On weekends, a gig delivery worker in Utah takes out his phone and opens one of three apps to make some extra money as an independent contractor.
But working on apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub doesn’t always feel as independent as the term suggests, he said.
Apps from Instacart to Uber often tout flexibility as a key benefit of working for them. Unlike W2 workers, they say, independent contractors can take the gigs that work for them.
However, the people doing the work say that things like performance metrics often eat into that flexibility. The end result: Jobs that pay like gigs but with demands that most workers would associate with 9-to-5s. And that’s causing dissatisfaction among some workers.
One example is DoorDash’s “acceptance rate” metric. While on the app, DoorDash sends the Utah worker orders that he could deliver, including details on how far he’d have to drive and how much the gig would pay if he accepted it. He can turn it down, but that drags down his acceptance rate.
If it falls below 50%, DoorDash offers him fewer of the top-paying ones. The requirement is one of multiple metrics workers need to meet to be part of DoorDash’s Dasher Rewards program, which can give gig workers access “to high-paying orders” and flexibility on when they work, DoorDash says on its website.
“It doesn’t feel much like I’m on contract,” the Utah gig worker told Business Insider. “You can’t Doordash whenever you want to unless you’re at the top Platinum Tier.”
A DoorDash spokesperson said it is “blatantly inaccurate” to say that the company counts orders that its contractors don’t take against them. Still, the spokesperson confirmed that DoorDash does require its workers to maintain an acceptance rate of at least 50% to participate in its Dasher Rewards program in most places where it operates. Other factors, such as customer ratings, also matter for the program.
“To be extremely clear, every single Dasher has the freedom to accept or decline as many offers as they choose, and they’re never penalized based on their acceptance rate,” the spokesperson said.
But metrics such as this are just one aspect of delivery gig work that workers say feels like a traditional job.
For example, one Chicago delivery worker told BI that he avoids Grubhub due to the app’s scheduling feature. The feature asks workers to sign up to deliver during specific shifts, which can range from 30 minutes to a few hours. Grubhub did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
While workers don’t have to sign up for blocks to deliver for Grubhub — the app also offers the option to take one-off orders — the company tells its contractors that “scheduling blocks is the best way to maximize orders and support earnings.”
Instead, the Chicago delivery worker said he prefers Uber Eats since the app allows workers to “work whenever you want, wherever you want.” He added that the downsides of having a low acceptance rate and customer ratings “aren’t as harsh as the other apps.”
Other gig workers say they spend unpaid hours waiting in a parking lot at stores like Costco and Walmart just to claim orders — a habit that they say feels more like clocking into a regular job than working on their own time.
Many delivery apps such as Instacart and Walmart’s Spark give workers who are near a store better access to orders, incentivizing workers to show up during the busiest times of day in hopes of claiming an order.
Some recent laws have attempted to clarify what companies can ask of gig workers.
Seattle’s PayUp law for gig delivery workers, which took effect in January, forbids delivery companies from retaliating against workers who limit their availability or reject orders they believe aren’t worth the time.
The companies also have to provide gig workers with details about pay and what filling the order will involve, such as how long the order will take to deliver, before the gig work accepts it.
“Now, in Seattle, we are truly independent contractors,” one gig delivery worker who works in the Seattle area told BI.
Meantime in April, the US Department of Labor implemented a new rule that distinguishes between employee jobs and work done by independent contractors.
The rule points to six factors that employers can use to determine which category a worker falls into, such as whether the worker can decline jobs and whether the employer sets a worker’s schedule. It also replaced a Trump-era rule that considered just two factors and was more favorable to employers, David Jacobs, an adjunct professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business, told BI.
Gig delivery companies such as DoorDash and Instacart told BI earlier this year that they weren’t planning to change how they classify their independent contractors based on the rule. One legal expert told The Wall Street Journal at the time that it would likely face tests in court through disputes between contractors and companies over whether they should be classified as employees.
Jacobs said the rule is just one example of the broader conflict between gig workers and the companies they work for over how their jobs should be categorized. For many gig workers and their supporters, “there obviously is a desire to convert jobs to more traditional mutual obligation jobs,” he said — aka roles that might require more benefits.
But on the companies’ side, there’s a great deal of focus on the other model, “which is to maintain flexibility,” he said.
Do you work for a gig delivery service and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com
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