@Mik said in California leaves Uber and Lyft as contractors:
I looked into it as a way to be out and around. Looked to me like a great inconvenience for very little money. Unless you want to take on weekend drunks.
You gotta know how it works.
I never drove for Uber because when there's a dispute, Uber almost never backs the driver. And user ratings are everything. So pick up one Karen too many and you're now doomed with a month or so of very few pickups.
With Lyft, the game was to park at gas stations that are at most 15 minutes out from zones that become high need. Serious bonus money when you do pickups in these areas, but you gotta be willing to get there and they change every 30 minutes. You can't work wherever you want if you expect to make any money. You gotta go where you're needed. Also, a lot of the other bonuses—like simply being available for pickup for consecutive high-need hours—has dried up considerably. I think this is due to their startup money drying out and the market now being saturated with drivers.
It can work but not like it used to, and not at all like folks think it can.
Bonus story: I once took an Uber 50+ miles to get to a job interview because through crazy happenstance, my wife had my keys. The time window was narrow but the driver crushed it. It cost a shitload but I got the job.
