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

Report from the Ride-share front, Week 2 of Shelter at Home in the SF Bay Area:

Note- from my experience …. not a reference to company financials…

Lyft volume is 67% normal, Uber has fallen to 50%. I attribute this to Lyft having established relationships with Car dealerships, Medicare Transportation Brokers, and Companies specializing in moving the elderly; Go-Go Grandparents for example. (Go Go says they work with both Lyft and Uber but I’ve never seen an Uber Go Go pick up)

Not only is the stay at home order taking volume away, but if people are not making money they darn sure don’t have money required to splurge on a car for themselves.

I haven’t been in a traffic jam in 2 weeks. Not once bumper to bumper.

I’m averaging 1 rider for every 1 hr trolling. Previously I was a tick over 2 riders an hour. How many business can stay open for 1 customer an hour??

Not this one.

Thanks to my $235 for two flats + BART and two ride-share trips, $42 in tolls, and $135 for gas, I’ll NET $120 for the WEEK, for 7 days and 49 hours.

$2.45 an hour work.

The last time I made $2.50 an hour I was 16 in 1977 and working at a Carvel Ice Cream store in Toms River, NJ.

Because the customers I am driving are Dialysis patients, in home care givers, and people in essential retail I’ve worked hard to keep the car clean and offer a disinfectant wipe to each rider to help them feel confident riding.

It’s been stressful. More fatigue now then when I was working twice as hard. Of course I probably was sleeping 3 times better. How many times can you look at a home budget at 2 am in excel and reallocate $100 bucks. Geez. This sucks.

Ride volume is still sharply off. I’ve seen one 75% normal day in a week. Yesterday I drove from Benicia to Antioch, Brentwood, Livermore, Pleasanton, and back up the 680 through Walnut Creek, Concord, and a return home. 4 hours of work and I picked up a single rider.

So it appears riders are adhering to stay-at-home directives….but it also means I’ve lost money so far this week thanks to two flat tires on Oakland’s pathetically maintained streets. $235 for two tires (on a replacement plan) plus two Uber rides myself. So I’m still upside down this week going in to Friday.

Another day I drove two Dialysis patients, two home care providers, two retail employees, two in warehousing. Modest work, but it felt value-adding.

It appears assistance for ‘gig economy’ workers like me is incorporated in the legislation making its way through Congress. That’s a very good thing, and very needed.

As 5 Bay Area counties implemented “shelter in place” orders this week, and California Governor Gavin Newsom extended that order and announced a statewide “stay at home” order Thursday, ride share volume plummeted to 20% of normal through Friday.

Last weekend was already terrible for business but I kept thinking the work week would be better because people might want to avoid mass transit. I wasn’t imagining all those potential riders would be working from home this week.

Incredibly, neither Lyft or Uber clarified for drivers whether ride share qualified as an exception to either order.

My assumption based on experience taking thousands of riders to doctors appointments, stores, and pharmacies was that driving met the intent of an exception to the order. So I dispatched daily and returned 10 hours later looking like an Alaska fisherman with nothing but empty nets.

Alarmingly, revenue in 5 days is $700 short of my worst week in a year – meaning there is no money for a car payment, insurance, or even a little something for my youngest son’s birthday who turned 20 this week. Two of five days I actually lost money for even trying, as the distance was great (15-20 minutes drive) just to get to the rider’s pick up, and then I was paid a minimal $2.25-$2.75 for their short trips. You don’t make up for that problem with volume either.

$150 for 5 days and 50 hours of work, less $70 in gas nets a driver $80 … less than $2 an hour….and that $80 has to cover 15 meals and all other expenses and bills. A bit unsustainable.

Still, people in worse need were served, and the elderly or blind riders I drove got to important check ups. Humanity 100 / Driver 10. It’s alright.

Thank goodness for old friends though! Classmates, fraternity brothers and dear friends for 40 years caught wind of what was happening and a number of them helped with a very timely Venmo gift.

So we move forward, conserve, prioritize, communicate with creditors, and serve as many others as I can next week.

Ride confidently. Coachman.

It’s night and I’m responding to a passenger pick up request. En route I receive her text, “Would you please pull in as close as possible to my unit?” I arrive and text back “Yes, I’m here” and begin backing up close to her door as I see her come out with what appears to be a spinner suitcase. Immediately I assume, we’re headed to the airport. As she approaches the car … in the dark mind you … I roll down the window and ask “Would you like me to pop the trunk?”

Silence, and then she quietly responds, “No, it’s okay. I don’t think my new baby would like being in the trunk much.”

Oops! It was an infant car seat, NOT a spinner suitcase.

A Coachman’s Purpose …

I think that anybody’s craft is fascinating. A taxi driver talking about taxi driving is going to be very, very interesting.

James Lipton

The job of a coachman has always been to convey and protect their passengers. When that job is done well, their riders are relieved of the stress of the day and concentration required to negotiate the hazards of the cobblestones, or pot holes on our ill repaired Bay area streets.

Some things never change.

A certain trust is required when a rider allows a driver to handle the wheel and deliver them to their destination. That trust is fragile and renewed on a per trip basis. Courtesy, care, and consistency develop confidence over time in both the driver and process.

My goal is to share from my experiences as a coachman and reflect on what I’ve seen and learned so that when you take your next trip, you will ride confidently, and perhaps with a bigger smile.

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Ride sharing is redefining the transportation services industry. While the dust is anything but settled on the companies which will survive and thrive in this new order of passenger conveyance, or the relationships those companies will maintain with those who drive on their behalf, it seems clear app-based ride sharing is along for the ride.

This is my third career. I attended college on an ROTC scholarship and was privileged to serve as an Army Infantry officer for 8 years, which included leading 150 men in combat during the Panama Invasion in 1989. I then began a second career as a logistics executive, which showed great promise before divorce, brain surgery and a layoff struck at once. I don’t recommend trying all three of those things in any six month period of time, while simultaneously sending your children off to college. It leaves a mark.

The existence of ride sharing and its immediate earning potential quite literally saved me from living in a tent like the thousands of others in California, and has helped sustain our family for more than a year now. So every day is now a version of ‘groundhog day’ … same routine: keep gas in the car, pay for meals, keep the car clean, take care of my passengers, and hope ride volume provides for a bit more cash to pay some bills. It’s not pretty, but I’m thankful for each day, and its all we have right now.

If you asked me a year ago ‘Which would hurt more? … training for and racing an Ironman triathlon or driving 7 days a week’ … I would have laughed at even the notion that was a serious question.

I’m not laughing today. Driving every day on a perpetual road trip absolutely damages the body.

I believe a leader does two things:

• Improve the process
• Take care of the people doing the work

I’ve turned to publicly blogging because those two ideas don’t seem to be embraced by the pair of leading current ride share companies …which to me places them at high risk of irrelevancy. I’ve tried numerous times to surface what needs to be improved to #Lyft and #Uber and their inaction and disinterest has extinguished my behavior.

Should a new company enter the ride share market that didn’t devote the majority of their time to fighting AB-5’s redefinition of independent contractors vs employees, treated drivers well, and instead focused on improving the process for drivers and riders, the current incumbents would be quickly displaced.

It took me 3 days to go from being a 100% dedicated, 5 star, platinum driver of a single company to splitting my time between the two when I was mistreated and ignored. Drivers would immediately tilt market share toward any newcomer which prioritized the drivers, their efforts, and communicated better. After all – it’s a volunteer army.

This blog isn’t about complaining though. Its about improving the process, sharing what I’ve seen and learned, and reflecting on trends within the many experiences along the road, and their implications for drivers, riders, and the companies lucky enough to draw them into their app and system.

Ride confidently.

#zerotohero, #rideshare