
The GIG Economy Podcast
Talks about our Gig Economy adventures and breaking down the Gig Economy News
The GIG Economy Podcast
🚨 Kids Delivering for Amazon?! DoorDash $100B Shock. Do we care? | Ep 264
We would love to hear your feedback!
The gig economy landscape continues to evolve with DoorDash reaching a $100 billion valuation and expanding globally through strategic acquisitions.
• DoorDash overcharged a California bakery by applying a 30% commission instead of the contracted 13% for eight years, resulting in over $100,000 in excess charges
• Disturbing videos show children as young as 10 delivering packages for Amazon Flex and DoorDash drivers, raising serious safety concerns
• DoorDash is testing drone delivery programs, hiring workers at $18/hour to transport food from restaurants to drone loading stations
• Walmart Spark is implementing geo-fencing to prevent drivers from camping out in store parking lots, with no offers sent to drivers within 150 feet of pickup areas
• A rapper stranded with car trouble was driven 10 hours to his show by an Uber driver after their vehicle hit an object on the highway, puncturing the gas tank
• Waymo autonomous vehicles continue to experience issues, with a recent video showing one making an illegal left turn at a right-turn-only intersection
Join our Patreon at patreon.com/thegigeconpodcast for ad-free episodes and exclusive content. Connect with other gig workers in our Telegram group to share experiences and tips from the road.
Be a fly on the wall as global tech experts Harrison Wolf and Timothy Reuter catch up...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Everything Gig Economy Podcast Related:
Want to earn more and stay safe? Download Maxymo
Love the show? You now have the opportunity to support the show with some great rewards by becoming a Patron. Tier #2 we offer free merch, an Extra in-depth podcast per month, and an NSFW pre-show https://www.patreon.com/thegigeconpodcast
The Gig Economy Podcast Group. Download Telegram 1st, then click on the link to join.
Hello, hello, welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast, episode 264. I'm back. We're talking about kids still living for Amazon and DoorDash $100 billion, shock. Do we really care? Kind of A little bit, maybe. Care kind of a little bit, maybe. Uh, if you are on tiktok, if you want the full experience, go to youtubecom, slash the gig economy podcast. There you can get all the videos and stuff like that. We are not famous enough on tiktok to stream appropriately, so that's, that's. It is what it is. Maybe one day, maybe one, maybe one day, a lot of people will love us, larry. How's it going?
Speaker 2:it's going well, my friend going well. Uh, we're in a heat wave like the rest of the country. We got like the tiniest bit of rain today for the first time in a while. Uh, we need a good couple of soaking days of rain. But school's cutting back in session, gig work's ramping up as far as ride share.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, going good yeah, I just posted a video in my friends group that there was only like three or four states in the country that did not hit 100, and michigan's actually one of them. Um, yeah, it's like wisconsin, right around the lakes, wisconsin, uh, indiana, I think, illinois, and like vermont for one reason and like michigan and, and I don't know if it's because of the lake, but with the humidity you know, 90 feels like 105. So, um, but yeah, we did not hit 100 degrees this year.
Speaker 2:You internet trouble yeah, and I'm, I'm hearing. I'm hearing dr phil in the background somewhere what my? Videos must be playing or something. I don't know. Man, it's a video, it's okay. Yeah, it's just one. I have one of the pages loaded up, you know, for one of the stories, okay, and you know how the videos will sometimes just start out of the blue. It was not dr phil, sound like dr phil, it was a sheriff uh, I, I, uh.
Speaker 1:I have a habit of where, as soon as I click on a story, I right-click and go to mute, and then it remembers that mute, and so then, if it's the same business again, it just keeps it muted.
Speaker 2:That is a good tip, that is a wonderful tip.
Speaker 1:Every single fuck. I mute Facebook. I mute YouTube because I'm going to forget and it's going to start playing Yep. Well, we'll try to deal with the Internet issues. Mo had some on. Maybe it's me this whole time. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think it's me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, travis says we only, we only made it to 96. Yeah, I mean only to 96. Like that's cool or something like that. But yeah, it's been a warm summer. Don't tell anybody, because I always say don't complain about the heat because you're going to be cold in about six months. But I'm kind of a little bit ready for some cool temperatures myself, so I got to burp.
Speaker 2:This is probably the first time that I can remember that I'm kind of looking forward to cooler weather. I've always been a summer person, same, but once it gets up in the mid-90, kind of looking forward to cooler weather. I've always been a summer person, same. But man, you know, once it gets up in the mid 90s it's just not fun anymore yeah, no, it's, it's, it's just not.
Speaker 1:You can't really do it. You can't like I would go out and just mow the lawn just to get it done and then like I wouldn't do anything else, like I wouldn't weed the garden, I wouldn't do any of that yeah, you're wiped out after being out there and you know 98 degrees and you know 80 humidity, 90 humidity yeah, it just wipes you out well, if you're listening, this is not the weather show, this is the gig economy podcast.
Speaker 1:Uh, go to gig economy showcom for everything podcast related. You can sign up for the newsletter. Uh, go to lifting with larrycom too. He's gonna have stuff up there eventually when he slows down. Um, probably all podcast stuff actually, I actually got it.
Speaker 2:It has, like, the generic page has a place where you can leave comments, and jerry from, uh, one of our patreon, oh, really just said hey, yeah, that's amazing, I know he's great. I mean I'm gonna have to meet him for breakfast. Uh, he mentioned it one time and, uh, we have not. We've really been getting out on early on saturday mornings, but I'm gonna try this weekend see if he wants to maybe get together to do breakfast. Yeah, that'd be good.
Speaker 1:Uh, speaking of jerry, uh, we'd love for you to join the patreon. Uh, our members are awesome and they the tiers have just been revamped a little bit. There actually is a higher tier now to get extra access if you're interested. But go to patreoncom, slash the gig econ podcast, and our awesome supporters are samson, bud, omar, delivery cats, frank, tom, jim, miguel, linda, of course, jerry and faith. We can't, you got, we can't. Thank you guys enough for supporting the show. It really means a. We'd love to have you out there if you want extra content ad-free episodes, extra episode after each live stream, the ones that I'm here. I have to say that now because I've missed like two in the last month, which is so odd for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll have to set it up next time. You and me, gabe, we said we'll do a Patreon, I mean it's super.
Speaker 1:I mean I could set it up. I just I I feel like at when gabe's subbing in, I don't want to add any. Sorry, d's nuts just joined on tiktok. I think it's just funny. I I love the names you see on tiktok yeah, they're great, these um but I just don't want to add any extra work for gabe, as he's coming on as a guest for sure.
Speaker 1:So join the patreon if you want extra content, basically, and then we have a telegram group which we've added. Uh, bubba sue, which is so nice to have her in there um and then, of course, josh, who we really don't care about, and a bunch of other people too. Um, and it's just a great community, right, larry?
Speaker 2:it is. Yeah, it's a great way to connect with other gig workers, people who know you. You know you start talking about your experience and they know exactly what you're talking about, cause they've been there too. You know they've dealt with the same kind of routes or deliveries or passengers. You know they know those frustrations. Uh, they know the thrill of the hunt as well. Um, and it goes along with gig work. So, yeah, it's a great place to make some friends not feel so lonely when you're out there doing gig work.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, it's not. It used to be crazy, but it's not anymore. But you know we're building it. It's just because I think a lot of people stopped driving at night and that's when it was busy. But all the links that we talk about are in the description. Feel free to grab those so you can join us. Stories from the road real quick for me. None, so you can join us. Stories from the road real quick for me none. I have not been doing gig work.
Speaker 2:I've been God this pop is making me burp, so bad it's like Dr Pepper is so carbonated, it's like geez.
Speaker 1:I'm not even slamming it either, it's like one little sip. So, yeah, I haven't been doing any gig work. I've been moving a lot of old people and this week I'm doing that, and I've also just kind of taken a little bit of a backseat this week, since school starts next week, so I've been staying home. I haven't done anything really exciting. Oh, I did do something over the weekend with my kids and my wife, have you ever heard of the Volo Museum? V-o-l-o.
Speaker 2:I do not. No, I have not.
Speaker 1:So the Volo Museum is in Volo, illinois, if you didn't know, and it's about it's about four hours from Grand Rapids, okay, and I think this guy like Started out a business and like collecting cars and he has every car imaginable In this museum. I mean, really, he has like Hollywood cars, he has Disney cars, like he has sets of like Disney things that have been produced and never been touched Like one in the world, like one, wow. And I think he started out with cars and then what we went there for is Chuck E Cheese animatronics Okay, I'm sure you animatronics. Okay, I'm sure you've seen them. Yeah, I just read a story about that?
Speaker 2:Oh, did you? Yes? Okay, yes, about the people who collected the animatronics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this guy has them and he has a set from Chuck E Cheese that was unt untouched, never went to production and it's in immaculate condition, so it does all the the songs and stuff like that and you can watch it and it like they're perfect. I mean, obviously they still need maintenance stuff, um, and so they had just not more than that they had another like a quartet that there's no other one in the world.
Speaker 1:This is the only one left, and so that's what we went there for. Um, but the cool part of it okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm gonna have to look up that story and see if, uh, he's one of the people that's mentioned in that story oh, I'm sure he is.
Speaker 1:I'm sure he is. I don't know the owner's name, but uh, that that place you can buy those cars right off the floor. So they had 69 Camaros that were $150,000. It says, hey, $12,000 down and only $1,500 a month for the next 10 years.
Speaker 2:There you go. So did you come home with?
Speaker 1:two yeah right, but they were rolling the car out when we were there, like someone bought it right off the showroom floor. Wow, yeah, so it's an odd little thing. I know this is a long fucking story. I apologize.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:But yeah, if you ever want, and they have, like a Titanic museum. Yeah, I've been through one of those, A military museum, so it's just a cool. It's a really cool place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds pretty neat. Yeah, my wife and I were always looking for places to go there not terribly far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was okay, chicago traffic was a bitch, but I mean always coming home on Saturday 11 o'clock in the morning, fucking bumper to bumper.
Speaker 2:I'm sure.
Speaker 1:I'm like where are all you people going? It's Saturday, no one's going to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm like, where are all you?
Speaker 1:people going it's.
Speaker 2:Saturday no one's going to work, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stay home, stay off the road. Uh, I see not, not much for you, but you're excited for the college kids to come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, college kids are back. Uh, western Kentucky university they start Monday, so kids are back in town. Uh, almost all of them are back at this point. Um, I will be working Thursday night, thursday, thursday and Saturday night, for sure, unless something big were to happen. But those should be pretty busy nights with the college kids. They usually party it up pretty big right before school starts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Hopefully you don't get any pukers, but let's hope you know fingers crossed, Remember when. Jesper used to drive and he would like beg for a puker. He would be like I want a puker he would be like I want a puker, I want that money.
Speaker 2:I want that money. You're a serial killer yes, uh, yeah, no I'd, I'd rather just earn it yeah, I would.
Speaker 1:I'd rather live in a cardboard box than clean up. Some fucking assholes puke. You know what I mean. Like it's oh yeah, and I've done it, and it's not. I mean it's not the end of the world, but it's like I mean when that, when I had my minivan, that guy puked not the way I want to make my money. No, she, it was a girl, maybe, I don't remember, but that shit went everywhere, yeah, and I think whoever's driving that van right now still has it in their car.
Speaker 2:Probably. Yeah man, yeah man. Sometimes it gets down places like you just can't, you can't get there, unless you just disassemble the car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I'm not spending money to do that, but it's not my problem anymore. Bubba Seuss gives you credit for doing the drunken hours. Yeah, I mean, that's where the money was at. You know, when I started out it was only ride share and so you had to like work during those times and uh, it was, it was fun, I mean I we bet you, we did have a fun, man, we had a blast yeah, there still was fun. I mean, there was more fun than bad stuff yeah, and that was.
Speaker 2:That was when you know you did have the thrill of the hunt because the multiplier was on and you know the surge would get up.
Speaker 1:You know you get those six, seven, eight, nine x surges, man, and your adrenaline's flowing yeah, I mean, that's when you would even chase the surge a little bit, even though they tell you not to like. That's how, yes, we got his ticket. He was coming. I know he's trying to come back to town, coming back to town doing 110 and if 70, like you, can't do that no, no, they'll get you.
Speaker 2:They frown on it, they do, they do all right, gig economy in the news.
Speaker 1:We're Larry. We're going to talk about DoorDash. I might not have the same take as everyone on this one, but let's, let's talk about DoorDash. Overcharge this, this bakery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a bakery out in Cupertino, california. It's called I'll mess this name up but La Patisserie I don't know how you pronounce that, but anyway, they're known for European pastries and they make custom wedding cakes. Sounds like a really upscale bakery. They were one of the earliest partners with DoorDash and they were one of the most used places on DoorDash in that area. They became a customer favorite. But they've been doing this for 10 years and I guess their uncle, uh, finally got around to doing their books and found out that that they had been overcharged by by DoorDash, uh, more than a hundred thousand dollars. So a big, you know, that's not, that's not chump change, uh. So she said that, um, it wouldn't undetected for eight years until until their uncle, yeah, who, who handles the accounting, spotted the discrepancy. So it turns out that they had originally signed a contract with DoorDash for where DoorDash would only charge him a 13% commission rate, which is pretty low and eight for for eight years they'd been charging him a 30% commission rate, which is pretty low.
Speaker 2:For eight years they've been charging them a 30% commission rate. All that adds up to over $100,000. Over that eight years they may have gotten that 13% low because they were one of the first people in that area to sign with them. If that's what they signed, that's what the contract says, that's what it should have been, and you know it says they repeatedly tried to contact DoorDash to, you know, get their money back. Eventually. You know DoorDash was was talking back and forth with them but then eventually DoorDash stopped all communication. She contacted, you know, the TV station. After the TV station contacted DoorDash directly, the company finally refunded them, but it went back and forth. You know the first offer that DoorDash made when they contacted them they offered them $42,000, which is less than half of what they owed them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're trying to settle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're trying to get them to settle. And then, like I said, after a bunch of back and forth, they just didn't hear from them anymore until, of course, the news got involved. They did refund them that and then the family pointed out that the refund didn't include any interest or penalties for breaking the contract, with the TV station kind of being the intermediary. They confirmed that DoorDash did agree to cover the cost of interest and penalties for violating the contract. So we'll see what happens if that really, you know, if they really ever end up getting all their money. But you know, I have to say, if you don't discover something like that for eight years, I mean that's a little bit on you, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking I would do one transaction and go shit, this is way higher than 13. I mean that's more than double. Like you would look at your payout Like I don't know, I would pay more attention, I guess. I mean I wouldn't be perfect, but you would think so.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know how you caught it after eight years.
Speaker 1:You know what happened? You would think so I don't know how you caught it after eight years. What happened after eight years? Yeah, exactly, and I also love that. They're like okay, I guess we'll pay the penalties and interest for breaking the contract. You ripped them off. Why are you giving the penalties and interest for breaking the contract? What are you doing? Maybe they broke it early and then they started the process of trying to recoup, and maybe, if they would have done it later but I don't, I don't blame them. I mean, um, break the contract, let it.
Speaker 2:Let an attorney deal with that no, no, the um, the uh, penalties and stuff were on doordash oh, okay, sorry, I thought it was yeah, you're thinking that their penalties were against the rest. Yeah, my, oh, so it was against doord. I thought it was. Yeah, you're thinking that their penalties?
Speaker 1:were against the restaurant. Oh, so it was against DoorDash.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they broke the contract. Right they violated the contract. Oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they should pay them interest because they had their money for eight years. Yeah, that's true, that's a really good point. They could be charging interest on that. But yeah, there's fault on both sides, on that one for sure yeah, that's that's sad.
Speaker 1:I hope they get. Maybe don't have your uncle do the books well, I mean, I get it's probably a family business, but man have some when it has to do with money.
Speaker 2:Man like people at least, at least once a year, have an accountant go over it, even if your uncle's doing the book.
Speaker 1:If he's not an accountant, you know he, maybe he is, I don't know but even an accountant, go over it, even if your uncle's doing the book if he's not an accountant, you know he, maybe he is, I don't know but even an accountant, I don't know if they would catch that you need like an audit, like audit of your, but not not like yeah. So clearly they weren't having somebody do payroll either. It was just like a handshake deals or something. But who knows?
Speaker 1:yeah it happens yep, all right, moving on, we have seen over the uh, the years of looking at videos and stuff like that kids delivering DoorDash and stuff like that. It's super weird, but you've never seen a flex worker do it, and I've got two videos here that shows that, and this is just crazy to me that you would do that. So here is um this is the first one, I think and then the second one kids in his crocs yeah, and his crocs on and he can't be.
Speaker 1:How do you think that second one is? Uh, he's probably like 10. Yeah, that's, I was gonna guess 10. Uh, the girl wasn't very old either. Well, yeah, so first the first one. Maybe it wasn't Flex, because unless he took a picture from the road, I mean I guess you know what I mean, because she didn't have a phone in her hand. But no, no, that shit is dangerous Because like how many dogs you run into and stuff like that, can you imagine?
Speaker 2:Yeah to and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine? Yeah, I mean your daughter, your daughter or your son gets like eaten from a eaten or like injured from a big old dog or something coming on the property like you can't be doing that shit yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't think I would be sending the kids out to do that no, I don't. I don't mind them with you, I mean hey yeah, if they're with you, that's one thing you're there to you. Can you know you can help, kind of you know, try to protect them. If a dog comes out or right or something like that, or some weirdo opens the door, you know yeah, well, even that, though that's a good point too.
Speaker 1:If you were, if you had the kids in your car and you go deliver, are you locking the car, like, because that's another thing too a lot of people leave those cars running. Can you imagine somebody jumps in that thing? I'm sure it's happened yeah, I'm sure it is. There are certain areas where I deliver. I'm just like I'm not feeling comfortable leaving this car on. As long if I can see it, I'm okay, but if I don't ever leave my car on.
Speaker 1:No, you turn it off every time yeah, and generally we'll lock it well, my, yeah, mine locks automatically because I got a fancy car now, not like my 2010 Honda Pilot. But yeah, if I can see it, I'll leave it on, but if I have to, why?
Speaker 2:Because it doesn't take but a heartbeat man. You never know. You just never know. You just got to be aware of your surroundings.
Speaker 1:Look around a little bit.
Speaker 2:You can, man, but somebody could be hiding, you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're hiding. I mean, I guess it has happened so that I can't say anything. I think, uh, I think somebody that I know that I work with the white caps is also a gig worker. She got her car stolen because she left it running.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it does happen even to people yeah, I mean nobody thinks it's going to, you know nobody's like. Oh yeah, I thought it was gonna get, but I left it running anyway.
Speaker 1:Well, the amount of I'm sure you see it in your local Facebook group but the amount of people reporting their car stolen and then be like, yeah, I left the keys in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why are you even reporting it to us on Facebook? We don't care, because you're a dumbass, because you left your keys in it, yeah or unlocked like idiots yep, not much uh sympathy there, no all right. Moving on, larry, we are talking drones.
Speaker 2:This is nothing we are talking drone this is not a uh right here.
Speaker 1:It's not a video, but this is uh an app.
Speaker 2:Go ahead yeah, app called gig smart. So they uh, they have, uh they have apps that usually are hourly um gigs, so they'll you know, they'll put it out there for, like these, four hour shift to doing this. And so, yeah, this is advertising for a door dash drone program. They're offering 18 dollars an hour. This was in charlotte, north carolina. They had 16 available shifts. They were four-hour shifts at a time and they advertised workers must have access to a standard valid DoorDash customer account to be eligible to work this shift. Why would you need a customer account? Oh really, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1:Customer account.
Speaker 2:That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:That doesn't make any sense either.
Speaker 2:It's all fake. It's all fake, you think? No, I don't think it is.
Speaker 2:It says we're looking for reliable and energetic delivery runners to pick up food orders from local restaurants and deliver them to our drone loading station. This role is ideal for individuals who enjoy being outdoors and staying active. Must have an active, standard DoorDash customer account. Must have access to a car or be comfortable using an e-scooter. Comfortable working outside for extended periods. Strong communication skills, ability to work with a sense of urgency and efficiency. And I was showing my coworker the food delivery drones and stuff and we came across some of these places where they have just, um, they'll have a big yard fenced in and it's got, like you know, 10 or 20 drones inside there. So it's kind of cool. So, yeah, if you, you know, if you want to want to work with drones a little bit, yeah, or be in the vicinity of them anyway, and do, do you know, door dash on this is I mean you're basically just getting the food and giving it to someone else to put on the drone to shoot it like.
Speaker 1:It's kind of dumb though, because, like you get the food, you could drive it, but no, we're gonna make it cold and drive it to this area and then we're gonna launch it. I know it's probably just a test thing and you know it'll get better, but you really feel like the doordash in regards to the food is really not. I mean, I don't feel like this is a long-term solution for doing food from a drone. You'd have to almost do it from the restaurant, which I don't think that's going to happen either that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't, I don't see that happening. Uh, yeah, unless you know, unless you have like a, a big area. It's got just a ton of you know, food, fast food restaurants and stuff like that and you can put something centrally in there and, um, you know, a drone uh takeoff area and have a bunch of drones there.
Speaker 1:I can see it working there but I mean in my little city it uh, I say little, but it has a big mall and a lot of stores built outside of it. I bet we have 25 restaurants within a mile and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Same thing with our out by our mall. Our main drag for the food strip is Scottsville Road. If they put one out there, that would work here, because there are so many restaurants out in that area and you can pick them up, get them to that drone then zip them over. Especially if it's a weekend there's a lot of traffic in town.
Speaker 1:You avoid all that traffic with the drone. It would be faster. If you had like, if you had to go a mile or less, I think it would be faster to beat the traffic. Um shit, put them up at the malls, they're all dead anyways.
Speaker 2:Use that space for that so I wonder how bad the weather has to get before they can't fly these things like if it's pouring like 20 mile an hour winds, they ain't doing it during that important are just pouring down rain yeah, even with a yeah those containers? They're not. They're not. I mean, well, I guess the the drone is what we waterproof.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the drone would be. But I mean, I guess over time they'll probably master the weather thing where they put it in a container. I think it's cool. I would love to get shit delivered on a drone. Just to say that I got stuff delivered by a drone. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and you know they're going to get so much business from first-time customers.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:They want to do it. I'm the same way.
Speaker 1:If I was somewhere where I could try that out, I'd do it in a heartbeat, just for the experience Overall, if you really think about it, if a company decided just to do that, like Amazon, the amount of money you're saving, like A you're not paying a driver, you're not using gas, I mean, yeah, you got to charge them, but like it's a freaking drone, like it's got a tiny battery in it, it's not going to really do much. But right, um god, you say a shit ton of money, and I'm sure that's why the same reason they're doing the robo taxis and all that other stuff. They're just they're going to make more money exactly that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:You know, if they're doing it, that's the reason they're doing it. They're not doing anything going. Okay, let's, let's implement this, because this would make the drivers more money, or, right, the dashers more money.
Speaker 1:No, no, not happening, Did you see? I didn't screen grab it, but there was a pricing of like Waymo and Uber and Lyft and all that, and Waymo was the highest one and I think they started out cheap and now, now it's way more expensive. I mean, how are you going to pay for all that, that tech? I mean?
Speaker 2:that's a lot of tech. Those cars are not cheap, yeah, cheap for sure yeah all that equipment you have to put into them and you know, I'm sure they're having to spend a lot of money. You know fighting regulations in different places because a lot of these states and stuff I'm sure you know the regulations right now doesn't don't allow for autonomous cars. So you gotta do a lot of lobbying, but yeah, mainly just to just attack on those cars because those cars are not cheap.
Speaker 1:No, um, you talked about like the, the lobbying and getting through regulation. See, with uber they just went in and did it and it no one knew right. But you got this car that's autonomous. They were like, hey, why is this car driving in our city? Instantly, you get flagged autonomous. It were like, hey, why is this car driving in our city?
Speaker 2:instantly, you get flagged when you got normal joe, blow, you know, do an uber. They don't know that what's going on. Yeah, yeah, nobody notices. You know they're so ubiquitous now especially, you don't notice somebody's driving and a lot of you know a lot of places a lot of people don't even put. You know, never put the stickers in the windows I took mine off.
Speaker 1:I recently took mine off. I'm like I don't want these in here anymore.
Speaker 2:It's just like I'm not doing that, worry about it, what's up? You don't do enough ride share to worry about it?
Speaker 1:well, that's the thing. It's just for ride share, and then now it just labels me. I don't know. It is nice, though when you have them on there and you're doing something else, I think people recognize oh, this is probably the guy picking up my paint or something like that, because, like he does uber and lyft, so obviously a gig worker. But I don't know, maybe we need a gig worker sticker or something, or yeah yeah, you know you feel better sometimes, like from my wife's running into the store.
Speaker 2:I'll park right in front and leave and put my flashers on. I mean I'm not worried about it. I'll just tell that. You know. They tell me I'm like my customer's coming right out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we all know. You just put your flashers on, you can park wherever you want, pretty much I mean.
Speaker 2:You know that's a universal sign of you know. I'm only going to be here for a minute. Leave me alone I.
Speaker 1:I only run into a uh officer once with driving old people and I'm and as soon as I say, oh, it's for retirement home, they're having trouble moving. He's like, okay, just get him load up and then he can go. Yeah, turn the hazards on, you're good to go. All right, you know, I love spark and this is something different, and we had talked about this, uh, maybe a month or two ago and I wasn't quite sure what's going on. And what's happening is a lot of these spark drivers are hanging out in the pickup spots just waiting for orders. So this is going to eliminate it.
Speaker 1:If you're for audio listeners, there's a picture that says no offer area, highest priority and beyond this range, so no offer area. If you're within 150 feet of the parking spaces reserved for pickups, you won't receive offers. Highest priority is 150 feet to one mile Priority area for receiving all offers. All driver have equal priority and then beyond this range more than a mile you'll still receive offers, but your priority decreases the farther you are. So, which makes sense, you're farther away, you're not going to get it as much, but I applaud them for doing it. I wish they would make it more, more than 150 feet. Yeah, I think they should put a geofence around the entire store okay, so you can't park in there, yeah, unless you have a giant parking lot, but um, and they, they typically do have pretty big parking lots they
Speaker 2:usually do, yeah but but yeah, and people wonder, like, can they really be that exact? And they can, oh yeah, with that geo fencing and I mean uber used to do that when I used to not be able to drive in tennessee, man, I mean that I would drop a passenger off at the airport and it cut me off, and but as soon as I hit that state line man, it came back up. Yeah, I came back on it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's crazy how those geo funds works, but I think 150 still too close. I mean because honestly, that's not very far really no, because if it's from the, depending on where the pin is and I don't know if you're able to see the pin on the map where they drop it, because I'm thinking about my local walmart I mean you could be 150 feet and be in the next parking spot, away from the pickup, like you could still be, like right at the entrance, at 150 feet yeah, I mean 50 yards, not not very far no, so I hope they make it bigger.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, don't be hanging out there, and I hadn't really seen that. At our walmart it wasn't a big issue, but I definitely see the one more towards the downtown area that had that trouble. People would just be hanging out and chatting in their cars. Um, it's starting to look like the airport lot, isn't it? Well, yeah, I would you know, get out the lawn chair and yeah, yeah, shoot the shit and and wait for orders. But so this is good that they're doing this? I'm hoping that with that, and then I feel like walmart's being like the most strict on identification. Um, you, know?
Speaker 2:yeah, they seem to be cracking down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the other apps are trying. They're they're pretending that they're trying, like Uber and DoorDash, but um, I, I really see spark really kind of getting after that. So so, larry, you're going out this weekend and you got real excited when you opened the lift app.
Speaker 2:Well, this was this. Open the lift app.
Speaker 2:Well, this was, this was for last weekend, I don't know if I'll get anything for this weekend I was hoping for, but I hadn't seen one of these uh in a long time. So this is a ride challenge that popped up and I didn't even see it till, uh, I think, sunday when I went out. So there wasn't, there wasn't any chance of me getting it because it was, uh, it was, you know, two level, like they do, uh, uh, if you do 26 rides, it was a 48. And then nine more rides would be another 29, 50 bonus. So if I did 35 rods it would have been 74 50, I think 77 50.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 77, 50. And um fast math there.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, it says it right above it.
Speaker 2:And uh, um, I figured that out. It was like four dollars and 41 cents a ride for for those. So that's what you'd be getting it's not horrible no, it's not especially like I said, I haven't seen a ride bonus in. Uh gosh, it's probably been six months, I would say I don't. I really don't remember for sure, but I'm hoping another one, you know, comes out this weekend. And uh, I'll actually look at my app sooner, since I'll be working thursday what I was gonna say is I don't even bother looking anymore.
Speaker 1:I mean they. I mean maybe they well, I do see uber will send me a notification because I have uber driver installed on my regular phone. It'll come in like you could make an extra 70 dollars. Actually, I never click on it because I'm like whatever, it's gonna be like 400 rides for an extra $70. Yeah, I don't ever get those. No, you never get them.
Speaker 2:I never get any communication, yeah.
Speaker 1:You said that before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's. It's really strange. Yeah, uber. Uh yeah, I haven't seen anything from Uber in a long time. You know we used to get the extra money for the youenced area that covered downtown and campus. They usually turn that off in the summer because the students aren't here, so they're not worried about getting drivers down there. But I'll see if it cranks up again here in a week or two. They're usually pretty good about getting it, turning it off and on right when school starts and stops.
Speaker 1:What was that like? An extra six, seven bucks?
Speaker 2:Well, see, it started out like a few years ago. It was like $12. Okay, what was that? Like an extra six, seven bucks. Well, see, it started out like a few years ago. It was like twelve dollars. Okay, like that.
Speaker 2:that's back when you know we were making each ride was an extra 12, or you made yes oh geez yeah, that's, I mean that that didn't last long, I mean it went to nine and then it went down to seven and it went down to five and then, like now, it's usually like three, yeah okay, three bucks. See, three is not to get me down there, like you know, no, but I mean that's where I'm at anyway, because that's where all the college kids are yeah, and it may it gives you good incentive to do the short rides because you do these rides for these college kids and it's like you're going like six blocks sometimes and you're like you know you don't even want to take them.
Speaker 2:But if it's going to give you an extra money for that, it kind of helps make up for it and you can, you know, you can set your uh, you can geofence yourself, you know, for that area oh, can you take those short rides. Well, yeah, with with. You know you can set your zone um and and just knock out those short rides if you want to okay, I didn't know you could set that area like a filter, so they did only give you those rides in that area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh shit, it's been a long time since I did. Yeah, yeah, I'm like what are we talking?
Speaker 2:about for sure. Yeah, I, you know I rarely use it. Uh, I don't, I don't even think about it, but every now there's been a few times I've like, oh, I should, I should probably turn that on yeah, I mean if, especially if there's a bonus down there, yeah, um, yeah, that's I guess.
Speaker 1:I guess I can see what you're saying, because three dollars to me is like am I gonna drive back? Like if I take a drop off in the suburbs, am I gonna drive back to that area or am I just gonna try to get a ride? You know, play the game a little bit. I don't know. I probably would just stay around the area and hope I got a ride back down there because, I don't know, especially in a gas car, like a SUV, you're going to drive downtown for like 15 minutes to get another $3 bonus. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So that that that's. That's another reason why a lot of times I don't turn it on, because, uh, you know, it's just nice to get a longer ride sometimes yeah, these taking these, you know, three five minute rides.
Speaker 2:All the time you're like man, I don't want to be starting to stop and just you know, give me, give me a nice 15, 20 minute ride, yeah, you know, with a decent payout, and and I'll get out of here well, that's what I hated with the when I drove xl, because it's such a it's such a fiasco to get in my my pilot like I.
Speaker 1:I got to the point where I was taping down one of the latches with duct tape because they would grab it and the seat would just fall. It wouldn't slide forward.
Speaker 1:So they're climbing all over my fucking seats and it was just like I'm driving this xl for a mile, all this rigmarole, and I'm like give me a 10 minute, 15 minute drive so I can just like chill out and drive and not you know what I mean. But then also you're like 10-15 minutes of a drunk that's ready to puke. Then you're like I want a short ride exactly.
Speaker 2:It all depends on who you get for that ride. You know, sometimes they get in. You're like, all right, this is great, you know, this is gonna be a nice 20 minute ride and then I'll have you know 20 minutes or back down about you know coming back. Yeah, I'll be on my own. And sometimes I get in.
Speaker 1:You're like, oh god, I gotta spend 20 minutes with this person like it's a dude and they're really annoying and they're like hey bro, and they sit in the front, of course, you know oh yeah, hey man, I love you, man, like yeah yeah we'll take you to the county jail.
Speaker 2:When you want the ejection seat button, yeah, car ride.
Speaker 1:Not worth it, no deny eject, fire him off into space, for sure uh, moving on, this rapper who I've never heard of, jay-z jay-z well, I've heard of jay-z, but yeah, this is jay-z. So this this is like this is cracking out. This is um fox 5, atlanta. The article is like this it's so, so short, but uh, basically, this rapper uh gave a special shout out to an uber driver, helped make him recent to a recent show in baltimore. Uh sorry, moving, he had bad weather. The flight got canceled. His team opted to drive from atlanta to baltimore but hit trouble again when their car struck an object on the highway, puncturing the gas tank and causing a fuel leak. Wow, damn, I mean that's. That's a bad, whatever you hit that's bad luck that's, that's bad luck.
Speaker 1:That's when the uber driver, tanner, stepped in. He picked him up and drove him to a nearby rental location, but with no rentals were available, gz asked tanner how much it would cost to drive them the rest of the way. After a quick chat, tanner agreed to and drove the rapper 10 hours straight to baltimore, where she arrived 10 minutes before taking the stage. As a thank you, tanner was made a special guest at the show and gifted a snowman t-shirt give me some cobenhardt cash.
Speaker 1:Man, keep your t-shirt well, I want to know, is like after a quick chat. What does that mean? Yeah, you know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:What did they end up working? What would it take you to do a 10-hour drive? Because then you're going to have to stay in a hotel and then drive 10 hours back. Oh, Probably 600 bucks 10 hours for 600 bucks. So it's 300 there, 300 back yeah I'd probably do it too, I have to admit I would.
Speaker 1:I mean it's like oh, this is a you know you never. So you're thinking in your head like this is a rapper. What happens? It's a good story, yeah yeah, I mean, you know, if I didn't have you have family at home that I need to get home to and stuff like that I might do it like single Think about and this is not because Frank doesn't have family, but I feel like Frank, which we haven't heard from in a long time, I really miss.
Speaker 2:Frank, I do too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's still in the group. He's still in the group, he's still part of Patreon and everything. But I can see Frank fucking doing this Like let's roll. You know what I mean and you know I hope he did get paid more than just like. You know, I drove you down there for a fucking T-shirt and coming up on stage as a special guest.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they did. I mean, I'm sure this guy, you know they work something out financially. I can't see many people doing a 10 hour drive.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's no way I'm driving until you say, hey, I'm going to pay you this. I would take his word for it. I'd be I wouldn't need the money up front, but I'd be like we got to work out a deal here, like yeah or maybe half up front, half, yeah, I mean, that's so tough Like remember when we I mean I mean that's so tough.
Speaker 1:Like remember when we and I mean I did you, you'd roll the dice on some of these airport rides and they're like, yeah, I'll, I'll pay you. But when I started doing no, allegedly did a few cash rides, I said I'm, I'm gonna need all of it. Yeah, like, that's, you're gonna have to. I'm the one with the car, I'm seeming to be the one more responsible in this moment, so you're gonna need to give me the 200 up front, like venmo because you're you are, I mean you're always taking a chance when you're doing absolutely, I mean cash ride he's got for somebody that would fight that and be like no, I'm not doing, I'm like, okay, I'm not taking.
Speaker 1:You, then find somebody else yeah, yeah, do you remember?
Speaker 2:I don't know if you remember this story? I took it a, I took this lady on a on a cash ride one night and and she paid me ended up being counterfeit money.
Speaker 1:No, I don't remember this. Yeah, yeah so how did you?
Speaker 2:I worked, I worked at the police. You know, when I worked I worked in the city, so I took it down to the, to the, you know guys, the police car. I I was like this money is looks weird.
Speaker 1:And they're like, oh yeah, that's kind of French so when you took it, you didn't really look at, you just grabbed it. Well it's midnight.
Speaker 2:You're in the car it's dark. You know they give you cash. You know it wasn't.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like monopoly money or anything it looked, you know it looked like yeah, to the quick glance it looked real, yeah yeah, you know, you count it, make sure it's all good and yeah, yeah, oh yeah, so you lost that ride. How, how much was it?
Speaker 2:I don't remember, because I took her there and then, like she had me wait like an hour and then bring her back, so it was pretty significant. Um, yeah, it would be hot. Yeah, I was, I was, I wasn't did you?
Speaker 1:did you end up having her phone number at all?
Speaker 2:no, I mean I gave him all the information, but because I would have ratted that.
Speaker 1:You know what out I'd be like here's. Yeah, well, I'm not gonna say I filed a report yeah but yeah, nothing never came of it. I think she skipped down, I think she was transient yeah, you should have emailed uber and said, hey, I took this cash ride and it was counterfeit bills. What can you guys do for me? I did you know people have done something like that, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Man, what can y'all do? I took this ride. That had nothing to do with your app right I.
Speaker 1:I circumvented your app for a cash ride and I got to compensate. Yeah, I got taken for a literal ride, so calling morgan and morgan if you don't morgan and morgan nice not in the news.
Speaker 1:All right way. More in the news. We got more. I think I got two in the backlog. Uh, this is a video that he did a legal turns 15 seconds let's watch. So there you go An illegal left turn for our audio listeners. That terrible music. So it's just basically a video and it's a right turn only and the Waymo decided to turn left.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he came out pretty aggressively. There was a car still coming and he came out pretty aggressively. There's a car still coming and he came out there pretty aggressively and then came in behind him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean in bumper-to-bumper traffic, though sometimes you've got to be like just knows your way in, you know what I mean, and be like, oh, there's another car coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially when you're making an illegal left turn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I making an illegal left turn. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's and I don't know why. So you know, stuff like that happens when the technology. I mean it literally. You have the. Unless that sign got added yesterday, which I it probably didn't they have all the updated traffic things and stuff like that. So I I don't know why it would try to do that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and I mean, and they've got us be seeing it on the cameras that are in, you know, on there yeah, I wonder if they ever.
Speaker 1:No, there's no way they review it. Maybe there's, ai wonder. Well, they would have to right, like to get better at stuff. There's got to be a way that they review like oh shit, we made a left turn on a right only like how'd that happen?
Speaker 2:yeah, you wonder if there's a passenger in the car and if they reported it. Oh, I would. Oh yeah, I would too not to be. That's how they learn that's how they learn.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Just like, hey, just like the driver. Hey, dickhead driver, you just no. I actually would probably not say that I might report them in the app, but I don't want to get hit yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's no sense causing a confrontation in the car when you get this reported at the end of the ride, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, because, yeah, I, I see why we talk about that a little bit, about especially female riders. When there's an issue with the driver, they don't say anything and people are like why did you say anything?
Speaker 2:like dude, like yeah, there I mean yeah, I just think about it. I mean, yeah, the stuff that they put up with and have to live with all the time is bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but just, it's just not, you just don't do that, because what happens if the guy goes crazy? I mean it can happen for us too, but, like for females, I think it's just there's just a little bit more of a risk. So for sure, I'm not being sexist, my wife can, can kick my ass. I'm just saying, you know, men prey on women and they're creeps. All right, octopus Tablet, we'd love for you to get this. You get it from them for free. The mount, the tablet, the charger, everything's free. You make up to $100 a month and your passengers can win prizes and they play trivia and they have the news and sports and the NFL, which is I cannot wait till it's starting but they have all that in there to entertain your passengers, which I mean honestly, let's face it, sometimes it's good to have that in there, because you don't want to talk some nights. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure yeah, and they. It entertains them, it keeps them occupied A lot of times. People love trivia, they'll get in. They're so excited that they can play trivia with their friends in the car or look at, maybe, a movie trailer. They have all sorts of interesting things on there. Like I said, sports scores, things like that, whatever's going on, they're very seasonal. Anything that's coming up any holidays they're very good about updating the software right and it's, and it's easy money.
Speaker 2:You can make maybe a tank or two tanks of gas a month for doing nothing. So for doing nothing, yeah, you mount it forget about it.
Speaker 1:Really right, uh, link is in the description for that, uh, total side note. Speaking of football, man, I'm so excited I am too. I have not watched I haven't watched any preseason. I don't give a shit about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean yeah, preseason is. You know, most of the people that you're seeing are not even going to make the team.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You can't base anything. I still watch it just because I enjoy watching football. So I watch my Bucs play last week. I'll watch them again Saturday probably. If I don't watch it live, I'll watch them again Saturday probably. If I don't watch it live, I'll watch it the next day.
Speaker 1:I can't watch it, though, because I get too stressed out, even though I know, I know these are like third or fourth strings. I'm just like can't do. It stresses me out. So September 7th, the Lions play. I think they play the Vikings opening game, or maybe it's Green Bay, I don't know. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. Oh, very excited. Yeah, very. I think they play the Vikings opening game, or maybe it's Green Bay, I don't know, but yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:Oh, very excited, yeah, very excited, and I wish they'd figure out a better way to be able to watch the games you want to watch without having to mortgage your house.
Speaker 1:Well, I looked. Speaking of that, it's funny. I looked at ours and everything is on local channels except two games.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Which is way different from last year. I think the Lions having another good year. I think they're like all right, we need to put these more in primetime. But yeah, there's a Netflix one and a Prime video and I have both of those. But the rest of it is like ABC, NBC, Fox, all that stuff. Okay.
Speaker 2:Bubba Sue said she doesn't like preseason either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Thank you.
Speaker 2:It's the worst, yeah, yeah, I mean it's definitely, you know, it's nothing like the real season, but I enjoy football. But yeah, you, so you can do that because you know you're local to your team, my team's, my team's hundreds of miles away.
Speaker 1:I still don't. The attendant doesn't work. I'm going to buy YouTube TV again, just so I have it and I can watch it anywhere. I can watch it on my phone if I'm working. I'm just going to do it that way, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I did Sunday Ticket again.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You got to pay the big bucks. Well, me and my son. He can watch too, because we have the family YouTube plan and so he just has to. We have to log in his account here like every two months or something, you have to keep it so they'll know that you're local, supposedly.
Speaker 1:Shit. The day the Super Bowl was over, I canceled YouTube TV. The next day I was just like don't watch TV Done, I only have it for the Super Bowl, and there's a lot of people who do that.
Speaker 2:I mean for whatever season. You know that, whatever their big sport is, you know that some that'll have it for for football season, some will have it for, you know, a certain string service, or basketball or hockey or or things like that.
Speaker 1:But it's not even just the lions. I watch a lot of other football too. Like, if it's on, I'm probably watching it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing with sunday ticket. I mean, you can watch any game anywhere. Yeah, and, and I'm curious to see how it all goes. You know espn bought all this nfl stuff, uh, you know, last week. Um, they're, they're starting their own streaming app called, surprisingly, espn shocking. Yeah, at least they can call it espn plus, you know yeah right um. So yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how that goes. But yeah, love football season, did you?
Speaker 1:see that the? Uh. This is not a sports boss gas either, but we love football. Uh, this is not even about football. Did you see that the UFC made a $7 billion deal with Paramount and CBS, that they're going to have a uh, a uh ufc fight on the lawn of the white?
Speaker 2:house on fourth of july next year. Are they, yeah, part of the paramount deal?
Speaker 1:jesus jenny well yeah, I can't, I, I don't know throw up um do you watch?
Speaker 1:a lot of ufc. Uh, I used to when conor mcgregor even though he's a prick and he I I well I didn't know when he was fighting coming up, he wasn't like that. But now he's just a rich fucker that thinks he can do what he wants. But I kind of got out of it after he did. But I, I, I really enjoy watching it. I like I like the wrestling mostly. I mean it's not as exciting, but but like I like when they make a move after like two minutes and they choke a guy out and they're like holy shit, I didn't even see that happen yeah, you're like, what's he doing?
Speaker 2:he's not even you know and yeah, you don't even see the moves no, you don't why is he? Why is he tapping out?
Speaker 1:yeah, and also the other guy's tapping. I'm like shit, slow it down.
Speaker 2:I didn't see it, or something right, he's gonna take a shit. Yeah, I'm just not feeling it, man. Yeah, I'm done, I'm fucking tired.
Speaker 1:All right, larry doordash is worth 100 billion thanks to dominating us restaurant delivery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, and we've seen this. Uh, you know very much as uh, gig workers. You know it used to be grubhub and doordash and uber eats and Uber Eats still, you know, still does a good business. But I don't know Grubhub. I don't know what they're doing. I don't even know how they're still in business. I know, I know I really don't.
Speaker 2:Everybody seems like does DoorDash nowadays. So you know they've been, they've been really the pandemic. Of course, helped the food delivery tremendously. Door to Ash really kind of took off. 2024, that was the first time that they've shown an annual profit. That's what we see a lot of times with these companies it takes them a while before they show a profit.
Speaker 2:In May they announced two proposed acquisitions. They're going to buy a $4 billion deal for a company called Deliveroo, which gives them one of the top three meal delivery businesses in the UK and also presence in more than 40 countries. So they're trying to turn their restaurant delivery into a global business, not just United States and a few other areas. Another thing they bought was a hospitality software called Seven Rooms and what they do? They have software that helps restaurants, hotels, other places like that helps them manage their reservations, their bookings and kind of their CRM, their customer relationship management. So these kind of two acquisitions I think they're talking about it's really going to put DoorDash in a good position to expand their reach globally and really ramp up, really ramp up their business even more.
Speaker 2:So I think we see it all the time. You know how many times we've done these stories about, okay, doordash partnered with these seven grocery stores, you know, and it's big and small. Dash partnered with these seven grocery stores, you know, and it's big and small. They're partnering with the big big boys but also some of these local markets that you know you've never heard of unless you live in that particular area. Uh, they're partnering with them too. So they're really, I think, spreading their reach out. We're going to see, I think you know, door dash, um, I think we're going to see them on upward rise for the next upcoming few years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wild to see them doing that. I was shocked, I think I read I went to go try to read it again, but it locked me out. Apparently you only get one read for me, but this year was the first quarter. They went profitable.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or was it?
Speaker 2:last year. It was last year 2024. Let's see, yeah, it was their first Let me find that quote again Finished 2024 with its first ever annual profit. Okay, so it may have made profits in like a quarter, but overall, you know, for the year, it didn't make a profit until last year.
Speaker 1:I'm also interested that they talk about a lot of the ad space that they're doing. That's more profitable than actually the food, because obviously there's probably less overhead than that because you don't have a driver. Um, yeah, but yeah, it is interesting. I mean this is what businesses do. This is what lyft should have done back pre-pandemic or when the pandemic happened. You know they're doing other things. They're like okay, we got, and we got our foot in the door with food. Now I mean I could see I can't see doordash doing like rides or anything, but like they obviously know for us to succeed long term, we need to establish different footprints in all over the world, or different things yeah, because, uh, one of the other acquisitions that DoorDash did was $175 million acquisition of an advertising technology company called Symbiosis, which it helps brands and retailers who advertise on DoorDash on the DoorDash app.
Speaker 2:It helps them also reach the customers on other platforms. So you might see their ad on DoorDash, but you might see it on other platforms, things like that. You'll see their ads as well. And DoorDash see their ad on DoorDash, but you might see it on other platforms and things like that. You'll see their ads as well. And DoorDash said their ad business crossed over the $1 billion in annualized revenue in 2024. So, yeah, that's an area of key profit area for them as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean if you own the ads and you're pushing them on your platform. Yeah, that's what I'm saying like you can say to joe's uh, pizza shack. Like hey, you know, we can, you know yeah, so you own the pipeline in the pipeline yeah, just keeps going and going, rolling downhill yep, I mean, I don't blame them as much as, like I need, they need to pay more and, you know, just be a little bit more um driver friendly, I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't blame them.
Speaker 1:They're taking a bear of their people yeah, they're, they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. That's how that's what capitalism is. You grow and grow and try to try to be better. So that's true. All right, last one we'll do. Uh, this is just kind of a funny video. Um, you guys, always I wrote it as flex scammers, but you guys always, you know, I tell people that like wants to do flex. I'm like this is what you're going to have to do. Well, kind of we'll watch it. Oh, we can talk, cause there's no audio.
Speaker 2:But he's refreshing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got five phones and he's just taking his fingers and refreshing. Now, I should have known this, but I didn't know. Apparently, you can just pull down on that. So if you see that orange button on the bottom, that's what I would hit to keep checking for routes.
Speaker 2:Look at you, learning something.
Speaker 1:I know, I know we are an infotainment podcast.
Speaker 2:There you go. That is part of the info right there.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean, I think it's quicker to do this, you know, like just keep tapping but flex is not for the week, if you know, and I see why a lot?
Speaker 1:of people use bots because they don't want to have to deal with that, because how can you make money elsewhere when you're doing that? Um, so if you have a very competitive area, it's tough to get routes and sometimes you just have to refresh, refresh, refresh. Now gary's app has an app for that. That'll refresh in a certain amount of seconds you want. And you kind of got to figure out the algorithm before uh amazon yells at you and says you've been, you know, tapping too long. That's what it says. Um, but you kind of got to play the game. But yeah, it's, it's a great app. You can actually download. Download it for free, um, if you want that one's for, unless you don't want the ads, and it's 20 bucks. Um, sorry, tiktok's trying to drag the puzzle piece in the spot. Yeah, that's what they do to know that you're still. Yeah, you're still active. You're still active there. So, uh, all right, folks, thank you so much for uh tuning into the show.
Speaker 1:Shift Hustle was done Monday. The last episode will be out this week. It was kind of just a fun summer thing, wasn't a huge fan. Not sure if I'll bring it back, but we'll see. You know, things are always different, can change. Now that getting back to work a bit more busier, I just want to focus on the main show here. Larry, you're going to work this weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Uh, like I said, I plan on going out tomorrow night, thursday, thursday. There'll be a lot of fraternity and sorority parties going on tomorrow, a lot of kids out and about um, away from home for the first time, spreading their wings, getting blackout drunk for the first time, right, right. All that fun stuff.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about your website. You need to like, you need to take uh like that picture and put it on the website and just put like a story behind it, like if it was you know, like hey, this is hannah, or you know, oh yeah, and just be like just a little bit about like I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think it would be cool to do something oh yeah, the pictures I take for my yeah and then, if you have a, connection with that person, be like hey, this is so-and-so, or you can make up a fake name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what I like to do. I try to get some information. I try to ask them where they're from, I try to ask them what they're majoring in, and sometimes you'll get stories out of that. Yeah, for sure do it. So a lot of times when I post on Instagram, that's what I try to do. I don't. It's like you know. Hey, I had the pleasure of grabbing these people. I like oh, this is you know. Like I said, this is you know, this is Susan from Chicago. She's majoring in, you know, pre-vet and you know she's a junior or you know something like that. But yeah, that'd be cool to just cause. I definitely want One of our sons. He does website design, so I can get some help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I'm not going to promise I'm going out this weekend. I've got a busy two days ahead of me and then I'm off on Saturday. I might, maybe I'll do some flex, although there's nothing really exciting about that. We'll pick up your slack. Yeah, I'll guarantee you one thing, this is a hundred percent guarantee I'm not doing ride share this weekend. Uh, we'll be 100 100.
Speaker 1:We'll be live on patreon in eight minutes. Go to patreoncom, slash the gay con podcast and you can watch us. And, as always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. We'll see you on the road. All right, peace out night, everybody. This podcast is produced and edited by hey guys media group. Want to start Bye.