Uber Eats Wants Your Returns And Drivers Want Answers | Ep 298

We bounce through the latest gig economy news and call out how apps keep expanding into “everything” while drivers are left to do the math on pay, fees, and risk. We also hit the real-world safety side of delivery work and the weird tech trends showing up in cars and autonomous driving. 

• Uber Eats is launching retail item returns, and how the fees might work 
• How platform ecosystems keep people spending inside one app 
• A hit and run video and practical reminders for delivery driver safety 
• The in-car toilet patent and what it says about life on the road 
• Uber’s commercial permits and insurance pitch plus the fine print 
• Stablecoins explained and why crypto payouts feel sketchy 
• Uber liability in North Carolina under common carrier law 
• DoorDash drivers’ most hated restaurant pickups and why wait time kills earnings 
• Waymo confusion at a flashing red light and what it signals for AV rollout 
• Lyft’s 30% monthly fee cap and the bigger transparency problem 
• Walmart Spark batching grocery and dot com orders in one trip 

Transcript

Cold Open And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_06 0:28

Oh, am I am I am I doing this part too?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Oh, I thought you were.

SPEAKER_06 0:34

I'm in YouTube. I'm just looking at something, and I then it did nothing happened. So I'm like, okay. All right. Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Oh, God, I love it. Go ahead. Oh, I thought you were doing it still. Okay. Uh, all right. We're all disconfibrilled. We are. Oh my God. Do we need to start it again? Welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast. This is episode, oh my goodness, 298. Damn. We are closing in on that 300. We have not talked about what we're going to do for 300 whatsoever. So we got to figure that out. But we thank you so much for listening tonight. Uh, everything you would like to know about the show, you can go to gig economy pod uh gig economy show.com. So I think I would know that by now. Uh tonight we're going to be talking about Uber Wants Your Returns now. Uh lawsuits, as always. Um, that's a weekly thing. Um, Uber makes a deal with Lucid, and we're talking about gig economy reality. So uh say good uh good night. Say hello to my good friend and co-host, Mr. Jason. Jason, how are you doing tonight?

SPEAKER_06 1:44

I'm good. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:45

I'm doing well. A little discombobulated right now. That's okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:49

But it's all good. That's that's good. Um, yeah, doing good. Haven't didn't do uh any gig work. I see you hadn't done anything either. I I promised that I was gonna come out, but then I worked a long day on Saturday and decided that uh I didn't want to uh didn't want to go out after 10 and a half hours.

Uber Eats Adds At Home Returns

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Yeah, who I don't blame you at all, man. I did go out on Saturday. Uh it was kind of slow, nothing exciting to talk about there. So we will move a long. Okay. All right. So moving on to gig economy in the news, Jason's gonna do our first story tonight talking about some Uber Eats.

SPEAKER_06 2:29

Yeah, so Uber Eats has you know, just like anything, has started to do returns, um, which I don't know why a lot of these apps haven't started this because people are lazy, yes, including me. And depending on, you know, I don't mind returning stuff because I want I want the refund, right? Sure. So I am gonna do it, but depending on the price, you know, I might it might be worth my while. But starting Friday, Uber Eats will launch the returns in the Uber Eats app for the first for an on-demand delivery industry. Customers will now be able to send back eligible retail items purchase on the Uber Eats, uh, purchase on Uber Eats and receive a refund. So that's the that's one of the big things. It's it's just from if you bought it through Uber Eats. So yeah, you can just with a tap send your item back without even leaving your home. And you can just go you just go to your order history, tap the return item, they select the item, and and you tell them why they're returning it. Obviously, the item must be eligible and fits the store returns policy, then tap returned for the courier to finish. Once the courier has picked up the item, Uber Eats instantly processes a refund. Return fees are calculated based on the courier's time and distance. So there we go. What are we getting paid?

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:44

Uh obviously, if the customer would rather return the item themselves, they have the option to do that. So at the initial launch, returns will be for like thousands of places, you know, you know, Best Buy Dick's Pet Smart. Um, and then this says with their send items featuring Uber Courier, the customer can also have a courier pick up ones prepaid and sealed packages. So this is what I'm talking about, up to five at a time and drop them off at a local post office. So kind of a cool thing. Um again, I don't know why it hasn't gone to that quicker.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Yeah, you'd think I mean they're always looking for new revenue streams, new ways to get more people to stay in their environment, in their ecosystem. And that just seems like a natural thing for them to do. If you're gonna deliver stuff, you can pick it up just as easy.

SPEAKER_06 4:34

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's gonna be the same kind of well, I don't know. Like maybe it will be cheaper because I mean, if it cost you forty dollars to get uh, you know, whatever your baseball glove delivered from dicks, I mean, is it gonna cost 40 to return it? And and and then that's case, which would be dumb. That's a dumb question, I guess I should say. But I'm what I'm saying is if the driver's getting paid, maybe Uber's not well here's like here's one for you.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I was like, maybe Uber's not taking a cut, but like oh come on, what have you been smoking today? Come on.

SPEAKER_06 5:09

I just don't know how it's gonna be like financially like worth it.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Yeah, how's it feasible? Uh what the yeah, to in order for it to be profitable, uh how's that gonna work? Um, but I guess you know, I guess if people will pay, you know,$30 to have their cheeseburger delivered, you know, they'll pay 10-15 bucks to have their baseball gloves delivered.

SPEAKER_06 5:31

Yeah, I guess. Um, I mean, but I I would think all of them would be jumping on this. And we talked about, I swear, Larry, like DoorDash had done something like this, but like I don't know. It's just like we talk about this stuff and then it just goes away. And maybe it's because we talk about it and it's in a select market and it's small and they're testing it, and then we just don't hear about it uh until it goes like nationwide or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

Yeah, I think that happens a lot. They have these test markets where they try this stuff out and kind of try to work the kinks out and they you know figure out the how all right how much people are willing to pay. I'm sure they tweak the prices and see you know how much it affects business and all that kind of stuff where they roll it out. It's a lot easier to make changes, I would assume, and just you know, you select markets and if you're trying to do it nationwide. Um, but yeah, I again uh it's just another way for them to expand their reach to get you you know to think of their app first whenever you need anything. You know, they want to be everything to you, they want you to do as much as possible within their ecosystem, within their app to keep you as a customer. And you know, they're making a little bit off of all of it.

SPEAKER_06 6:40

So yeah. I think one of the things uh that's interesting about them doing the the other stuff, like the prepaid labels, is like uh the postal service will come to your house and pick it up for free. So it's like it makes me want to. I almost exclusively ship through the postal service because I don't think maybe Fed no, FedEx will, but UPS, I don't think they will. You have to like either be a member of their like whatever their their tier for twenty dollars a month, your part of a business account, something like that. UPS won't do it. Um, so I'm like, I exclusively use the postal service because I shit I print it out for my computer, I schedule it from right from there, and I just throw it on the porch, or if it's small enough, I throw it in the in the mailbox. Like, why why even drive? So I'm surprised, like I said, UPS, you know, to compete, you know, they lost the Amazon account, so like you're gonna have to do something to big up pick up the the slack for the revenue.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Yeah, I mean, yeah, raising they just keep raising the stamp prices, that's not gonna cut it.

SPEAKER_06 7:46

It's funny. I heard someone talking about like just raise the stamp price to five dollars. Yeah, five dollars a stamp. Because I'm I'm still gonna buy the stamps, people are still gonna have to buy them. Like, if you want to make money, what are you gonna do? You think people are just gonna not mail stuff? And and I rarely mail stuff, honestly. Let's be frank. But but if I did, I would pay it, right? Because that's the only way it's gonna work.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Yeah, it yeah, some sometimes you just have to. There's not really much way around it. Uh, yeah, but we don't mail a lot anymore either. You know, we were paying our uh our lawn care people because they were taking checks, and then uh that was the only thing, that was the only thing I was even writing a check for. And last year, like toward the end of the year, like one of our checks got lost in the mail or something. So he had e he had texted me, he's like, Hey, we didn't get paid for this. I'm like, dude, I'm talking I put that in the mail. So I'm like if y'all ever thought about you know taking credit cards, it's like, oh yeah, we take credit cards, I set to set you up. I was like, they never mention well they don't want you to because I know it takes it takes it takes away from them, they don't pay the charge. But uh I was like, Yeah, I definitely want to get set up on the card, so it's just you know, I have to worry about this happening again. I don't trust hardly put stuff things, you know, things in the mail.

SPEAKER_06 9:09

I mean, it happens, probably happens a lot more than we know, but it's it's it's not really happened to me. I can't think of offhand. But honestly, if I'm gonna send a check, I do it on my online banking thing, and I don't even have to, you know, I I paid the irrigation guy to come turn my shit on. I just get online, my bank, and you know, so it's just it's crazy that we still even I mean, would anyone care if they just stopped delivering mail? No, no one would care, other than like the packages. Like we obviously have to packages are never going away. I mean, I can firmly say that you know it's only gonna get busier. But the like today I got four pieces of mail, it was all junk mail.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah, mine's almost always junk mail. I'd um I turned on, I think I mentioned this. I turned on a or signed up for this service where you get a um you get an email every day and it shows you what you're getting. I got that today. The only reason I got it is when I was on federal jury duty, I was afraid I was gonna miss it. Yeah, or start something. And uh, which is weird. I never did get called for three months. Yeah, three months, never never got anything. But I was I was worried that hey, I missed it or something, so that's why I had that turned on. My my son had mentioned it to me. Um I forget what we were talking about now.

SPEAKER_06 10:21

We were talking about junk mail.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah, so yeah, uh literally, I mean, uh every now and then we'll get a you know, like a medical bill, something like that.

Delivery Driver Hit And Run Safety

SPEAKER_06 10:31

But I mean, yeah, everything else is just the only thing I do have the excited about is like when I get stuff in the mail, like I'm waiting for a package, and I can see other than that, the the mail can F off. So yeah, yeah. All right, moving on, Larry.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

Uh yeah, so this is this video is a little rough. We this one we probably should should uh give a trigger warning. This this is a little rough to watch. So this is a uh delivery driver, and and this is you know, it's a good reminder for all of us to always pay attention, uh you know, be aware of your surroundings. It's easy to get caught up, especially if you got you know earbuds in or something like that, you're not paying attention. And uh so we'll play this and then we'll talk about it. But yeah, it's it's a little rough at first.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

A car slams into her, packages flying into the air. As the driver speeds away, the woman is left lying in the street. Heartless. It sounded hard. It was very hard. Stephanie Garcia says she arrived just moments after the crash.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I see the package in the middle of the street broken, her hat in the other side, and her laying on the ground not able to move. She was just moving her hands. I guess she was texting her boss or her family.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

The hidden run happened last week near Southwest 20th Street and 140th place in southwest Miami Dade. Neighbors say speeding along this street is nothing new.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Typically, an officer tries to just stop and um and give them a ticket because of speeding, or they go through the stop sign without stopping.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

For our our audio listeners, yeah, she uh this uh delivery driver she gets out of her van on the passenger side door, and as she's walking around the front of her van to cross the street, a car comes flying down from you know from her left, and when she steps out, this car just plows into her and she goes flying. I mean, that car was moving pretty good. I mean, it wasn't like a 10-50 mile-an-hour bump. I mean, they were moving and she went flying.

SPEAKER_06 12:49

Yeah, it's a good good reminder to look both ways. I mean, it's it's silly to to do that. And I remember when uh when I was at UPS, I can't remember the exact thing that they talked about, but like they were so adamant on like looking left, looking right, and I do feel like um even for my kids on the bus, it is interesting to watch kids get off because some of them definitely do. Yeah, um, but I should really, and you know, I'm I'm a third-year driver, so I'm kind of learning thinking about things as I go over time. But even though I have like the little stop sign to let them go, they should still look left when they're crossing and look right. They they just bolt across. Yeah, you know, and these are you know, we don't I think the youngest I cross is a second grader, but some of it is residential, and if they're busy, we don't cross them. But still, I mean there's one, there's a curve coming, and people book down, it's 25, they're doing 40. Yeah, and it, you know, he needs to start looking left and right, but you know, like I said, it's you know, it's just super important. You learn that, but she obviously sounds like she was distracted and texting her boss or something.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

And yeah, well, yeah, I I I don't know. Yeah, that it was weird. Then the girl's like, Yeah, she's laying on the ground, her only thing moving were her hands. I think she was texting somebody. I was like, I just got the shit knocked out of me by a car, I'm not that's the last thing I'm gonna be worried about, is not making it right right that second.

SPEAKER_06 14:19

I honestly think the training is so in-depth with UPS because they want to be safe, but they also want to be like, Well, we fucking trained you, and you walked out in front of the car, and then you know, yeah, and the union gets involved and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

But yeah, and I it I you know, I don't know if she was wearing earbuds or anything, but it's it's super easy to get distracted when you have earbuds on, you get lost in that music or that podcast, you don't hear cars coming. Oh man, but uh it didn't really uh it didn't really say you know what her condition was. Hopefully she is okay and and recuperated and back to work.

SPEAKER_06 14:53

The one thing I I uh still struggle with and I have to like constantly tell myself is when I'm when I'm going down the steps, like if I'm doing a flex route or whatever, like don't be on your phone when you're walking down the steps. The second you get down, get back on, look on what's your next stop.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Yeah, but pay attention when you're going down.

SPEAKER_06 15:13

Because at least once a week I'll step off a step wrong, and I'm like, fuck.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're messing, you know, looking on that bone trying to multitask, and that steps like either you know, it's it's it's longer, a little longer than you thought, or shorter than you thought, and you hit it weird and throws you off balance, and yeah, it doesn't take but one of those, man.

SPEAKER_06 15:32

You can, you know, yeah, you're yeah, I'm 50 now. Like I I twist my ankle and I'm gonna be in traction for six to eight weeks.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Yeah, a lot of physical therapy there, man.

SPEAKER_06 15:45

For sure.

Car Toilet Patent And Road Life

SPEAKER_03 15:46

All right. Yeah, so so we've talked about, you know, we've done the uh we've done the thirsty goose. Let's see, what else did we do? We've done uh we've done Gatorade bottles, we've done all sorts of different things, but this this story takes it to a whole new level.

SPEAKER_06 16:04

So yeah, and uh if you're in the chat, uh definitely vote. It says, Would you buy a car that had a built-in toilet? That's what this is about. Uh two votes for uh heck no, that's gross. Um I'll put my vote in. I'm voting number one, I'll be honest with you. So uh I want this. So Chinese, you know, the Chinese car market has really come under not fire. What am I trying to say? It's become more like in our news recently, especially with EVs, because they are just killing it over there with EVs. Like they are light years ahead of as far as like they swap their tech batteries. Yeah, what's that?

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Some some of that tech their tech is really cool.

SPEAKER_06 16:46

Yeah, I mean they're swapping out batteries in in 20 seconds, and you go and it's fully charged and so on. So, um, so this is about a uh has been this Chinese car maker. It's I'm not gonna pronounce it, has been granted for a patent what's called in an in-vehicle toilet that slides under a passenger's seat. Oh, passenger seats. Yeah, oh well that sucks. What about the driver? I I read, I was like, fuck, does this thing come out? Yeah, that would be dangerous, though. You're taking a squash while you're got your foot on the gas. Uh slides under a passenger seat for visits to the loo while on the road. The feature is meant to satisfy users' toilet needs on long journeys while camping or while staying in the car. Um, they have not announced if they'll be made yet, but they did apply for a patent. Um so they did say that there's a lot of competition for these cars, and so people are trying to set themselves apart to make more profit. And also it says these Chinese vehicles have become increasingly packed with unconventional features like built-in massage seats. I mean, I don't hate that. Karaoke systems and a fridge. I don't hate the fridge either.

unknown 18:00

Nope.

SPEAKER_06 18:01

I'm not a karaoke. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you're driving a lot, a little mini fridge is amazing. Like, if I could drop, you know, if I, you know, let's say I drive uh to our trip in June, if I could drop three or four drinks in a cool, like a nice refrige, and just that's fucking amazing.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Yeah, and just you just wonder you know where all where is all this going in in these cars, you know, where where are you gonna put a little mini fridge?

SPEAKER_06 18:25

I mean, I don't know. I mean, obviously, if it's a small car, it'd be tough to tough to fit that in.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

But so the patent under the like under the glove box or something.

SPEAKER_06 18:34

Yeah. I mean, even if it's a two two can cooler, that's not gonna take uh a lot. So it says the patent fill shows plans for the onboard toilet that slides out from the bottom of the passenger seat with a push or through voice activated commands. The loo will come with a fan and an exhaust pipe to channel odors out of the car, according to the filing. Uh, waste is collected in a tank that has to be emptied manually. The toilet also features a rotating heat element that evaporates the urine and dries other waste. When not in use, the toilet is concealed beneath the seat, making full use of the space inside the car without requiring more room.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

So yeah, I mean, you know, it's it sounds it's almost like a like a can't little camping toilet, it sounds like. Uh but yeah. I mean, if you're trying to like say if they're trying to differentiate themselves from all these other car makers, that's certainly does the job.

SPEAKER_06 19:35

Well, it's funny. I um I recently was looking online and wanted to see what kind of mini fridge I could put in my bus. Like, I guess you can get a cooler, but the cooler is you you you gotta so I mean obviously on like a one-road trip, it's fine, whatever, but you still got you gotta replenish the cooling, the ice or the the the the pads or whatever, but um so oh I think Steve, you could just get Igle cooler, like I think Baba Sumat take take a shit in. No. So, but yeah, I I've recently looked at it. I think it's a feature that I think people would really like. Uh I don't know. Not the toilet, not the toilet. Um, yeah, they do have plug-in coolers, uh, but I'm saying something a little bit more like built into the car.

unknown 20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:24

Uh my cooler runs off my battery, a traveler side, mini fridge in your butt. What? I think you missed the article. Uh the Chinese manufacturer is talking about installing a toilet on the passenger side that you can pee and take a dookie in. I thought it was the driver.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Like, now I don't want this because then yeah, it's got to be something that you're done, like when you're you're doing like if you're camping or if you're I mean, yeah, you can do it on a long road trip too, but obviously definitely not on the on the driver's side.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

Well, the the whole point I that's why I was excited about I think I'm gonna take my vote back to heck no, because then like if I'm by myself, I can you know if there's some smells here and there, like I'm fine. But if I gotta drive and the passenger's taking a shit next to me, can you imagine? Can you imagine the skits from Saturday Night Live from this? Like, I think they need to make something right now. Like, they need to, I should send this article. I'm like, this would be a hilarious skit. Like, your friends taking a dump in the car while you're driving down the road, like yeah, uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

I mean, put that in and try to make some extra tips while you're out doing ride here. Advertise that. Hey, been in the bar drinking, man. I know you gotta take a piss.

SPEAKER_06 21:36

I mean, they okay, so take take back the toilet. They have to come up with something that for men that you can just pee and it just drains out. I mean, yeah, you could rig something up, but I mean something that's like a little bit more sophisticated than just like a funnel and a hose that goes through your floorboard.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Drains out the bottom. Just to have a drain, a little hole in your floorboard. A little drain, just drains right out.

SPEAKER_06 22:03

I did see uh TikTok where a guy had a funnel and it did like it was a like a service van. Yeah. So I he he would pee in the van like and it would just run out the bottom and all good.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

So I could have done that in my very first vehicle, man. It it had it had rust holes in the floorboard that back literally see the road. Yeah, it was a 67 Mustang. I love that car, but it it had it had some decent size holes. Right. You could see the road underneath it.

Patreon Plug And Ad Frustrations

SPEAKER_06 22:31

Steve says, think of if you were in an accident while taking the dump growth. Oh, yeah. I mean, even the P. I mean, my Gatorade bottle, if I if I take a driver's side impact, the EMS is gonna be like, fuck this dude. It smells like piss in here. He can just die. He's gonna die. Fuck him. Oh, goodness. All right, moving on. I'd love for you to join our Patreon. Go to patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. Extra podcast a week. Exclusive piece of merch. Um, you get the show, uh, ad-free, Bubba Sue. And then you also get what else do you get? Oh, you get the pre-show ramble. Um, so check that out. It's it's really important uh for us to keep things going. It helps us pay the bills. Um and yeah, so go to patreon.com slash the gigon podcast. Bubba Sue, how many ads have you gotten? I know I I when I set up the show today, I put low ads, so I was just curious uh if how many she got. Although she did get one right during that video. I'm like, of course. You know, another alternative is we can go to Twitch. Now Twitch puts out ads too, but you can use your Prime account as a subscription and it doesn't cost you anything, and then it gets rid of the ads. You only can use one per creator, though. So like I follow somebody on Twitch and I use mine, but I if I did somebody else, I would have to pay five bucks a month. So just a thought. We do stream to Twitch.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

Um we still want to figure out what changed. Something had to change.

Uber Pushes Commercial Insurance Upsell

SPEAKER_06 24:06

Something had to change. Uh, so just one right now. That's pretty good because the last time I think I counted 18 when I went back through the video, I counted the marks and it was 18. Wow. Yeah, fuck that. All right. So where are we at?

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Okay, uh, let's see. I think we're on the uh commercial insurance.

SPEAKER_06 24:25

Yeah, I think this is what this is. You may be able to correct me once it goes up, but I thought that's what I yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

So it says um for audio readers, this was uh, I guess one of those you know in-app notifications that you get from Uber. Uh it says you could have earned$14,410 extra based on the trips in your last 12 months. Says earn more money per mile with your own commercial permits and insurance policy. Sign up today, and you'll receive a commercial supplement for each mile with a passenger on eligible rides once you're approved. I wonder what the eligible rides are. I can't small it's not at the bottom. I can't read that.

SPEAKER_06 25:02

Oh God, I can't read that shit either.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Yeah, so it says uh same trips, more cash. So earn a supplement for every mile and ride you're already taking. Uh let's see. Um, no limit on how many trips or miles can qualify. So do that for drive, driving or doing deliveries, either one. So yeah, I mean this makes sense. I don't know what you know what they're gonna offer people uh as a supplement, um, but the amount they're having to pay for insurance on the you know drivers is is substantial, I'm sure. So obviously it's gonna save them money.

SPEAKER_06 25:40

The uh fine brand, I brought it up on my computer and zoomed it in, says the commercial supplement is an additional earnings opportunity for drivers with commercial permits. It's not a reimbursement for the costs associated with the permits, insurance, or any other similar expenses, and will not equal those costs. The commercial supplement applies to Uber X, Uber X share, Uber X priority, Uber XL, Comfort XL, Uber Green, which is fucking bullshit because Uber Green doesn't even exist anymore. Uber pet. So that's what it says.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 26:09

So explain it to me again. You're basically earning more. I okay dumb it down. I I was kind of trying to do something else.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

I mean, from what it sounds like to me, it's just like um it's just like a bonus on top. Just since since like if I had my own commercial insurance, I guess they wouldn't they wouldn't be responsible if I get in a rack with a passenger.

SPEAKER_06 26:32

So I imagine it would be my insurance that would that would that's all the but how are you earning more money then?

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Well, they're gonna pay more per mile, they're gonna pay more per trip. So I see every trip you make. It's just like you know, the EV bonus they used to do, you know, you make so much more or a higher level ride. So they're gonna pay, they're gonna pay a bonus, but he they even said it in the small print there. This is not intended to cover the amount it's gonna cost you for the insurance. Well, it's gonna save them money, and it's probably gonna cost well.

SPEAKER_06 26:59

I think this is a actually a smart move on Uber's thing because it's gonna encourage people that do private rides to be more likely to be like, I'm slow, I'm gonna go on Uber because I'm gonna make a little bit more than than I would before. So I don't think it's a bad thing. If I mean I'm not gonna go out and get commercial insurance just for this, right? Obviously.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Yeah, and uh you know, for if you're doing this full time, it's it would certainly be something to explore, not so much if you're you know part-time like most of us.

SPEAKER_06 27:31

Right. So, Steve, interesting. I saw that article and I I couldn't understand it. I couldn't figure it out, so I didn't put it on the show, but like is that like um like a cyber cyber a cryptocurrency that they're offering as a payout? Is that like as a like you can get paid? I thought you could pay for your food that way, but I didn't know they were paying out drivers with it. So did you did you read up on that all, Larry? I did not investigate that one.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

I saw it, but I did not investigate into it.

SPEAKER_06 28:06

Okay. Yeah, I didn't either. I could honestly, I could not uh I could not figure it out because I'm stupid.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Yeah, probably I'm guessing stable coin that they call them the stable coins are are usually based on on something. They're not gonna fluctuate in price like Bitcoin as much. So it's you know based on some some something, you know, not obviously not probably not the gold standard or anything like that, but usually uh that's kind of a big point is that they're not as uh they don't fluctuate as much.

SPEAKER_06 28:37

Yep, stable coins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value by pegging to assets like the US dollar, providing a low volatile digital medium for payments. Uh how stable coins work. Stable coins maintain a one-to-one value with a reserve asset like a US dollar and held in custody by the issuer. So when an issuer deposits one dollar with the issuer, they they receive one stable coin. Redemption users can return the token to the issuer to receive the dollar back, keeping the price pegged. I hate I don't like saying pegged. It makes my butthole uncomfortable. Blockchain integration, they exist on ledgers. Okay, this is where so if it's yeah, it starts getting deep in there.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Yeah, start talking about the pain. That that that can get hairy real quick. But uh yeah, I I think it's just the speed of payment is the drawing point.

SPEAKER_06 29:26

Yeah, enables instant low-cost 24-7 cross-border payments. Interesting. Seems shady, like Steve said. It's so a legal account can get paid easier, probably. I just don't understand the one-to-one. Like I this is fuck. It's gotta be a scam. Like, I don't know. It's just it w it worries me a little bit that stuff. I mean, I know I sound old, but like, I mean, I don't know.

Uber Lawsuit And Common Carrier Risk

SPEAKER_03 29:55

All right, it's gotta be a scam. I don't understand it, so it's gotta be a scam. It's gotta be a scam. All right, oh goodness. All right, moving on. Uh let's see. Believe it, believe it or not, uh, we're gonna talk about a lawsuit with uh let's see, Uber.

SPEAKER_06 30:13

Yeah, so this this is um it's kind of uh piggybacking off the ones that we talked before. Um, and it's it's huge because I want to bring this up. But basically, Uber got sued for uh another action by a driver. This one wasn't as as a sexual assault, uh, and uh awarding uh five thousand dollars because basically the driver tried to grab the or did grab the inner thigh of a passenger as she was leaving the front seat. Now, this is in North Carolina, and that makes uh a difference because um fuck you, AP. Uh let's see, where did I see something like that? This is why I highlight stuff. Okay, the judge presiding over the group of lawsuits ruled that Uber was a common carrier under North Carolina law and was thus liable for the driver's action. Briar and Uber holds itself out to the public as transportation provider through its advertising and control its excerpts over Uber rides and the safety of its passengers. North Carolina could have explicitly exempted Uber and other rideshare providers from its common carrier liability, as Florida and Texas have, but uh, but did not, he said. So, you know, her said that means North Carolina journey only had to decide whether attack, okay, speaking of ad, whether the attack happened. So that's why it's like an open and shut case. So it sounds like states that have this, whatever this is, um, they're gonna, you know, people are gonna try to sue. I don't know. I mean, we've said that this is such an important thing, and I think that Uber should be um should be liable from this stuff. Um, the problem is the driver denied it doing it, and the the person didn't call the police until like at all, and then three years later the lawsuit came about. So it's like I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm not saying it in sometimes sexual uh that kind of stuff, you know, people don't want to talk about it, but like I would be pissed if in Uber's position being like, I mean, it's 5k, right? You know, what's his name? Shits 5k every morning, you know. So it's not a big deal, but I I would be frustrated, be like, hey, that you know, they didn't even bring it up, they didn't even say anything on the app, they didn't call the police or anything, and now all of a sudden we got to pay 5k because the law in North Carolina basically says that you know they just have to prove that it happened, not who's liable. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Um Yeah, can you imagine if if all of a sudden you get a subpoena for some some you know somebody's accused uh you doing something like a driver three years ago?

SPEAKER_06 32:51

Right. I mean, I guess as a driver you would know if you did that, because but I mean I'm not again, I'm not saying it didn't happen, it probably did because guys are fucking dirt balls, yeah. But it would be frustrating, like especially if I was on the like I said, I I mean fuck Uber, but they'd be like, What the fuck? Like this was three years ago, like I the guy's probably dead. No, obviously he wasn't, he was in the courtroom, but like the guy probably didn't even drive for Uber anymore.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

And yeah, that's it, you know, and and if it happened, which like you said, it probably did, you know. I I'm I'm glad they got awarded something.

SPEAKER_06 33:28

Uh I'm just excited that Uber got got got the the end of it, like they that that they got in trouble for it.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

So yeah, and it's gonna be interesting to see if you know if they keep losing these kind of judgments. What what what are they gonna do?

SPEAKER_06 33:43

I mean, the other one was huge. I mean, that was like an eight and a half million dollar one or some shit like that. Like that's that's a sizable amount of money.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:52

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Yeah, that will that will start adding up pretty quick.

SPEAKER_06 33:56

Steve is such a hater. He's like, uh, Uber breaks laws globally. Well, yeah, we know that. Do you still do gig work, Steve? Or do you just do you just um EndorDash is now officially an MLM scale? I love Steve. He gets so worked up. Oh, you should watch his TikToks. Oh man, he gets ranty. All right.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Yeah, so moving on. Uh next story. Um, so this uh they did a I guess they interviewed a bunch of uh DoorDash drivers, and these are 12 restaurants, the top 12 restaurants, I guess, from the survey that DoorDash drivers say they hate picking up from. Any guesses on what what the number one one was?

SPEAKER_06 34:43

Uh I looked at them. I'd be curious what the audience, uh, what your Steve, I can't with him. What what is what do you think is number one for the place that drivers uh hate to pick up from? I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

Uh yeah, and I'm trying to look over here. Let's see. I think they just presented the 12. I'm not even sure these are in any order. Uh let's see. No, no, yeah, no, I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 35:11

They just said, yeah, I I well honestly, I thought when I saw number one, I was like, that tracks. I hate fucking picking up there. Um and it's wing stop.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Yeah, wing stop.

SPEAKER_06 35:22

Um I bet I bet it's has to do with filling the drinks, although it doesn't say that.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Uh yeah, no, I it says uh it says the main issue that they complain about is the time it takes for an order to be prepared. Which is a very common thing through almost every one of these is is having to wait for the food to be delivered. I know they mentioned on five guys, like they won't drop the people saying they won't start the fries until you arrive at the at the restaurant because they don't want them you know to be be cold.

SPEAKER_06 35:52

Right. Popeyes is number three, uh, Baba Sue. I don't think KFC's on here. No, I don't think they do enough delivery business.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Yeah. I've not uh I used to deliver I've I've never delivered from Wing Stop, but I have from KFC several times.

SPEAKER_06 36:08

Well I stop. I oh have you? I don't think I've ever delivered from KFC. I stopped with Wing Stop. It always took forever, and yeah, and again, I will fill the pops. I'm not we've talked about we've this to the ends of the earth. I will fill the pops, but they for sure are ones that you have to, like it's no question.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Not an option, yeah. All right, so what is run through these? Number one was Wing Stop, uh, and uh number two is Wendy's. We'll we'll we'll read some of the comments. Uh people were complaining about messy bags, spaced out workers, and just overall called Wendy's miserable. Uh three, like I said, it was Popeyes. Again, it was you know, waiting for orders. Uh Taco Bell. Uh Taco Bell's on there, McDonald's on there, and and the two, I guess the biggest complaints we had about that is you know, at a certain time of the night they shut down the lobby and you have to go through the drive-thru, so you get stuck. It takes forever. So that was that was four and five. Uh five guys again is talking about having to wait for the fries. So they refuse to make your order until you get there. So that's gonna take you some time. Uh number seven's outback. Um again, wait time, the biggest complaint. Uh iHop was number eight. Um number nine was the cheesecake factory, which we don't have. We have the closest one here is in Nashville, so I don't have to worry about that one. But that hum humongous menu that they have. Oh my gosh, yeah. That menu is crazy. Uh, number 10 is Panda Express, number 11 is Arby's, and number 12 is what a burger. And again, almost every one of them people were complaining about the time is is definitely the biggest thing. They having to wait on orders every time they go there.

SPEAKER_06 37:55

Fast so funny, not funny, fast tip, fast, what am I trying to say? The cheesecake factory makes everything from scratch. They're the only ones that don't. I mean, they obviously have Cisco or whatever to get their ingredients, but they don't that it's not frozen, they make everything from scratch, and that most places that you get cheesecake at come from the cheesecake factory, like when they're selling it as their own, it's coming from the cheesecake factory. Also, I'm gonna drop a YouTube link. This was really interesting. I I actually watched like a 20-minute video on TikTok about a week ago. It's it's about Wendy's restaurant, The Rise and Fall. Uh and it's really interesting uh what is going on with Wendy's right now, and it's just interesting to to see what they've done wrong and what they what it just I love that shit. I I I will watch videos for a long time on that, and this is just a YouTube because we're in YouTube, but I think this is the same guy. Yeah, he posted this one month ago. Um, yes, it is because he had a sponsor on the video. Um, so yeah, this is the same guy I saw on TikTok, but it's interesting. I I love that stuff where you can like so this is what happened to the restaurant over the last 20 years, you know. Oh, yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Yeah, like the the movie about um Ray Croc. Oh yeah. Yeah, that was that was interesting.

Waymo Traffic Confusion In Atlanta

SPEAKER_06 39:17

Love that too. Um, and you know, and it it just kind of talks about like what is going on, like because Wendy's is they're closing restaurants, they're kind of taking a dump, and it's like, what is happening? Because it, you know, even five years ago, it was I felt like Wendy's was doing great, but apparently not so much anymore. So uh oh, you got we're doing Waymo now. You remember how to hit that button? I got it. In the news. Oh, look at you.

SPEAKER_04 39:53

We got three Waymo's that think the light fucking red. Look at this shit.

SPEAKER_05 39:59

These fucking light we can't even get around this shit.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

Carl right though. We can't even goddamn move, bro.

SPEAKER_05 40:12

We cannot move, bro.

SPEAKER_04 40:16

What the fuck? Man, boy, fuck up. The Waymo's think the light red, bro. You supposed to yield it in shit.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Okay, so yeah, so for audio listeners, uh, this was in Atlanta. So it's a three-lane road. There's three Waymo's all next to each other, and they're coming up, and there's a flashing red light. Uh, it's not a stoplight, it's just a flashing red light. We've all seen those. But the Waymo's don't know how to comprehend that or don't know how to process that apparently because they're not moving. Uh, of course, of course, you know, all these people were walking around taking these videos, they're all standing in front of the Waymo's, too. So that's another reason.

SPEAKER_06 40:55

Why why are black people are so much funnier than white people? I love hearing him talk and he's just like yucking it up and shit. Uh yeah, traveler. They think it's a school bus because it's blinking grind. No, no, they brought that.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

They would blow right by it if they thought it was a school bus, man.

SPEAKER_06 41:13

Yeah, you're right. I noticed that too. They were walking in front of it. I was like, well, give them some, give it like I mean, who knows? You know, you never know when the video starts. They could have been sitting there for like three minutes in this.

SPEAKER_03 41:23

Oh, yeah, yeah. They probably were. I'm sure they didn't just hop out of the car like the second, you know, five seconds after they're sitting there. But uh, yeah, they're obviously not gonna go anywhere when you got you know all these people walking in front of them, but right.

SPEAKER_06 41:35

Yeah, god we don't we we see so much shit from Waymo, like I it's just it's non-stop.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

Like, come on. I really want to just drive down to Nashville this weekend just to take a Waymo ride. I really do.

SPEAKER_06 41:49

Uh well, maybe you know, you can get a shitty ride there and then do it there, and then I don't know, just for at least to get paid a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

Possibility, yeah. That's a possibility. I I'll get you know, I still get uh offered Nashville trips. Yeah, I just don't take them anymore. Right. It's so it's so wild how things have flipped, man. That used to be like love getting a long ride, man. They was made, you know, if you had a long ride, and now you're like, hell no.

SPEAKER_06 42:17

You had your cake way longer than everyone else, though.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

Oh, I'm not complaining, man. Yeah, you are. You're saying I did not complain. I said it's just funny thinking back how it used to be.

SPEAKER_06 42:30

Okay, yeah. No, it is it's reminiscing. Well, yeah, I mean, you I feel like you just got changed like less than a year ago, right? And like it's been for like three, four years for us here. I swear to god. But yeah, it's definitely interesting. The Waymo's are just fucking up, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Uh definitely want to go down and try to take a ride pretty soon.

SPEAKER_06 42:54

Yeah, you should do it just for the just just for the show.

Lyft Caps Fees And Promises Transparency

SPEAKER_03 42:57

Yeah, just for some content. All right, uh Jason Liffey is capped at 30% monthly.

SPEAKER_06 43:05

Yeah, so um they had a guarantee, if as as you remember, that um that they were only gonna take 70%. And it was it was hard for for um people to read it because it was, it was confusing. So uh what they're changing, we're capp, we're capping lips lips lift's fee at 30% each month. Me fuck me. Each month guaranteed. So it used to be you were guaranteed, they're like flipped it, right? So that didn't it say you were guaranteed 70%, and that's how they presented it.

unknown 43:38

Right.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

I think so, yeah. Yeah, so they've changed it so many times.

SPEAKER_06 43:41

Yeah, so now they've flipped it the other way. We're committing that lift total fee will never exceed 30% of what passengers pay in a month. The lift fee will continue to include key essentials like safety tech driver support as before. Now it'll also include all rider payment transaction fees, including credit card processing. The 30% cap is a ceiling, not a target. On average, our fee. Is around 14%. We expect that to remain true. Well, several factors like demand or ride type can affect the lift fee per ride. You'll automatically be made whole when the month ends if we exceed the new cap. Uh, so we're simplifying what you see deducted. External fees are required, costs set by outside parties, blah, blah, blah, beyond our control. So the category will now include only three items insurance, taxes, and government fees. And there is a screenshot that I didn't uh share, but uh it has kind of like a graph of like how much the fee was, how much the government fees insurance, and then your earnings, which I like. And and that's true, you know, that's the thing too. It uh that was always always the biggest issue is transparency and and figuring it out. I I said fuck it. It was so complicated. I was just like, okay, just stick it in there, talk about packing. Uh, you know, and and it's just it's just one of those things that I just didn't care anymore.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

Yeah, I transparency does go a long way, and that's you know, it's like a lot of things. As long as you know you can deal with it and you can figure out, you know, is this what I want, do I want to continue doing this or not? Well, when they convolute things so much and you're trying to do all these mental gymnastics, every time you're getting a ride offer out there, and then even at the end of the week, when you have time to look at it, you start looking at it and you're like, can't even understand it. You gotta have a a you know mathematics degree or you know, something to figure all this out. And you know, the more transparent they can be, obviously, the greater that that the you know gig workers are gonna like it.

SPEAKER_06 45:35

One thing that I I always wondered, and I've never looked into it that much because it's so complicated. So if you have a ride from A to B and it's three miles and the insurance is let's say four bucks, whatever, does the insurance I'd be curious if that same ride but a surge amount is that same insurance stay at four dollars, or is it you know what I mean? This is where I always wonder. It's like, why are why is the insurance cost going up? It should be the exact same. It's four miles from A to B, just happen to be busier, so y'all bump the price up. Is that staying the same? So that's that's where I kind of would like somebody like Steve or the rideshare guy or uh even um Levi would dig into that and really look at the numbers and see if that is truly what's happening where they're fucking us.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

Yeah, so we'll just throw a challenge out there to all those people you mentioned. If somebody wants to do that and do all the work for us, we would really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_06 46:34

I mean, I it's it's gonna be like the work they're gonna do all the work on being like, yeah, and then I'll say this will be our content with it. See, I fucking told you. And then that's we knew it.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Yeah, that's it. Next story. We'll make them do three months' worth of work and we'll spend about 15 seconds on it.

Drift Car Freshener For Rideshare

SPEAKER_06 46:50

Right, right. Before we move on, I want to talk about drift. And Larry turned us on to drift, and it is a car freshener, and you can get uh you can get half off your first month, and then um then we get a free month, and Larry and I decided we'll I'll do um what am I alternate? Alternate. So if I get a free month and I get two free months, I'm just gonna send Larry the money. So that's how we're gonna alternate to it. But check it out, it's fucking dope. Um, I got the slate one, and next week I'll bring it in for me. But I got the slate one, it's like um like a stone, and you and it's a magnet to to a um like a little visor. It's super dope, it smells amazing, it lasts a long time. Bubba Sue says she loves it. I don't even take ride chair people, and I freaking love it.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

It is wonderful. I I've you know, I've mentioned this over the years. I get so many compliments from people. Uh, they get in like, oh my god, your car smells amazing. You know, they've gotten in so many Uber cars uh that smell horrible. And it's funny though, me and Jason have talked about this. You'll get used to it. Yes, when you're the driver, you'll get used to it and you're like, oh my god, it's gone. But then like my wife will get in, she's like, Oh my god, your car smells so good. And I'm like, I can't even smell it anymore. It's so funny how we get so used to, you know, so used to things, but you know, we we we do.

SPEAKER_06 48:13

When I first got it the first three weeks, yeah, I smelled it every time I got in. And now I don't well, I just got my new one today. But um, so you can get the the stone one or the wood one. The stone one is a little bit more I found out. Yeah, um, so it is it is not super cheap, but it is worth it if you do ride share um and you can push it out for two months, three months, get one every month. But checking out the link is in the description. Um, yeah, I don't know why I waited so long on it because uh it just it's great.

DoorDash Delivery Scare Caught On Camera

SPEAKER_03 48:43

So all right. So next up, we're gonna play this little 20-second video. This is about a door dasher who gets a little spooked as he's making his delivery.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

When Door Dashing Almost Goes Wrong. Oh boy, that shit scared the shit. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 49:03

Um guy's going to make a door dash delivery, you know, put it getting ready to put it on their porch right in front of their car. And as he leaning down, he jumps back. And what there's a little frog, a little tiny frog that's sitting on the on the mat. But you know, it's one of those things when you're not expecting it and you don't know what it is. Um, I can totally understand, you know, jumping like that. Yeah. And after he realized what it was, he was fine. You know, he he didn't have any trouble with it. But uh yeah, that that I especially if it would have moved, I think that would have really got his attention.

SPEAKER_06 49:35

Yeah. Someday I hope I get go viral from a ring cam because I I I'll do that too. I'll I'll drop an MF or a JC, like if if I get scared or whatever, like I'll just do it and I'm like, man, someday I'll be on there. Like, look at this.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Oh my god, we we come across ourselves on some big ring doorbell.

SPEAKER_06 49:55

I would die.

SPEAKER_03 49:57

I would love it. I would love it.

SPEAKER_06 49:59

Yes, I would I would promote the shit out of that because you know you just never know. And it it does happen. I mean, you just get scared. God, you know what really scares me is when I would do those, and I didn't do a lot of them, but those early morning, 4 a.m. ones. Yeah, I remember one time a guy it I'm not kidding you, Larry. It's 3 45. This bro is on the porch, moves a little bit. I'm like, I was like, I wasn't up there yet. I'm like saying myself, I'm like, oh my god, what the fuck is he doing out at 3 45 in the morning? Probably drunk or something. I'm like, here you go.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

Your soul leaves your body a little bit there, right?

SPEAKER_06 50:36

Like you're not expecting it. Like, I just don't live that life of, I mean, I can't imagine. I or imagine, I can't remember the last time I stayed up till 3 45 in the morning, other than if I was doing ride share, like like just hanging out on the porch. Like, who the I don't know, maybe he's a third shifter or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

But yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're not expecting stuff like that. Oh man, yeah, it it will get you.

SPEAKER_06 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

That's where you need the in-car toilet.

Waymo And Waze Team Up On Potholes

SPEAKER_06 51:05

Well, yeah, I don't think it's gonna, I don't think I'd be able to hold it until I get there. Probably not, probably not.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

All right, so this is a sort of Waymo story, but not really related to uh to taking passengers or anything. This is uh Waymo has partnered up with uh most of your are familiar with uh um the GPS app Waze. Um so Waymo and Waze, they're both owned by Google or owned by their Alphabet, which is the company that owns Google. Um and so they're gonna use them as uh a way to report potholes in a lot of the cities. So they're gonna start it out as a trial in San Francisco, uh Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta. Um says they've already started, and I think they've already reported uh approximately 500 potholes in those five cities, and it's just started um recently. So uh yeah, you know, it's these cars are out here, gonna be out here driving all the time. Uh might as well make some good use out of all this driving, you know. Yeah. Uh cities, you know, cities are always asking people to report things because they don't, you know, they don't they're like, well, we don't know about it. We can't fix it if we don't know about it, right? So yeah, this should this should be uh interesting to see how well this works. But uh I think it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_06 52:32

Yeah, it is. It's it's it is the potholes are just especially I'm sure y'all, especially up there.

SPEAKER_03 52:40

I tell you what, man, St. Louis where my son lives, they're they're their downtown is horrible. Is it it will it will wreck your car?

SPEAKER_06 52:50

It's so interesting. Um so on one of our main drags through town, instead of like having a pothole in the middle, they cracked at the lane. So like you got three lanes, so right down the middle, you would it it was so bad you couldn't change lanes, and they actually just patched it today. But I'd not they didn't crack in like a normal pothole. I mean, it was like a hole, but it was just like lengthwise, yeah. So you'd that is weird, you'd isn't that strange? Like it's almost like when they were pouring it or putting it down or whatever, whatever was right there was a weakness, but yeah, all the way down maybe like a mile, they had to like patch basically the whole thing, and it was they were big enough where they just don't put the little seal on it, they had to but bring out a roller, they had like a crew running the last couple days, yeah. Yeah, so uh it's funny.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

I have an app on my phone, it's uh it's one of the news stations in St. Louis. So I I I get news that pops up on my phone about St. Louis, just with my son living there, and picked up one the other day, and there's a I forget the highway number, but it's a bridge you cross over from Illinois across the Mississippi River into St. Louis, and like this eight-foot hole that the concrete gave way, you could see the steel beam of the bridge through there. And these cars were like it was it was destroying these cars' wheels, and they they finally ended up coming, you know. They came out there that night and put one of the big, you know, those big metal plates that they put over holes on we can drive over it until they can fix it. Right. It's like that's pretty scary, man. An eight-foot hole in this bridge. Driving a motorcycle, man. You're just your history.

SPEAKER_06 54:26

Yeah, we speaking of that, not similar, but we had all that this rain up here, you know. We had a couple of our dams almost like they had evacuations.

SPEAKER_03 54:36

I kept meaning to ask you that because I keep seeing that on the news, all the flooding up there. Yeah, it sounded like it was getting bad.

SPEAKER_06 54:43

It's been bad here. We've been we've got one area in our basement, the unfinished part that leaks bad, and we've been just like cycling towels through there. But one of the cars up north, uh north of us in Nuego, it went into this. He didn't get hurt, thankfully. But if you saw the picture, there was a sinkhole, and he said it looked like water because like it's flooded everywhere up there, so he just went and drove through it and it just went right in there. I'm like, Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_03 55:10

That would be scary.

SPEAKER_06 55:11

Yeah. Traveler says just draw a circle around my whole city. Yeah. I mean, and and it it seems to be happening, like you say, in St. Louis, it's so bad. Do they okay? Forgive me, geography. They don't get any snow there, though. If they do, it's very minimal.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

Yeah, do they know they get they get they get a decent amount of snow. So they get the frost freeze.

SPEAKER_06 55:30

That's the issue. It's the frost freeze, and it just like moves the buckles it.

SPEAKER_03 55:35

Right. And and uh, you know, they're I think you know, St. Louis is losing population. There, there's not yeah near as many people who live downtown as there was 20, 30 years ago. So they're losing, you know, they're losing money, they don't have the tax base. They're just talking about how much sewer they have to replace. They're gonna have to do something about it pretty soon, uh, because they're getting in really bad shape. So I'm sure they don't have a lot of money to pour toward fixing the roads and stuff, but they are pretty rough.

SPEAKER_06 56:03

Well, those cities have to reinvent themselves, you know. Like Denver did that. Now Denver is the place to be, you know, you just gotta have somebody in the city that's willing to, you know, whatever it is, invest in the city.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

Yeah, and uh St. Louis has not found that yet.

SPEAKER_06 56:17

Yeah, it's too bad.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

Unfortunately, yeah, and you used to love to go there when I was a kid, and still I still enjoy it, still enjoy it, but it's a very different city, right?

SPEAKER_06 56:25

The freaking St. Louis is Kansas City, right? Kansas City Chiefs, right?

SPEAKER_03 56:30

No, St. Louis, uh St. Louis Cardinals play their baseball team, and then they used to have football team. You say with St. Louis. Well, they used to have St. Louis Cardinals football, and then they changed to the St. Louis Rams. Oh, they ran flat out west. Okay, I was thinking Kansas City's a couple hours away.

Spark Batching Update And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_06 56:45

Yeah. All right. All right, we'll just do I'm gonna do the Spark update since uh Babasuda's Spark, if you want to throw that up there. But uh, I got this email twice, which was weird, but hi starting April 21st, which is I think it's past that. What day is it today? 22. Uh, Walmart stores in your air will be beginning batching grocery and dot com orders in the same trip for curbside pickup. What's new? Grocery.com will be part of the same trip, but will remain in separate bags with clear labels with scheduled delivery for grocery orders or GMD for dot com orders. Um, obviously you scan them just like anything else. But um, what I what I don't understand is like, and I don't know if Bubba Sue has seen it, but are you seeing like trips being bigger now? You can take that off, Larry. Uh, are you seeing trips that are being bigger now? Like instead of like two drop-offs, you have like five or six, and if if that's the case, because I haven't done uh Spark in probably a month, that's the case. Uh oh, she hasn't seen it. I'm just wondering if the pay is is the same. Like, are they just like adding like a couple dollars or is it like more? I haven't really seen much on the internet about it, so we know Larry doesn't do it.

SPEAKER_05 58:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

I did get that message though. Uh you did get that email. Uh oh, did you think? Yeah, I got it yesterday. Yeah, I still get stuff from and still keep it all and everything. Oh murder capital of the US. Where are you talking about, Babasou? Talking about St. Louis? Is it? It's always in like top three.

SPEAKER_06 58:20

Murder capital of the US. Let's see what the goog the goog says.

SPEAKER_03 58:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 58:27

Uh so this is AI. It says New Orleans, Memphis, and St. Louis. Yeah. Uh St. Louis has historically had one of the highest per capita.

SPEAKER_03 58:36

Yeah, per capita. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, not actual people.

SPEAKER_06 58:40

Yeah, New Orleans top the list with 46 to 53.8 homicides per 100,000 people.

unknown 58:47

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_06 58:48

That's wild. Well, hey, I can't talk shit because Flint in in Michigan here used to be the biggest. So I can't really say much, but not Grand Rapids, thank God.

SPEAKER_03 59:02

Yeah. My goodness.

SPEAKER_06 59:04

All right. Patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. There we are going to talk about um m Uber buying some more or doing with another ad. So she got three ads. That ain't bad in an hour. That's not uh Uber now owns 11.5% of Lucid. We're gonna talk about that. And then also one third of millennials now rely on gig payments and tips as primary income, which is that's scary. Bananas. Um, so yeah, check it out. Hey, you know where you don't get an ad, Bubba Sue on the Patreon. Patreon.com slash the Gigacon podcast will be there at 8010. 8010. I was gonna say I read it as eight oh two. Uh in eight minutes at 810. You can join us there. And yeah, we'd love to have you. Larry, any gig work this weekend?

SPEAKER_03 59:52

Let me think what's going on. Uh yeah, yeah. We I don't we don't have anything going on this weekend, so I will be out and about.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:02

I will not be out and about. Uh going north to open the cabin. We try to do it in April so that when we go in May, we can enjoy the time and not have to do work. So I will not be doing any of gig work this weekend. So alrighty. All right, and as always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. And we'll see you on the road. All right, we'll see you on the Patreon. Seven minutes.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:27

Good night, everybody.