Okay, here's what we know so far:
Prop 22 in California passed.
Joe Biden looks like he'll be president.
The Senate is going to be close - maybe slight control for the Republicans.
******************
Sponsored Section
The big deal in these elections boils down to whether we can continue to be independent contractors - both in California and nationwide.
But what if something non-political took away your ability to deliver? What kind of safety net do you have? Check out Kover - they provide income protection benefits for independent contractors in the Gig Economy.
Use my referral link here and get the first month free of whatever plan you choose.
******************
So the elections are done (okay, some of the counting isn't)
What does that mean for us?
Gig companies can continue to use contractors in California, but I believe that provisions in Prop 22 could put them at risk for a misclassification ruling under the IRS or Department of Labor.
Joe Biden is pro AB5 type legislation nationally, but balance of power in the Senate will probably keep that from happening.
Biden will probably appoint more labor friendly leadership at Department of Labor which could have an impact.
As long as you can be in charge, be in charge. If things are on their way to changing, use this time to get ready for that change.
Articles referenced:
Episode 97 associated blog post.
A list of articles on our site when AB5 was passed
Bloomberg article stating California contractors can still sue under AB5
Link to IRS Publication 1779
Entrecourier Article pointing out extra controls allowed in Prop22
Payup article on extra controls allowed under Prop 22
Article in the Hill about Gig Companies wanting to take Prop 22 national
More about the EntreCourier
You can get more tips and ideas at our website, Entrecourier.com
Our Podcast page is at DeliverOnYourBusiness.com
Sign up for our weekly Courier Nation Motivation email
Get in touch with us
Follow us on Facebook
Folow us on Twitter
Connect with us on Linkedin
Follow us on Instagram
Okay, here's what we know so far:
Prop 22 in California passed.
Joe Biden looks like he'll be president.
The Senate is going to be close - maybe slight control for the Republicans.
******************
Sponsored Section
The big deal in these elections boils down to whether we can continue to be independent contractors - both in California and nationwide.
But what if something non-political took away your ability to deliver? What kind of safety net do you have? Check out Kover - they provide income protection benefits for independent contractors in the Gig Economy.
Use my referral link here and get the first month free of whatever plan you choose.
******************
So the elections are done (okay, some of the counting isn't)
What does that mean for us?
Gig companies can continue to use contractors in California, but I believe that provisions in Prop 22 could put them at risk for a misclassification ruling under the IRS or Department of Labor.
Joe Biden is pro AB5 type legislation nationally, but balance of power in the Senate will probably keep that from happening.
Biden will probably appoint more labor friendly leadership at Department of Labor which could have an impact.
As long as you can be in charge, be in charge. If things are on their way to changing, use this time to get ready for that change.
Articles referenced:
Episode 97 associated blog post.
A list of articles on our site when AB5 was passed
Bloomberg article stating California contractors can still sue under AB5
Link to IRS Publication 1779
Entrecourier Article pointing out extra controls allowed in Prop22
Payup article on extra controls allowed under Prop 22
Article in the Hill about Gig Companies wanting to take Prop 22 national
More about the EntreCourier
You can get more tips and ideas at our website, Entrecourier.com
Our Podcast page is at DeliverOnYourBusiness.com
Sign up for our weekly Courier Nation Motivation email
Get in touch with us
Follow us on Facebook
Folow us on Twitter
Connect with us on Linkedin
Follow us on Instagram
Well, hello, Courier Nation. Welcome to the Deliver on your business podcast, where you are the boss. Each week we talk about how to make the most of your business as an independent contractor, as a courier delivering four gig economy apps like Grubhub, DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats and so many others. Well, hey Courier nation welcome back for another week on the Deliver on your business podcast? It is wonderful having you back. I love having you guys here and I really enjoy being here, looking forward to another week on the podcast. Well, kind of sorta. Guys, I got to be honest with you here, I am so burnt out on politics that I've been a little hesitant about doing this episode because it's just talking about the results of the election from last week. And like I said, I'm just I'm kind of fed up with all the politics and mostly probably has more to do with all the other crap around the politics and the way everybody's been treating each other over all of this. And I'm so done with it, you know? But I do think, you know, there's there's a couple of significant things that have happened now and they will have an impact on us. And so it's what I want to talk about today. One of the big things is Prop 22 in California. I think there's a lot of contractors in California that probably don't even realize how close they came to no longer being able to earn their money. And and I'm still not sure exactly how things are going to shake out even now that Prop 22 has passed. But that's the thing that just points out how tenuous our ability to earn can be. And it's something you've got to be aware of. And the problem is as independent contractors, if something happens that we can't go out and deliver anymore. What do you do? You've got no safety net, right? And so this is the reason that I kind of do this sponsored arrangement with Kover.ai is because this is something that does provide a safety net for you. Kover is an income protection. They call themselves a benefit company for independent contractors, but their main thing is income protection for contractors with DoorDash and Grubhub and UberEats and Lyft and and all of these different companies. So that if something drastic happens, you get deactivated, you get into a car accident, you get hospitalized and you can't go out and earn that. They'll provide up to 80 percent up to whatever period of time you've got for whatever policy you choose to get with them, that they will replace that lost income. And that's huge for a lot of people if you rely heavily at all on your income. This is a big deal. And here's the other big thing that they've got going on that if you're deactivated, you didn't do anything wrong, but something happened, customer lied, they said you didn't deliver DoorDash, Uber Eats, whoever they believe you or whatever happens there. They've got an arrangement with legal rideshare where they'll actually have the attorneys there put together a letter on your behalf to appeal this, and it's just like it's an extra voice. There's not a guarantee with that, but it's an extra voice that you don't have otherwise. And so they've got plans from $7 to $49 a month. And in fact, if you use my referral link on this, they'll give you the first month for no extra cost. So I really recommend go check them out, at least try them out for a month. And then if you decide, you know what, I don't need it, that's fine. You can move on, but go check them out. Try them out Kover.Ai. If you go to entrecourier.com/kover is spelled with a k kover. entrecourier.com/kover or go to the link that I've got in the show notes or on the associated blog page that I put with this post. Which is it on entrecourier.com/97. Because we're on episode 97, folks, go check them out. I just I think it's one of the best things you can do for yourself as an independent contractor in the gig economy. Onto today's topic. It means you go get one of those sound effects boards or something like that, so when I make a change like that, you know, give it a little trumpet. That's about as good as I could do anyway. But anyway, here's the question for today. How did those election results affect us from last week? You know, it's been a week the dust is settling. It looks like Joe Biden will be the president. Who knows? You know, there are challenges, all this stuff. And who knows if maybe something doesn't change that, but I'm just going to go with it's looking an awful lot like Joe Biden will be our president. Prop 22 in California has passed. It looks like the Republicans, I'm going to guess, are going to kind of keep a very slight lead in the Senate, if not a slight lead. It's going to be probably tied. And it's looking like the Democrats are going to keep the House of Representatives. So how does that impact us? How does that impact our ability to deliver? I'm going to spend a lot of time on Prop 22 just because that really got right down to the whole question of can they use independent contractors or not in California? And I think there's a lot of repercussions to what's happened there nationwide. So I'll get into that first and then I'll get into a little bit about how I think the presidential elections could make a difference here and and try and do it without getting so political that at he's not the kind of crap that just puts such a bad taste in my mouth over these past few months that I have so, so, so, so glad this election is over. And even if there were some things that happened that maybe I didn't want to happen or things that happened, that I did want to happen. My favorite thing about these elections right now is they are over with. OK. First question, Prop 22. What's that going to mean to us? Prop 22 has passed and on the surface that means.Uber Lyft Grubhub, DoorDash, all these companies can still use independent contractors in California. Now understand you've probably heard of all this, and I'm sure you know this already, but Prop 22 is a California law. It only affects independent contractor status in California. Just a quick history if you're not familiar with Prop 22. Last summer, the state of California in 2019, State of California passed AB5. It was a new law that was kind of meant to clarify when a business could use independent contractors, when they could use employees. And it was, frankly, I think, aimed at the gig economy. That was the main thing about it because they keep writing exceptions to that law now for everybody else, except for the gig economy. So they established a three part test as part of this. It's kind of like you have to pass all three tests in order to legally use independent contractors, because a lot of companies, you know their whole reason, including, I believe, Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, DoorDash, all these companies. Their whole purpose for using independent contractors is so they don't have to pay the extra costs of having employees. They don't want to pay the extra taxes. They don't want to pay the extra insurance. They don't want to pay for the extra management. It's expensive to have employees. It's less expensive to use contractors. So using a contractor is kind of an end around all of the obligations that go with an employee. And so because people are dodging it, they've got laws out there to say, you can't use contractors in this, this or that situation. Well, AB5 made it even just that much more strict. It basically put an end to to the gig economy in California, to be honest, and it pretty much it put an end to them being able to use contractors. It took several months. It went into effect the beginning of June of January of 2020, and it took several months. But finally, time happened where the state sued Uber and Lyft and won. There were there were lawsuits in process against DoorDash and Instacart, as I understand. And it would have been just kind of a foregone conclusion that eventually everybody would have to either use employees or move out. And so that's what Prop 22 is all about is exempting these companies from that law and saying app drivers could be independent contractors. And that's Prop 22, in a nutshell, that's the law that basically it overwrites AB five, it exempts these gig companies from AB5, and it adds some little definition about who could be claimed as an app based driver. And now I'm going to tell you this those protections would not have gone in there if these companies had their say about it. They didn't put those in there because they give a crap about us. They put those in there because that's the only way that they felt like they would be able to get Prop 22 to pass. And by the way, it passed. So all these app companies are free, right, there's there's no more problems for them, right? I don't think it's that easy, my friends, I think I think there's going to be some issues still. And even in California, because here's the thing you got to remember AB5 is only a California law. It didn't require it didn't apply to gig workers in other states. Now that was I'm talking about AB5 there. So essentially, you know, what happens in Prop 22 is the response to AB5. And that too is only a California law. So it doesn't change any classifications as far as in any other states. But here's the other piece about that. It doesn't change the classifications as far as the federal government is concerned, either. Prop 22 only states who is or who can qualify as an independent contractor in California, it does not change federal law. It does not change regulations with the IRS or the Department of Labor. And this, I think, is a big deal. I think this could be a big deal in California. And in fact, I'm I going to say I'm a little fascinated that this isn't being brought up more. Why is nobody else talking about this aspect that. There's a lot of stuff in Prop 22 that I actually could put contractors in California in greater danger of being declared as misclassified by the federal government. And if I'm misunderstanding this, I'd love to hear from somebody. I'd love to have somebody explain exactly why I'm wrong with this, but it's a fascinating thing to me. I think that there are stuff about Prop 22 that adds some things that actually make it more likely for contractors in California to be ruled as employees under the federal regulations. So that's that's a little bit what I want to talk about at the moment. I want you to go look up a publication under the IRS. I'll put a link in the show, notes to it and on the associated blog page at a entrecourier.com/97. But it's called IRS publication 1779. You know, if you just Google it IRS publication 1779. And basically it's just a little brochure. It's essentially it's meant for employees, but it gets into some definitions about who could be an independent contractor and who is an employee. And there are three main factors that they say in this publication. And Prop 22 adds things that puts them at risk in all three factors. OK. There are things about all three factors that because of Prop 22, the way it changes the classification of what it does actually puts you at more risk at being declared an employee by the IRS based on this publication. 1779. So I want you to go look it up. It's written pretty much in layman's terms. It's not all the technical crap that you see in a lot of the IRS publications that you know you need a law degree to understand, OK? But there are three factors. And the first one is behavioral control. The publication states, and I'll quote here a worker is an employee when the business has the right to direct and control the worker. Now, this is one of the reasons that you are allowed to accept and reject deliveries, for instance. The law says basically what that means interpreted is they can't control you, they can't tell you that you have to take this particular offer or that particular offer because that's interpreted as controlling the worker and directing the worker. They cannot do that when you're a contractor. If they do that, they have to hire you as an employee. They also cannot deliver. I'm sorry. They cannot prohibit you from delivering for other platforms because again, it is a form of directing. It's a form. A controlling is something that says you're an employee if they do that. Well, my friends, are you aware that Prop 22 actually allows these companies to prohibit multi-apping, at least in certain situations? See, in Prop 22, they try and, you know, define who who can be, you know, an independent contractor or whatever. But one of the things that they put in there is, they say, and I'll quote from Prop 22 from the act itself. The network company does not restrict the app based driver from performing rideshare or delivery services through other network companies. OK, that sounds good, right? No, no, no. Restricting you from multi apping. Except during engaged time. Now, I brought this up several weeks ago that that language was in there, I think it has mostly gone under the radar. Do you see what that that, except during engaged time does? What it does is that basically it gives them the right to restrict you from working with any other apps as long as you are active on a delivery, as long as you are in route to go pick up the food once you're picking up the food, once you're going to the customer. And basically, that kind of means because engage time is the moment that you accept an offer. You can't be unengaged time with more than one company at the same time. That means that they cannot or they can stop you from multiplying, at least when it comes to even accepting offers while you're getting ready to drop off. You have to wait till you completely dropped off and you are done with that delivery before you can accept from anybody else. They can control you that much more because of that language. There was a paper that was put out by a group called Pay Up, and they took a look at what they said was a potential loss of flexibility in how they positioned it. Like it was some kind of, you know, independent study there that was a bunch of bull crap. There's there's no independence in that. This was a group with an agenda. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, why would you be a group if you don't have an agenda or something like that? You know, so something that's all right. But you know this this whole paper was kind of built around that agenda was my take on it. But they had some things that I agreed with. You know, basically what they said was they looked at and they said, this is giving these app companies room to control you an awful lot more than you realize. Now, I had said something in the same article where I brought up this thing about the language in there that I had made the comment there that I was kind of concerned that with these four factors that they define as to who's an independent contractor, that the emission of other things could leave room for them to do a little bit more control. And so the example I think that I put in there is they said that you cannot. That you cannot require someone to accept a specific delivery. But there's nothing put in there that says they cannot require an acceptance rate. So it's by that a emission, do they leave room for more control. And that's kind of the approach that the the group with pay up had. You know, also ultimately, I think their conclusions kind of came to the same thing was that their lack of definition left room for a lot more control. I did find it interesting that in that paper, they mentioned examples of ways that they could control you. And there were examples that were already happening, like not being transparent in offers that you get without knowing how much you're going to get paid or where you're going. And I'm like, Do you guys know how Postmates works? It's already out there that way, you know? So there is that area where I think there's a possibility of more behavioral control. But there's another piece that was in that IRS publication that they talked about training as being behavioral control and and that if you're doing training that that is a form of control, of directing how you do things and I'll quote from the article from that publication. It says if the business provides you with training about required procedures and methods, this indicates that the business wants the work done in a certain way. I invite you, my friends, go look up section 7459 in Prop 22. Safety training. Says a network company shall require it's actually requiring them to require training and network company shall require an app based driver to complete the training described. It's like, Um, this is control, you know, so. So there are some things where they're doing a little bit more control. Now I do think this this whole balance between the federal government and control and everything like that, I think. You know, I think it actually works out in a couple of ways because it's like, you know what, what pay up was saying and even some of my own speculation where it was like. Yeah, but if they don't specifically define it, does that open the door to them being able to control you a little bit more? Well, here's the bottom line is there never has been real specific definition, it's not like it's any less defined than it was before because even things like, OK, you can't require acceptance of certain deliveries, right? Well, that's not specifically written anywhere. It's written that they can't control the work. But I think that because of things like lawsuits and enough that has gone on, that it has become a common understanding that to tell you that you can or cannot accept and reject certain orders and different things like that is considered a way of controlling the work. So it's just become it's a common interpretation. And even though California law doesn't define it any better, you still have Department of Labor and you still have the IRS who used control as the overriding factor. And so if they go out then and all of a sudden start requiring all this extra, staff will now they're getting in trouble with these areas because remember, the federal regulations were not changed by Prop 22. So I think there's a bit of a check and a balance there. But having said all of that, there's just aspects of, you know, what they put in Prop 22 that in particular requiring the training and prohibiting being able to multi app that's adding more control and that's a little more behavioral control. And so is that going to kind of push them over the line a little bit as far as the IRS is concerned? Here's a second factor that the IRS stated, and that's financial control. You know, the first one is behavioral control, but the second one is financial control. And basically, that means if they're kind of controlling you with the money, then that is a way of doing control. And they put two different factors in there that help you determine if that's happening in the first one. The first one has to do with expenses and reimbursement, because here's here's the whole idea behind this, and that is when you're an independent contractor, technically, that means you're running a business, right? And when you're running a business, you're on your own for your expenses. So here's what the IRS says. It says if you are not reimbursed for some or all of business expenses, then you may be an independent contractor. So that's pretty much the same thing, right? You know, you use your car, you're on your own with your car. That's that's part of the deal. When you're an independent contractor delivering for Grubhub and DoorDash and all these different companies, that's no different than if you're running a business. But the flip side of that is if you are getting extensively reimbursed by the company, that is a sign of an employee relationship. But here's where the compensation piece of Prop 22 comes in. Prop 22 establishes a minimum pay, and it is based on 120 percent of minimum wage for your engaged time while you're active on deliveries are active on rides if you're doing ride share plus 30 cents a mile. It's basically it is a 30 percent a mile reimbursement. Now, I know I'm sure that they were very, very, very careful about putting the language in there. So it does not say reimbursement. But in practice, it is still a reimbursement. You know, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, it's a reimbursement. And so that's the first piece there is reimbursement. The second piece is the other factor that they put in there is, they said, opportunity or loss if you can realize a profit or incur a loss. This suggests that you are in business for yourself and that you may be an independent contractor. In other words. Just like a business, you could do fantastic and just like a business, you could take a bath doing this, you know? But here's the thing Prop 22 now is throwing out a minimum wage. 120 percent a minimum wage. And by the way, your chance at loss is taken away because they're giving you a 30 cents a mile for the drop miles that you're driving. The opportunity for profit is there, the opportunity for loss is greatly taken away. So when it comes to the financial control test, I think this really pushes them much more strongly into an employee relationship. The third factor? So there was behavioral control, financial control and the third factor, according to the IRS, is relationship of the parties. And I'll quote from it it says employee benefits if you receive benefits such as insurance, pension or paid leave. This is an indication that you may be an employee. You got to read through that act because you go right to Article four and what is it titled benefits? Prop 22 has provisions in there for a health care subsidy and occupational accident insurance. They put benefits in there if you receive benefits such as insurance, pension or paid leave, this is an indication that you may be an employee. One more factor that pushes them over the line. So what does all this mean? Well, here's the thing. Go back to this thing. Prop 22 only changed California law. It only changed how the California government determines if you're a contractor or not. It does not change anything about the IRS. It does not change anything about the Department of Labor. So here's that main purpose for that publication, 1779, and that is, they put that out there for employees or for contractors. They put that out there because when somebody is getting ready to file their taxes and all of a sudden they've got to pay a whole lot more in taxes because they've got that self-employment tax, right? And the IRS put that publication out there for the contractor really, who is coming up on tax time. And all of a sudden, he's got this huge self-employment tax to pay. And he's starting to say, I don't really think that I'm a contractor. I'm not sure should I have to pay their self-employment tax. And so this is this is kind of a guideline that they put out for the contractors to say, yeah, if if if you think that you're whoever you contracted with is cross the line in these things, you might have a place to be able to appeal. And there's there's a process is out there for the IRS where you could say I am actually an employee. I should not have to pay this self-employment tax. And the difference that that makes is that extra seven and a half percent tax that you've got to pay when you're self-employed because as an employee, you've got your fica taxes. As a Social Security and medical care that are seven point sixty five percent of your of every dollar you earn, it starts from the beginning, right? Well, your employer has to match that well. When you're self-employed, you've got to pay both halves of that. And so it costs you a whole lot more. But the whole idea of this publication is for somebody to say, I don't think I fit that definition well. When you read that now, with all of the extra things that they've added with Prop 22, you can have a contractor in California saying, I don't think I fit that definition. And there's there's a lot more evidence that has been added to their case. So that's the thing with that publication that's that's all about self-employment tax. And Department of Labor is another thing where their whole job is enforcing their Fair Labor Standards Act. And that comes down to minimum wage that comes down to overtime, that comes down employment standards, discrimination standards, that comes down to family medical leave act and being able to take those different things. It's all those employee rights things. And if I remember this right, Department of Labor also handles the federal unemployment insurance types of things like that. So they've got they've got their own set of things that they look at, but it really hinges on controlling the employee. And it hinges on the nature of the relationship. And so there are things I think about Prop 22 that really put them at risk with the Department of Labor as well. So that's going to be the interesting thing to see is could something happen with that? And I could see that adding an hourly wage and adding benefits and adding a reimbursement component. And adding some of the control, those are things that somebody could end up from California challenging that status with the Department of Labor possibly winning now. Would that happen? And would these companies decide in favor of the company or in favor of the contractors? It comes down to who makes that decision. We'll get to that a little bit more in just a moment. But there's one last piece I wanted to cover on California, and that's this question is Prop 22. Is that going to have any kind of nationwide impact now that it has passed? And there was a fascinating response? It actually kind of floored me a little bit that I never really I probably should have seen it coming because basically the response of Tony Xu and Dara Khosrowshahi from Uber. I got to make sure I should by now be able to be much more clear in pronouncing his name, shouldn't I? But anyway. They kind of had this response where they said it's kind of like California today, the world tomorrow, because in shareholders meter meeting, you know, Dara made this comment. He said our shareholders call, he said, going forward, you will see us more loudly advocate for new laws like Prop 22, which we believe strike the balance between preserving the flexibility that drives value so much while adding protections that all the gig workers deserve. And that was just like an WTF moment to me, you know, I'm just kind of like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute back up the truck just a little bit, because here's the deal. You know, in a lot of the discussions, I've made comments a couple of people out there that, you know, they threw out this thing that, yeah, but it just doesn't feel right that it's these companies going out there and trying to create a law that favors them. And I would respond, well, I think I and I would feel the same way if it were zero sum type of thing. But here's the deal. You had a new law just introduced in AB5. They didn't really have a chance to stop that just because the Legislature was so tilted. You know, you got the supermajority in California that yourb just not going to be able to stop something. Once they've made that decision, they're going forward with that law. And so their only option to do anything is to get a ballot, my ballot measure. So in that regard, I was willing to give them a pass, but then all of a sudden you start throwing this crap out here that, oh hey, we want to make this nationwide. And I'm like, Oh, wait a minute, guys. AB5 isn't nationwide. AB5 was in California. Something's amiss here. And guys, there's this soap box sitting in front of me that I want to jump up on top of it because you know what, when I read this kind of crap that says, you know, balance between preserving the flexibility that drives value so much while adding protections that all gig workers deserve. And I want to cry bs on all of that, and I'd say probably the real words there, but I'm trying to keep from, you know, having to mark my podcast for a profanity, you know? But I'm sorry, but what a bunch of crap. You know? You guys don't give a rat's ass about us as drivers, you don't care about the protections, you don't care about even the flexibility, none of those things would matter to you. And if you could get away with not providing any of that, you would get away with it. Because here's the thing, Dara and Tony and Bastian and any of you guys. If you really believe that line a ball, then you wouldn't have waited till AB5 to provide those protections, you would not wait until you were forced by some law. And if you really believe that was important, you'd be providing it. You would not have to wait to make a law that favors you to be able to do that. So don't give me that crap. I told you I might jump on that soapbox, but that's kind of that line, isn't it, between this whole? I want to be an independent contractor, but these companies are scum. And that's why I said last week I wouldn't shed a tear if for some reason. Prop 22 were to fail. I mean, I would, but it would be for the contractors who aren't able to work anymore. Those are the guys that are getting hurt. I wouldn't feel one bit bad about any of these companies because if that happened. They don't give a damn about us. And it just makes me mad when they use that kind of language to act like it's all about us because it's a bunch of crap. OK, I'm off the soapbox. Least I think so. But that brings up an interesting question, why why is it that Uber and everybody wants to take this nationwide? And I think there's two things here. I think there's two things. Number one is. I think there's a piece where, OK, it can be an awful lot easier for them to go about their business if they just kind of have that certainty, you know? I think there's got to be, you know, a certain amount of relief, and it makes it easier for them to kind of finally go about business without having that lingering question now in California. And now if they could just get that taken care of in New Jersey, in Massachusetts, in New York and anywhere, you know, so I can understand it from that perspective. That parts may be giving them a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, but they don't deserve a whole lot of benefit of doubt. And the other reason is. Prop 22. It it is. It is something that is more in favor of. The companies. I speculated once. I don't remember if it was on the podcast or if it was in an article, I couldn't find it real quick. But I do remember speculating, wondering if maybe you know, these gig companies were kind of sandbagging when AB5 was coming out because they wanted Prop 22 because it was going to be better for them. And it was kind of like, you know. Manipulating the system or something like that, but why would they want Prop 22 more than the status quo, right? Why would they want Prop 22 more than the status quo if they have to pay a minimum, if they have to do all this extra stuff because I think it gives them more control. I think that there are some reasons that they know that they can get away with more. Under Prop 22, that's my guess. So anyway. Enough of Prop 22, I've got probably long enough for an episode just by itself on Prop 22, but I do want to get into the presidential results here. You know, how has the presidential results going to impact us? Because there's a piece of that 20 Prop 22 they'll come back to this will circle back here real quickly, I think. Right now, like I said, it looks like it's going to be Joe Biden. And is there anything that's going to be significantly different now if he is the president and the biggest one I would tell you is Biden is definitely, you know, he's a pro-labor. And Trump was pro-business, you know, and he came out. Biden came out very strongly against Prop 22. And he has expressed his support for a federal act or a national act called Pro Act and Pro Act is national legislation. And this is something folks you got to be aware of. You've got to be aware that that's out there and. You know, and it really kind of boils down to this whole decision, it's going to become a national discussion, I think sooner rather than later as to should these companies be allowed to use employees and Pro Act is national legislation, it has already passed the House. Now it's been held up in the Senate, it will not get through the Senate, it probably still won't get through the Senate, and then it's got to be signed by the president to become law. But the main thing about Pro Act is that the impact that it has on us is that it implements the ABC test that California used in their AB5 legislation, in other words. AB five, for everybody, for every state. Say goodbye to being an independent contractor if Pro Act becomes law. Now Biden has indicated that he would sign Pro Act. And Trump, I think, you know, would veto that thing, he's he's he's already announced he's he was against that thing. So. I don't know that that matters as much, though, to be honest, because it's got to get to Biden in the first place. And this goes back to the Senate. It's got to be it's got to pass the Senate. And there's there's two factors here. One, as it stands right now, I think it's like 49 seats in the Senate for the Republicans, 48 for the Democrats, with three up for grabs. Two of them are in Georgia, which tend to go Republican, but it's close. And the third seat looks like it's probably going to go Republican, but likely the Republicans are going to keep control. And here's the thing is, even if the Democrats take control of the Senate, there's this whole thing called a filibuster that if they want to block legislation, you know, the whole thing about the way the Senate is set up, it's set up so that the minority still has a chance to kind of have, you know, just avoid being kind of run over, you know? And so the Senate can still block it, they can still stop it from going through, even if they don't have the majority on that. So that's one area where I'm not sure that, you know, Pro Act is going to make it through because of that unless there's a real big swing in the next election in two years. But. Here's the area where the presidential enforcement makes a big difference, and that's the enforcement side of things, because the president is the one that gets to set up, you know, the departments, you know, he gets to set up the leaderships, the secretaries of cabinet, and that includes who is in charge at the Department of Labor. And these last few years, the Department of Labor has been much more pro-business and much more likely to rule in favor of independent contractor status. Joe Biden is very pro-labor and it's looking like he's probably going to have a very, very pro-labor person come in there. And essentially what they're going to be doing is they're going to be more likely to lean towards making a ruling. It says. You're an employee and not a contractor. And this is my tie in back to Prop 22 here, because what does that mean? That means that. Even though California law now is that in the eyes of the state of California, that gig workers are contractors. The Department of Labor has their own interpretations, they do not follow California law. See where I'm going with this. And I would tell you that under the Biden administration, you, Department of Labor, is even if things were completely the same status quo would be much more likely to rule that contractors really should have been classified as employees. And I think when you add on all those things that Prop 22 does to kind of push it more into that direction. I think there's a good chance you could see some big changes because of that. And the thing is, I think in the years leading up to this, Uber and Lyft have been able to kind of fly under the radar. You know, under the Obama years and under the Trump years. People weren't paying as much attention to it. Prop 22 has brought this whole issue to the forefront. And it's not going away. So bottom line, this is this is what I see out of the federal election results in that, you know, just to kind of sum it up. Joe Biden as president is going to be able to put his own people into Department of Labor into the different government positions. I don't think that Joe Biden as president is going to have much impact on what laws pass or whatever, just because he can't write the laws, you know, all he can do is sign them. And as long as the Senate is even close to being balanced, you're not going to see drastic stuff get through. So personally, I don't expect Pro Act to pass, but I do expect that how the Department of Labor and possibly even the IRS look at a lot of these things from a federal standpoint could really make a difference and make a change to things. Now, when we look at the overall federal election results, there are a couple of other things that could have a big impact on us, and I probably won't spend much time on them because I just don't know. But the one side is, how will this impact the economy? Because honestly, for us to be able to continue doing this, especially, I think on the delivery side, the economy's got to become solid, it's got to make a good bounce back from the pandemic. Because the reality is much of this delivery thing, especially restaurant delivery, that is still more than anything. A luxury item, you know? And for luxury things to do well, the economy's got to be solid, and I don't know what's going to happen with the economy, you know? In fact, personally, I don't buy into this crap that the president is responsible for the economy and especially for the drastic changes that happened because of other events. You know? So honestly, I don't know where the economy's going. I'm nervous about it, I'm just I don't know that we can shut ourselves down as much as we have and bounce back as well as we think we can, and that scares me a little bit. I'll be real honest about that. The other big thing that I'm not mentioning or getting into as much because once again, I don't know, and that has to do with the pandemic. You know, this pandemic has everything to do with, you know, how well things are going to go. Part of it is the pandemic is part of the reason that that this industry has been so strong. And but, you know, the pandemic and it ties in with all of that stuff and once again. I'm sorry, some people aren't going to want to hear this part, but it's like people put way too much on the president on this. Donald Trump does not have the power to stop this pandemic, and neither is Joe Biden. Now there are things that could be done, and there are things that probably could have been done better. But this is a freakin pandemic. And last I knew, even though I'm pretty sure he's convinced that it is part of his title, God is not part of Donald Trump's title. And the reality is, this thing is raging right now in all sorts of parts of the world where Donald Trump is not president. Did he handle this poorly? Yeah, I think he did. Could Joe Biden have handled it better? Probably. I just don't believe that it would have made a whole lot of difference, though. So that said, I don't know where things are going to go after this pandemic is over. I don't know when this pandemic is going to be over. And I'm praying that, you know, he's been promising news about vaccines and stuff like that. So maybe that means we're getting somewhere. I don't know. I think whatever happens, there is obviously going to have an impact on us as contractors. And it could maybe slow things down for us. I don't know. All that is, I guess, just to say there's there's a lot of stuff about what this election is going to mean that I don't have an answer. I don't know. I can't see into the future. Now, think one thing that I do see probably being a possibility, a very strong possibility. This whole gig economy, things going away. I really believe it is. I just because I think the political cards are stacked against it right now. I could be wrong, but I think that there's going to be enough of a move that they're going to force people to go to an employee model. Now, maybe somebody will come through with a better gig economy type model that actually fits. I don't know. My guess is, though, if I were to put money on it, I think it's going to go away. Is not going to happen right away. You know, the days, I just think that the days of the gig economy are numbered. It's going to take time. There's going to be enforcement. There's new rulings. There's going to be court appeals. And all of that stuff takes time. So we're talking years. We're talking three, four years. Maybe, maybe less. Maybe more. I don't know. You know, it took the better part of a year for AB5 to come to a head in California. And when you get to a federal level, I think it's just things are even slower moving. So it's going to take time. But I do think the days are no, that's just that's my take on it. So what do you do about that? Well, I think the first thing is be thankful that it will take time. I think for most of us that are doing this right now. I don't know that, you know how many of us see ourselves that this is what I want to be doing in five years. You know, maybe it is, I don't know. But what I would do is, you know, double down on your ability to profit. While you can do so, enjoy. The heck out of doing this was long as we're able to do this and make the best out of, you know, running your delivery business as long as you can run your delivery business. And put together an exit plan. Start thinking about what's next. There are two things I really want you to kind of think about as an example. I want you to think about all those poor folks who ended up, you know, getting the extra unemployment money, you know, when the stimulus came up and they added$600 a week to unemployment. That was a lot of money just pouring in. And what about all those folks that didn't prepare? Didn't think about the fact that that money was going to dry up and found themselves in a world of hurt when the money did indeed dry up. You know, they bought a whole hell of a lot of DoorDash and stuff like that and a bunch of other crap. Rather than taking care of that money and doing something with that extra windfall there, you know, so that they could do something for longer with it. Also want you to think about those contractors in California who came so close they didn't take AB5 seriously and nearly got shut down back in September, if not for a last minute reprieve, and Prop 22 could have gone a different way. And people, it was like, you see it coming. And I said back in, you know, back when it passed and back when it was going into effect that, hey, it's going to happen. It's not going to change things right away, but things will change. Be ready for it. And how many people were so close to just being blindsided by this thing that has just been coming down the tracks? And you see, where I'm going with this is it's the whole thing here that I think as we look at all this, I just think the days are numbered anyway. And I think that some of the results in this election may speed that up. But speed is a relative thing. I think of the memes that are out there of the sloth that's working in the accounting department at some of these election departments, you know? You know, where speed is getting those 10000 votes counted in four weeks instead of instead of four weeks in a day? You know, but I think it's just it's coming down the tracks, my friends. I just think that there's there's going to be a time where it's an opportunity that's going to go away. So here's what I encourage you to do is read the writing on the wall and determine what do you want to go with your life? What do you want to go now? This is a beautiful opportunity, my friends. It's like you've got the ability still to do this. You've got the ability to still go out. Be flexible. Work around whatever you want to work around and make some pretty damn good money while you're doing it. And you got a hell of a lot of time in between those deliveries and you're driving around, use that time to start preparing yourself for whatever your next step could be. It's an awesome opportunity, so you got time to prepare. Don't let that time sneak up on you. Don't let it trick you into complacency. And I guess where I'm going with that is I feel like the days are numbered, but I don't see that as a gloom and doom type of thing. I don't know, but it's just there's there's there's handwriting on the wall, the fact that Prop 22 has passed. But I don't think these companies are in the clear that there's still other stuff. And the fact that you've got an administration that is maybe the best way to say it is they're more willing to hold some of these companies accountable. And and that kind of stuff just tells me that. You're going to see changes and the changes are going to take time, but they are going to happen. But you, my friend. It is completely up to you what you do about them. Well, guys, this was supposed to be like a 30 minute episode. She didn't turn out that way. I'm not sure I'm capable of doing 30 minute episodes anymore, but but hey, as I'm wrapping up, here's what I want to ask a couple of things. First of all, if this is helping you out anyway, if there's anything in this podcast, in the website, any of the stuff that I'm doing. Can you spread the word? Can you let people know, can you go over? Leave a review at Apple or Spotify or anywhere where you can do your reviews on the podcast because that helps people find us, and that means more people that we can help out and want to remind you, go check out, Kover, protect yourself. It's entrecourier.com/kover KOVER and try out, you know, the one month free that they've got with that. But protect your income there. But more than anything, guys, here's the big deal. It's it's what I keep going back to with this. Be ready because that's the thing I keep. I keep saying it's going to take some time. You know, we're in a position where stuff can happen, but it's it's more like a slow train moving down the tracks or something like that that you've got some time. But more important, you've got what you need. You know, you've got the ability to make decisions. You've got the ability to adapt. You've got the ability to prepare. You get to be the boss about that. You get to make the choices. You get to do whatever needs to be done. And that's what I'm begging you to do, just like any other part of what we're doing here. Take control and be the boss.