It’s been 4 weeks since California Governor, Gavin Newsom proactively declared a State of Emergency in California to combat the Coronavirus. Ride share volumes are lean and dominated by essential business trips. I now know where every Dialysis treatment facility is within 50 miles.
The ultra-responsive ride-share gig is a shadow of what it once was. Riders that now have to go, are struggling to find available drivers. Drivers are going longer distances to get to rides, only to find the ride is fairly short. There are vastly fewer scheduled rides and lucrative airport trips. The positively reinforcing elements of the gig are vanishing.
The situation has both riders and drivers asking, “Is there anybody out there?”
Every body is playing “prevent defense” – hoping this transformational platform bends but doesn’t break.
Thank goodness the government’s stimulus package includes $1200 +/- for individuals … but there is little known about when it will arrive. So we sit shipwrecked in a life raft, with a lone flare remaining to signal a passing ship … but the horizon is just a blank grey. No indication whatsoever that help will arrive in time.
When you average $2 an hour for three weeks of work, your ability to manage bills, prescriptions; let alone buying gas to keep going and getting something to eat is really being put to the test.
SAVINGS RATES ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE
We’re all familiar and perhaps numb to the grim savings statistics that have been reported for decades – telling us essentially, only 50+ percent of American families are saving money. This virus is about to break us of that poor habit. Fast forward 10 years – I predict our kids will be thrifty savers. No way they are going to expose themselves to what they are witnessing today.
Living pay check to pay check will likely be a forgotten phrase.
I bought a woman’s scarf today at Target. It’s easy to SPEAK a policy, or ISSUE guidance, or CONFUSE everyone by not doing either …. but go find a mask to purchase so you can protect your passengers and yourself while you are transporting kidney patients and in home care providers in your car. No bandannas either. So I’m going to cut and make my own. I want my customers to:
Ride Confidently. #COVID19 #rideshare
Driving the Daisy's 