Random question: Doordash, Ubereats, Grubhub, etc....

[Martinjmpr]

Well, my overall point is that it seems to me that the likes of GH, DD, etc, along with Uber and Lyft, are ultimately not sustainable business models.

The reason I say that is that it seems to me (as an outsider) that if the people doing the driving actually sat down and figured out what it was costing them in fuel, wear-and-tear on their vehicles, and idling time waiting for an order or waiting to pick someone up, they would quickly realize that they are in essence working for probably $5 - $6 an hour. IF that.

So, these businesses stay afloat by having a stream of people who will act as "employees" only until they realize it's not a good deal for them. And pretty soon, the companies run out of drivers and have nothing else to fall back on.

Maybe I'm wrong, who knows? My wife has a friend who drove for Uber Black and apparently that was a good deal for her, at least she thought it was. Certainly I understand the appeal of "work when you want, as much as you want" but it seems like if you really factored in the costs and the time, you'd see that most of these drivers aren't making very good money at all. Not even minimum wage in most cases.

I'm particularly thinking of the likes of Uber and Lyft where you not only have to pick up and drop off your passengers, but you also have to make sure your car is clean, vacuumed, have bottled water for your passengers, maintainance, etc, and all that stuff is on your own time and your own dime.

I wonder how long most of these services actually "keep" an employee?

[MrPrena]

Maybe a dude want to lower the tax bracket from top to 2nd-3rd tier with bunch of vehicle expense writeoff w/ Lambo Aventador SVJ delivery car.




https://www.forbes.com/advisor/taxes...e-tax-bracket/

[rondog]

As a cheap old bastard it'll be a cold day in hell when I order any kind of food delivery. Even pizza and Chinese gets my fatass rolling after it. And pizza is always Papa Murphy's, cooked at home and piping hot! (WTF does "piping" mean, anyway?)

Ain't using Uber or Lyft either.

[Eric P]

As a cheap old bastard it'll be a cold day in hell when I order any kind of food delivery. Even pizza and Chinese gets my fatass rolling after it. And pizza is always Papa Murphy's, cooked at home and piping hot! (WTF does "piping" mean, anyway?)

Ain't using Uber or Lyft either.

Car dealers have reverted to using ride share to replacing courtesy rides. I had a recall on my car and instead of a ride by their shuttle the ordered a ride and the same to pick me up.

I have used lyft a few times in other cities to go from the airport to a hotel for work. Much nicer cars than taxis and quite a bit cheaper. Used Uber in Quebec city for the same thing during a taxi strike. The hotel was across from parliament parliament and blocking access. Had to be dropped off a block away.

[rondog]

Car dealers have reverted to using ride share to replacing courtesy rides. I had a recall on my car and instead of a ride by their shuttle the ordered a ride and the same to pick me up.

Well, if someone else wants to pay for it, sure.....

[RblDiver]

piping hot! (WTF does "piping" mean, anyway?)

I think it's a reference to heating pipes. Basically, buildings used to (some still do) have boilers that'd circulate hot water through the pipes to heat the building. Said pipes would get pretty darn hot, hence piping hot.

[BladesNBarrels]

WTF does "piping" mean, anyway?

Well, that got me curious and after Google searching, there appears to be a number of explanations.
The one description that dated back to the 1600's that seems to be likely

The derivation of this little phrase is the sizzling, whistling sound made by steam escaping from very hot food, which is similar to the sound of high-pitched musical pipes.
An early citation is given in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Historie of the world, 1601:

"Beanes... fried all whole as they be, and so cast piping hot into sharp vineger."

[FoxtArt]

I've taken an Uber I think twice that I can recall. Once in Iowa, once in Salt Lake City. Maybe in NYC but I am a bit fuzzy on that. Usually from airports to my first stop. As an independent spirit, I'm not big on paying people for services.


THATS WHY I STIFFED THEM ALL HAHAHA (just kidding, yes, I tip well). Overall it isn't too strange. When you're a long way from home sometimes you have to, and I honestly slightly prefer a rideshare over a taxi. Sucks for Taxi drivers, but something to understand is the medallion system/government fraud is at fault there. Take that away and Uber wouldn't exist, at all. Nearly all "taxis" used to be rideshare in essence, until organized racket and politicians got together and exchanged bundles of up to a million+ in cash to cut out the competition.

[FoxtArt]

And if anything will be the death of Uber/Lyft, it'll be local politicians once again trying to squeeze millions out of a fake coin.

Luckily, Uber and Lift being analogous to a nation-wide union, it's not so easy to do.... Perfect system, hell no, either way (taxi or these companies).

If we demolished the medallion system and let independent drivers do their own thing while abiding by baseline regs and/or free/nearly free licensing, maybe that is what it should be.

[MrPrena]

I had no choice to use Lyft few times when I was in Wadhington. Asshole sister in law loves to *uck us over on a ride commitment.