Game On Pause

Here's the thing about doing rideshare work. It has elements of gamification.

Assuming you are good enough at hygiene, service and safety, both Lyft and Uber want to incent drivers towards exclusivity. They do this through consecutive ride streak bonuses, quest bonuses when you achieve a certain number of rides in a time period, and a points system per quarter. 

All of that means that, up to a certain level, you make more per hour if you work more.

Here's the problem with that. If you don't live near or in an area with consistent work, or if the demand drops through the floorboards due to, well, a once in a century pandemic...

The math doesn't work. Even with the games.

Here's my per app hour graph from the past six months, which is to say, when I started doing the job again after the pandemic got under control in central New Jersey. 

Note that this is not per actual hour -- breaks, resetting to populated areas after long drop offs to prevent ineffective next rides, and getting back to base at the close of a shift is all unpaid, which means about a third of my time isn't making money.

At a global level, that's the whole ballgame. I can drive around with the windows rolled down, wearing a N95 mask inside of a cloth mark, with a face shield on top. I can sterilize all surfaces.

And if I'm doing all of that for $20 to $25 an hour in my spare time, my family needs the money.

At $10 to $15, not so much. 

See you back when the numbers change...