Lately when I'm in Philadelphia I find myself in more situations with people relying on a ridesharing mode of transportation to get anywhere. Acquaintances will reach for their smartphones and promptly request a ride on their Uber app. At that point, I wasn't entirely sold on the concept. When first hearing about start up companies like Uber and Lyft, I instinctively felt conflicted with the idea. Sounds convenient, yes, but totally unfair to licensed cab drivers, no? The slew of controversies that have been hanging over Uber makes it an even more shady company I can't justify supporting.
Yet on this current visit to Philly, I thought I'd try it for myself as a sort of social experiment/study. What kinds of people sign up to be an Uber or any other ridesharing service driver? What do they think, if they do at all, of taking jobs from cab drivers, many of whom rely solely on cab driving as a main source of income to support a family at home? Some cab drivers the world over can be dishonest pieces of shite, but I've had more good experiences than bad ones. How do ridesharing drivers fare?
So I download the Lyft app, while feeling a sense of guilt rise somewhere in the depths of my conscience.
Day 1
Friday evening, my comrades and I are headed to Center City from our location in North Philly. I request a ride after filling out the necessary details, and am told that a silver Honda CRV would arrive in four minutes. The three of us get into it once it pulls up, and exchange pleasantries with the driver, a brown skinned man in his mid to late thirties, dressed in a white office shirt and tie, and an air of superiority about him as he took us fellow Asians in with a brief and dismissive once-over. My brother launches into easy conversation with the driver, starting with, "so do you do this full time?" The guy responds languidly, "no, I just got off work. I do this to make some extra money." My brother and his friend chat with him for awhile, though he seems mostly uninterested in indulging some young Asians. I say this because at one point my brother asks him if he'd be okay taking a long distance request, and he replies very slowly, in a tone of soft condescension, "yes, if I'm not at my day job, then I wouldn't have a choice...right?" Actually, you do have a choice, asswipe. You have an office job, and drive a CRV. Perhaps you're just a bit avaricious?
I was quite happy to get out of his stifling car that stank of entitlement.
After dinner and some walking around Center City, I request my second ride to get us back to North Philly. A blue Honda Jazz with a blonde female driver picks us up. She is chatty, and gaily answers our questions about being a Lyft driver. I ask her what she thinks about cab drivers protesting ridesharing services. "You know, I don't see the problem. I think they'll be fine. Plus, we're not doing anything illegal."
Ridesharing companies and their drivers like to say that, despite the fact that it's been established that Uber lacks any ethical business practices and their requirements to be a driver are absurdly lax. As long as you have a car in working order, a license, are over 21 years old, and have no criminal record, you can be a driver. That last point seems almost pointless, considering the many sexual assault cases that've raised safety concerns about the poorly screened background checks on drivers. Additionally, discrimination against passengers with "black" sounding names, which is illegal, is a widespread practice amongst racist Uber or Lyft drivers. Never been discriminated or refused a ride by a cab driver in my life, and I am for that.
On top of that, compared to traditional taxi regulations, ridesharing vehicles are unlicensed and, as is widely acknowledged, exploits deregulation. This creates an uneven playing field for cab drivers who have to abide by strict regulations, including paying a hefty price for a taxi medallion. Is that illegal? Maybe it should be. Is it grossly unfair? Quite.
Day 2
My brother and I watched the new Mission Impossible film at the movie theatre in North Philly. It's a little after midnight, and we're too tired to walk the one mile back to his apartment. I request a ride on the app and we wait for a black GMC Acadia to show. The driver is a big white male, and he reveals to us once we're moving that he does missionary work around the world. Now, I am fiercely opposed to missionaries and the proselytizing (or brainwashing) they spread invasively onto other communities. I have no patience or toleration for any sort of missionary work regardless of which religious faith it comes from that sees it as a person's calling in life to "save" the unenlightened in foreign places. The holier-than-thou thing literally makes me shudder. "I feel good about it," he says to us as we stop at a red light. "Knowing I could be doing anything else." I want to ask if the teachings he spread mentioned anything about ethics. Decide not to.
Day 3
An African American college student picks us up in her Ford Fiesta. We are in Center City then, and it's getting late. How does she like being a Lyft driver, I ask. She tells us it's an easy way to make some quick money, since she wants to get the latest iPhone and her mother won't give her the money for it. I ask her if she's ever had to deal with difficult passengers, since she says she goes to school during the day and only gets to drive people around at night. She relays to us a story about two drunk passengers vomiting in the backseat one Friday night weeks prior. "It was so funny," she says in a spate of giggles. I must be getting really old, because if someone vomited in my car, I wouldn't find it the least bit hilarious.
Day 4
Our Arab driver is not a talker, judging by how he blasts hip hop music from the car speakers the entire ride.
Later in the day, we are picked up by an off duty cop in his Chevrolet Malibu. He tries to get some hours in on Sundays, driving people around for the extra income, he tells us.
Day 5
We need to get to South Philly. A young African American male pulls up in his blue Toyota Camry. He's affable and seemed to lean back in his seat in an almost lackadaisical manner. He has more questions for us, it turns out. Malaysia? Is that the one with the two tallest towers? My screensaver used to be a picture of that. He launches into a rant about buildings that are too tall, conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11, and the deceptive ways of governments. I was too engaged with the conversation to be able to segway into the topic of Lyft/Uber.
Day 6
In a BMW headed to Chinatown. A chatty man in a dark suit sits behind the wheel, and prayer beads with a cross dangling on the end hangs from the rearview mirror. He exudes tremendous energy and positivity, and tells us about his being a devout Christian. When asked if he's experienced any confrontation with cab drivers while he drives for Lyft, since he has a Lyft sticker on his windshield, he shakes his head in irritation and recalls an incident when a cab driver pulled up beside him at a red light and called from his rolled down window, "what you're doing is illegal." Our driver shakes his head again. Says, "I don't let most things get to me, but if someone tries to stop me from reaching my goals, that's when I have a problem. I mean, I'm just trying to reach my goals. " I thought, but at other people's expense. You're kind of doing the same to him.
I'm headed to the Amtrak Station as I have a train to catch back to Boston at 9.15am. A young college-aged Iranian American guy shows up at 8.47am. After about eight minutes into the ride, I realize that the driver has made too many random turns and we've passed Eakins Oval twice now.
Also, having been driven to 30th St Station countless times now over the years, it generally takes less than fifteen minutes to get there from North Philly. Google maps, to the left verifies my claim.
Sensing the anxiety of his passengers, the driver asks if we're going to be late for something. I tell him I have a train to catch, and he responds, "
Oh, is 30th St Station where you're headed?" Everyone in the car is confused at this point, and the driver taps the screen on his mobile phone, as though only now checking to see where he was supposed to drive his passengers. I look over at my irritated brother who is in the backseat with me, thinking, was he just driving around aimlessly for the past ten minutes?
We arrive at the station after a nonsensical 23 minute tour of Greater Center City, and with the driver awkwardly telling us he wouldn't charge us for the cost of the trip. He did, and $12.71 was charged to my credit card. I run into the station just in time to board the train.
So far, I don't get the glorification of these new start ups that run with an idea that delivers efficiency to those who rely on convenience, but show utter disregard for all else. This is what capitalism encourages, and in a society like the US, hustling is a way of life. It doesn't matter how you make your money as long as you go out and make it, and trample over others while you do it. The whining starts when the same is done to them––the Uber or Lyft drivers who suddenly don't like it when the company they work for treats them like crap.
Nowadays, when those I hang out with reach for their phones to request a ride on their apps, because buses and subways and cabs make them wait too long, and walking twenty minutes is hard, I groan inwardly. It's as though people forget how they managed to get by before the advent of more convenient solutions catering to the weak-minded. Modernity and technological "progress" seems to equate to : I can do that now? Where do I sign up?
I'm not hip, though, so count me out.
