are having to do that, they're not reducing headcount because they've seen AI be successful, but because they're trying to free up the funds to invest in AI. So yeah. And and then a lot of other cases, you know, um business are are are just right, you know, they're using it as an excuse while they're really just downsizing and kind of what they call it right sizing their business. They they hired had a hiring spree at some point, they hired too many people, they didn't really need them. Yeah, you know, uh they may have overhired during the pandemic, things like that, and they need to realign uh their you know, their headcount with what what's really feasible and what they really need. But then again, um, you know, as some people said, these companies could end up rehiring the customer service representatives because this has happened to other companies. There's a uh uh company called Klarna, which laid off all their customer service reps. You know, they said their AI chatbot could do the work of 700 employees, uh, but yeah, a year later they had to hire all the customer service reps back. Wow. It wasn't working out.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna do the AI, it's gonna have to be the the bees' knees, right? Like it's gonna have to be really good because we have all dealt with. AI and we're just like, this is just horse shit.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

And many companies are finding that it's not cheaper. Oh, really? It costs them as they think it's going to be all the savings, and they find out it's it's more expensive now than when we had people doing this.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

I mean, honestly, you should look at it not just as a cost savings, but an efficiency. Like it's got to be more, if it works correctly, it's got to be more efficient. Yes.

McDonald’s App Efficiency Frustrations

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Um, just because you know, if you're talking to somebody on the phone, it takes forever. And and and I and I understand it. And I think a good example of of that like efficiency is the McDonald's app, even though the app sucks ass, by the way. It loaded so slow. I'm like, you're a billion-dollar company. Like, come on, it's not my phone. Get with it. Um, they want you to order on the app and they give you discounts for that because it takes it saves uh labor for an employee to take your order at the counter or even at the drive-thru, and it's just more efficient. It probably costs them more money, but they make more money in the in the grand scheme, I would think, because just is everything's more efficient.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

You mean you don't have to stop and pay. Do you have do you get annoyed? I mean, I I don't know how much you eat McDonald's. I'm I'm probably once a week, maybe. Uh they they not often I don't need to fucking go to the first window. I don't need your fucking receipt. It's 2026. And I like when they say, Yep, you can pull ahead to the second window. I always feel obligated to stop. Megan yells at me when I blow past the first window. I'm like, this is about efficiency. I don't need to talk to this 14-year-old kid. He he did a great job, but I don't need to talk to him. Let's go to the second window.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Yeah. So I don't I don't go to McDonald's a lot. Um, and I used to have it set up so it paid automatically, so I didn't have to go to the first window. Yeah, I for for there for a while, but it can't I I would pull up there and they're like, they tell me the amount and I'm like no, it's paid in the app. Oh no, it hadn't come through. It hadn't come through. So there was like once or twice, I don't know, twice that that that like I paid and then like you know, a minute after I drive away, it things on my credit cards like no F this, I'm not doing this anymore.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

Really? Because it's I didn't think you could even place an order without paying. It makes you pay. Like you can't even hit go to unless you put your card in.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Now I'm no, I'm here. I'm thinking of different I'm thinking of a different circumstance. I did that, I wasn't ordering through that. I was still going through the drive-through and ordering, but I was doing like my my code and getting like a deal or discount or something like that. But I wasn't I wasn't ordering ahead, like making uh oh okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:40

I was like, how did you place the order without the card?

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Yeah, yeah, a little different there. But yeah, like one time, man, one time I I think I think that when I what finally got it, I said I think I got chart. I think I paid for this like thing three times or something. Oh geez. Yeah, I was like, no, no more. I'm taking I I disconnected it and I've never reconnected it. Oh really payment back to it. Yeah, yeah. I just pay at the window. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 47:03

Okay, it's so much cheaper in the app. And well, if you don't go there a lot, it's not that it's it's negligible the farthest.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

I mean, I still use the app, I just don't have a payment connected to it.

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Oh, okay. So you use the app, but how do you send it through then? I guess I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Well, like I don't I don't do again, I don't do the mobile order like where I'm I I still go through the drive-thru. Okay. I use the app like to get the discounts. So how do you use the app though? Like do you do you tell them you can pull up a deal that says, uh, you know, this I get a sweet tea for a large sweet tea for a dollar, and you click on it and it gives you the code. Oh and they're like, Are you the are you using the mobile app? And you give them that number and it comes up on there, and then you just pay at the window.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Oh. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 47:51

I guess I didn't know that you could do that. Yeah, yeah. Drew just said I look like the white James Harden. Okay. Do you know who James Harden is? Uh now without looking him up. He plays for, he's a basketball player. He plays for I definitely don't know him, man. I think he plays for Oklahoma now. I don't know. That's that's actually kind of a compliment.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Did you look him up?

SPEAKER_01 48:15

I can see that.

SPEAKER_03 48:16

His beard's better than mine though.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Yeah, is his beard gray? Big money. Yeah. Um he's got a little gray.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Yeah, I mean, when he first when he first came into the league, he definitely wasn't. Well, I look at pictures of five, six years ago, bro. Not like this. It is white. The only color I really have left is like my mustache, and that's still starting to that's going.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Yeah, that's going.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

That's funny, Drew.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

Uh do we do you know, Drew?

SPEAKER_03 48:46

No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

No, okay. I thanks for stopping in, Drew. Yeah, I appreciate it, Drew. Yeah, thanks for listening. I'm just wondering if it's somebody that I didn't remember.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Nope, nope, never seen it. And if I have, I apologize. I don't remember. Shit, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah. So I didn't know you could use like there's actually codes on the the deals, like you know, yeah. So like if you order a cheeseburger, a lot of times I see there, there's like or like a quarter pounder, it'll say 30% off a quarter pounder.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

If you tap that, it'll give you a little code and I'll say use for mobile order or use it at the restaurant. Use it at the restaurant and it gives you the code, and you just go, you just give them that code and okay, so you know, yeah, they'll have the deal.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Why I couldn't figure that out. I was so confused. I was like, I thought you had to use the fucking app, but yeah, anyways, okay. I'm stupid, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

No, no. If you don't, I mean you if you've done it your way for you know since the beginning, it would make sense. Yeah, it wouldn't make sense at all.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

Okay, I was trying to figure it out. There's our McDonald's moment.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 49:44

Um McDonald's, not a sponsor yet. Yeah, I don't I don't think that's happening. A couple of short things, real quick.

Customers Tracking Drivers And Stacked Orders

SPEAKER_03 49:51

This was a uh DoorDash conversation. Uh of course, you know, the customers that track is just always odd. It says, why customer is why are you going that way? You missed the turn off Kingston. Uh driver, I had another order drop off first. Stacked order. My food is going to be ice cold. Bring mine first. I pay for dash pass. Dash pass doesn't pay my gas. The app routes me, complain to them. Then the customer, I am tracking you, turn around right now. Keep tracking me all the way back to the restaurant because I'm on the siding this headache. So I love that he did this. Um, a couple of things about this. Do you think he actually had another order? Because typically, doesn't the app I mean, we don't order a lot of uh DoorDash, but typically it says in fact, the last time I ordered, God, I think it was ice cream. I think I talked about on the show. Yeah, you did. Yeah, it did talk, tell me that they were dropping off other orders. So unless this person was lying, and like which I have maybe that if someone messaged me, which doesn't happen very often, I say I have another order, but typically I'm on another platform, um, unless this happened. But I kind of like, I hope he did uh unassign it and not deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 51:05

Um because and it probably did say on there, but I mean, I know I've had passengers when I'm I'm on another ride, and then you get one in queue and they call and they're like, Why are you not heading toward me? Yeah, I'm like, I've got another normally, I don't even answer if I've got somebody in the car or not. Yeah, if it rings, I've got back in the old days. Yeah back in the old days when it first started and didn't know better. I I did that a time or two. But now if it rings, yeah, I'm like, I'm not answering that. I know it's the next customer and they're just gonna have to wait. And it tells them that I'm on another ride if they want to look.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

Yeah, yeah. It's not, and maybe they don't care or they're too stupid to figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

Or they're too drunk or something, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Do something, but yeah, yeah. That I don't answer phone calls anymore. I mean, I don't care if it's I mean, they'd have to call a couple of times, and I have recently answered it after like the third time. I'm like, okay, something's it's the same number, something's fucked up, and and then it was we figured it out. It was it was a legit call, but yeah, most of the time I'm not you can text me in the app, like I'll look in there. But I'm if I'm driving or I'm dealing with something else, I'm I'm not picking up your phone call.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

So, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 52:11

Yeah, all right.

Waymo And Uber Partnership Turns Chippy

SPEAKER_02 52:13

Waymo in the news.

SPEAKER_03 52:18

Um, all right, why is that up there? So this talks about the partnership between Waymo and Uber. It's getting a little chippy. Yeah. Uh we're complaining of certain things, but according to report, Waymo is thinking about ending its Robotaxi partnership with Uber. Right now, if you request a ride in places like Austin, Atlanta, there's a chance that uh Waymo self-driving car shows up through the Uber app, but behind the scenes the relationship has gotten pretty rocky. Reports say that companies have been butting heads over things like dirty vehicles, routing problems, real reality, reliability. There we go. I had to like stop and think in bad weather and even how the money is split, basing they're starting to look less like partners, more like competitors. If Waymo does walk away, the plan would be reportedly to be launched its own app in those markets. Which I don't know why they're not doing that, anyways. Starting in 2028, instead of relying on Uber to bring in riders, that would put Waymo in direct competition with Uber for Robo Taxi customers. Of course, nothing official, neither company has confirmed the report, but if it happens, it's another sign that the robo taxi race is heating up, and the companies that use that used to need each other may decide to go it alone. So, I mean, I don't I mean, I guess you got to fit finish out your contract you have with them, but then be done. I mean, Waymo's exploded enough, they don't fucking need Uber.

SPEAKER_01 53:39

Yeah, I think they need to put Dara and uh whoever the head of Waymo is in the octagon. Let them let them see.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

Yeah. Right on the White House lawn. Right on the White House. Yeah, let's let's bring them in. Yeah, no, no, no cups, no mouth guards. Let's go. Let's do it. Um, so yeah, I mean it it's time, it's time to move on. Obviously, they're they're nitpicking each other about dirty cars and stuff like that, and so on and so forth. Honeymoon is over. Honeymoon is over. I can't remember what cars. I mean, I should we probably there's probably 17 of them. I was thinking what cars is Uber using for that self-driving. Um is it lucid or you know, in those cities? Yeah, see, it we talked about so many. I know that's what I was gonna say. Like, it's a shot in the dark if you got it right. It is, yeah. You spin the wheel, see what comes up. Well, you know, we're just still waiting for Larry to get that Waymo ride in Nashville. Like, I he he goes there all the time, but next time you got to bring somebody to the airport family or whatever, go there a little bit early.

SPEAKER_01 54:39

We're gonna be there tomorrow night. Shut up. We are. We're going to see uh it's Dolly Park. It's called Dolly Parkman uh Songs and Symphony. So it's a Nashville orchestra. Okay. Um, it's videos of her. Of course, she's not gonna be there live. It's videos of her um talking about stories of her life and the symphony plays. Oh, very cool. Yeah, it's pretty neat. She did she did a trial run of it in Nashville um like a month or so ago, and then they're doing, I don't know, like 18 days of it here, and then it's going on tour. So, yeah, we're gonna be down there tomorrow. So I might see if I can uh after the show, maybe I can take away my ride. That'd be yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

Are you and your wife going down there? Yes. Oh, yeah, that'll be fun. They they do a lot a lot of that for Star Wars. They did uh a bunch of Symphony stuff at the new, we call it the Gramp. It's the amphitheater, the Gramp, uh, and and played all the videos and or or the movie or something. I don't I don't remember exactly.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

So yeah, they did. I think our Symphony here Nashville did Home Alone one year.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

Oh, nice. Hey Rideshair Rick, nice to see you. Drew got banned from Uber Eats. Drew, you got banned for like Ben from Uber Eats? What? Because you're bringing it. We need to know more. Yeah, we need the shows are wrapping up, but dad, that we need to know why you got banned. Damn, that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 55:57

All right. Well, I'm putting you, I'm putting the the notice on here. Everyone's heard it live on the show that you are um gonna try to take. I'll give you, I'll give you that out. Try. Yeah, I'll have to see if my wife, I don't I haven't haven't discussed riding in the Waymo with her, so I don't know if well, she gotta go with you because you're what are you gonna leave her on the corner while you go do a five-minute ride? Like, you're not gonna do that either. No, no, so oh, that'd be so cool. Uh yeah, next time I travel, which I don't think I'm traveling at all yet for the rest of this year. But I mean, if it if you know, eventually it's gonna come to Chicago and Detroit, and that that's no big deal. You can always go to a like I'm going to show next week, going to Foo Fighters in Detroit. Like if they had them there, I definitely would do it, but I don't think they do. So well, maybe. Didn't they have something there? I don't know. Detroit? I'm squirling right now. I swear, no, I swear they were testing something there. You're looking it up. He's looking it up. In Detroit. Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Uh Waymo is launching, it says they're launching in 2026, but it didn't say when.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

Oh, so maybe they're testing right now. Yeah. So I can try to run one off the road.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

I mean, my friend's driving. She it's her car, so I'll just grab the wheel.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

Stand in front of it, see if it hits you or not.

SPEAKER_03 57:18

Daddy needs to get a payday. There you go. Yeah, I thought we talked about it that they were gonna test soon, but anyways. Um let's do let's uh fuck. We got 59 minutes. Okay, yeah, we started late. All right, I'll do one more. Uh this Reddit uh post is and this is interesting, we've been talking a lot about um fuck, where is it? Is this it? Oh yeah.

Amazon Cart Tracking And Wasted Resources

SPEAKER_03 57:47

We talk a lot about Amazon. You know, I feel like the show ends up being focus whatever I'm doing a lot of, and and and Amazon is one of them. And so for the SSD is same say same. I thought it was S same, I thought it was same day delivery. SSD is the same day. Basically, I think I don't know what the acronym stands for, but basically it's like they ordered them the night before and you get it, or they order them that morning. But you're supposed to return the carts to the building, and you have to walk, I don't know, 200 yards to the parking lot and load it, and people will not fucking return it. They'll just leave it right there, which twofold. Once, one, you're a dick and you're lazy, two, you it jams up parking spots. So, like when other people are trying to park, there's dealing with carts. I always bring it back because I always feel bad for the employee. I don't know why. I mean, that's their job. I know they go, they're a cart collector, but I always just bring it back. But apparently, these orange things are some sort of tracker uh that can know that you didn't bring your cart back, I would guess. I can't believe they would be specific be able to program it specifically for because like when you get a cart like this, literally it tells you what where the cart is in your phone, and you just walk up and scan the package and you pull it out. I can't believe they would be that sophisticated to know that that cart was actually for you.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

I mean that's I mean they have if they don't, then what's the point of it?

SPEAKER_03 59:14

Well, I'm wondering if people are stealing them and so they want to track them out. Like, you know how the a lot of the grocery carts now they have like you can't get them out of the parking lot. They have geofence, they like lock up, they like freeze, the wheels do. But I mean, it'd be what a waste of resources to do this instead of someone commented about it, like uh it's not my comment, but like what a waste of resources, just pay us more. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 59:41

And maybe we would return the carts, but well, if there's one thing we know Amazon's not shy about, it's waste of money, as faith can attest to.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Yeah, well, and that, and I'm sure it happens all over uh the country, but there is uh we have a brand new warehouse that they built that's been empty for years.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:00

Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:01

Brand new, like right next to the other one.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

Huge, they need to make it a data center.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:06

I mean those are curse words. We don't say that in here, but it's huge. I drive by it every time I go to the other one, and there's just security driving around. They secure the building, and that's all I don't know what they're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

They have you wonder what happened, you know, why obviously they thought they were gonna use it and they built you know to build it, and you wonder why what has changed that caused it to just sit there.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:29

I wonder if they the building that they use now was going to be that building, and they're like, you know what, fuck it. We need to build something bigger, and then they just said, we'll finish this one, we'll figure it out later. You know what I mean? And I don't know because the it the other building is a lot bigger that I go out of, but it's it's really similar.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

So yeah, I mean, stuff as stuff happens, stuff changes. I mean, we have a building uh on on my campus, like our my my building is building C, yeah, and we have building B right next to us, and uh all the adult education was out of that, and they moved it to uh a campus down the road from us, and so that building they were gonna they were gonna completely renovate it. So you know we took all of our stuff out of there, all our cameras, our access points, all our wire, you know, took everything out. And then, like, no, we really need classrooms. So next semester we're gonna have four classes in there, yeah, put it all back, and then after that semester, then we're gonna renovate it all, then we're gonna demolish it and renovate it. So like so. That's what we've been doing this week is putting stuff back. Like, we I I was hanging stuff today in there, hung access points in there yesterday. You're like, this is ridiculous. I don't know who's running the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Yeah, too many people, too many cooks in the kitchen. That's what it is, and someone forgot about something. Like, oh, don't you forget those classes? Where are we gonna put them? Ah, fuck it. We'll just put them back in that other building for the semester.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:51

Yeah, that we just took everything out of. God dang.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:54

All right.

Weekend Plans Patreon And Sign Off

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

Well, thank you so much for listening. Larry, any gig work this week?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

Yeah, I'll definitely be doing I will definitely be doing gig work. Um, my wife's uh ramping up for school. Her school starts uh, I think the students don't come back till the 12th, but like she has to be there starting like August 3rd. Damn, that's Monday. Yeah. Um this month she's ramping all back up, so I'll be out this weekend uh unless you know something uh remarkable happens and changes that. But uh yeah, hopefully it'll start getting busier as the students are starting to start to trickle in.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:30

Yeah, we don't start school till I think like the 24th.

unknown 1:02:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:34

So we got we got pretty much the whole month off yet. But uh yeah, I might do some gig work. I have baseball this week. Well, I had a game yesterday. I had a game, like I worked the game yesterday, and I work a game tomorrow, then Friday. We're going to the game as a family. Saturday, I got well, I do have some gig work. I got to drop a crib off on Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:54

And then uh yeah, so I'm I might do some gig work, but we'll see. But uh yeah, Patreon in four minutes at 8 10 p.m. You can sign up for a free seven-day trial at patreon.com slash the gig on podcast. Go there, check that out. We'll be live at 8.10 on that platform. You can chime in live. Uh yeah, I think there's a special right now. Check it out. I think it's 50% off your first month, too. So you can get a $3 tier for $1.50 for your first.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

You have no reason, you have no excuse not to try out the Patreon.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:25

Plus, the first seven days is free.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:27

What more can you ask for? Oh, nudity. I mean, next thing we're gonna be paying you pretty soon. Yeah, that's shh. Not happening.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

Not happening. As always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. And we'll see you on the road. All right, good night, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:42

Hey, thanks, everybody. Oh my goodness. That's hilarious.