A little thread on AB5, Uber and a hockey mom
Late last year, I was in St. Louis and took an Uber to a dinner meeting. We started chatting with the driver and found out that she had just dropped off her son off at hockey practice
She said she lived pretty far outside of St. Louis and would drive for Uber to make extra money while her son was at practice
Hockey equipment is expensive and the drive to the rink consumes gas of course so generating extra income during hockey practice was super helpful to her
Practice was during the week and lasted a few hours which made Uber a perfect option for her
AB5 in CA and copycat legislation in other states and jurisdictions will eliminate this women’s opportunity. Absent Uber gigs, it will be all but impossible for her to turn those two hours of practice into income
Make no mistake AB5, is not a pure net win for drivers. There will be some winners and many losers. Crushing the income producing flexibility offered by Uber and other operators strikes me as rather unjust
Longer-term, Uber will be fine irrespective of how AB5 shakes out but don’t forget all the soccer moms, folks in-between jobs and others that rely on the flexible income offered and arranged by its platform
These types of people are the collateral damage of AB5 and it’s copycats
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