The Gig Economy Collapse Nobody's Talking About
Zac Rios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_OdNSctBhY

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:00 And if you're going to do Instacart as a full-time job, don't do it. I just had an order pop up that said, "Oh, this order is 45 items
0:10 for $7." >> You guys got to understand like Door Dashing is just a dead end street. I mean, it's just not what it used to be
0:16 like at all. >> Uber's not just using surge pricing to charge riders inflated fairs. They're also using secret algorithms to undercut
0:25 your driver's pay. Okay, so today we're going to be taking a look at the gig economy and why it's not worth it for many people anymore. I know when I say
0:32 gig economy, it can mean a ton of different jobs, but we're really going to be focusing on things like Uber and Lyft, Instacart, Door Dash, those types
0:40 of things because it seems like a few years ago, people were able to make a pretty sizable amount of money with those jobs. But as time goes on, the
0:46 cash is drying up and people are sharing their experiences online. We have a bunch of different stuff to go over today, so let me know what you guys
0:52 think in the comments down below. But let's just jump right into it. If you're thinking about doing Instacart, don't. I used to think my old job was like
0:59 literally the worst because I was, but now this job is slowly but surely topping that job. I've been sitting in my car for two and a half hours and
1:09 haven't done anything. Haven't made any money. So, if if that's any justification for you to not do it, there you go. I have five stars. I'm a
1:19 diamond cart, which is the highest level you can get. I get priority access to orders, but if other people have that priority access, they also get to see
1:28 the orders first. So, by the time you go to click accept, it'll be gone. I missed two $40 orders today because I didn't click accept quick enough, even though I
1:39 literally pressed the button and it started loading and I was like, "Oh, another shopper accepted the batch." Oh, cool. Like, at least at a regular W2
1:48 job, you can you make money while being there. I don't make money while I'm just sitting here. I only make money based
1:54 off of Instacart's little money and tips. >> And if this is happening with one of their highest tier workers, what is it
2:01 going to be like for anybody at the bottom level? It kind of just sounds like it would be a complete waste of time. We could go over to the comment
2:08 section. It's complicated and you have to do self-employed taxes as well. Instacart is not a job job. I would consider it a side hustle if you need
2:15 some money and don't want to spend yours, but it would be your money when you earn it, but that's besides the point. However, Instacarding is like
2:21 gambling. You win money just to lose it. I don't really know what that means exactly if they're trying to say you earn money just to spend it on something
2:28 else. That's kind of what everybody does on the face of the planet. Now, this video was uploaded in 2024 and we have a comment from 2026 saying it hasn't
2:36 gotten any better. >> Do you drive uh for Uber full-time or part-time? >> Uh full time.
2:41 >> And how much money can you make a month? >> 3 to 4,000. >> That's after all your expenses. >> Uh-huh.
2:46 >> Do you have health insurance? No, nothing. Anything. You don't have nothing here. >> Okay. So, everything is out of pocket.
2:53 >> Exactly. If you if you can't work like 11, 12 hours, you can't go with like $100, $150 a day. >> What's the biggest challenge when
3:01 driving for Uber? It's the one thing that you don't like, >> but that's the money, you know. >> It's unpredictable.
3:09 >> It's not worth it. >> And that doesn't take into account the wear and tear on your car as well. Insurance goes up if you're using your
3:15 vehicle like that. And three to $4,000 take-home is not that much in today's world. Now, >> how hard is an Instacart shopper?
3:21 >> We might need all day to talk about it, y'all. It is not for the faint of heart. >> Stop. >> It sounds I was like, I can grocery
3:27 shop. It's not that hard. Little did I know I'd be at the Sprouts bulk bin at 9:30 [laughter] at night picking out licorice with a plastic tong and they're
3:35 all stuck together. >> No, >> I had the most every experience was horrific.
3:41 >> I thought, "Oh, a prescription from Publix. This should be easy. I don't I can just get the prescription, deliver the prescription. Nope. They have to be
3:48 home to sign off legally, otherwise you go to jail. >> Oh, no. >> So, [laughter] I'm knocking on the door.
3:53 Seven dogs are barking at me through the glass. I'm frightened for my life. I'm calling her, calling her. She's like, I'm at a concert. I'm like, well, lady,
4:00 I can't give you the prescription unless you're home. She says, "What do you mean? I need the prescription." I was like, "Oh my gosh, is this lady going to
4:06 die on my watch?" So, I've never worked for Instacart, but one of my jobs a while ago was a delivery person for medicine, so I know
4:15 exactly what he's talking about, needing to get all the signatures. If they're not there, you just have to sit and wait. You got to call back and forth,
4:21 along with having to deal with everything else. Like in the first clip, the woman just sitting in her car for hours waiting to get orders. And if you
4:27 are lucky enough to see one and accept it, the pay is honestly embarrassingly low. >> And if you're going to do Instacart as a
4:33 full-time job, don't do it. I just had an order pop up that said, "Oh, this order is 45 items for $7."
4:45 $7 to grab 40 items off the floor to wait in the line to pack all of it to drive to the person's house and drop it off.
4:55 $7. That's not even minimum wage where I live. I'm not saying don't do Instacart, but I am saying don't make it your
5:02 full-time thing cuz I'm struggling right now. So, with all of these types of jobs, it really depends on where you live and what times you go out as well.
5:10 Some areas in some cities could pay out higher than others. The better paying areas obviously end up getting more workers. But then, if there's more
5:16 workers, you won't get as many orders as usual. And over the past few years, the money has really dried up because of that. What happens when Uber says,
5:24 "Okay, no more drivers. We're cutting drivers." What happens when they say, "We're cutting Uber Eats delivery people." People in this economy are too
5:30 dependent on gig work. Uber Eats, Door Dash, other Postmates, other delivery services. These jobs that people heavily depend on, once they're torn away, what
5:40 will they do? We always think we have the ability to go make some money on the side. I'll just jump in in the car, do some Uber rides, and come back. What
5:47 happens when they say no more? And all you have is your job or lack thereof, it's going to be a mess. And some people don't believe that this is happening.
5:54 You could just hop in your car, be able to put in a few hours on Uber, Door Dash, Instacart. And with this terrible job market and economy we're in, even
6:01 these companies are scaling back and denying people. >> The job market in 2025 has gotten so bad that I tried to sign up as a Door Dash
6:08 driver yesterday and they said no. They said, "Sorry, we have too many people in your area." And I said, "It's Los Angeles. It is a big area." And they
6:15 said, "No." Uh-uh. Too many. Okay, I guess I'll just go back to looking for Whimos to run me over. >> And if Whimo does become successful in
6:22 the future, that'll take even more Uber and lift jobs away. So, tons of people are just saying it's not worth it at all anymore. just try to find a normal
6:30 salaried 9 to5. >> Man, I'm so tired of doing Door Dash, man. I'm talking about Door Dash just feel it's just I don't know. It's just
6:39 it's cool, but I rather have a job cuz at least with the job, you know what's coming every Thursday or Friday. You know what's coming every week. And you
6:48 you know how to structure yourself and move. Like with Door Dash, man, you got to work all the way in the evening time. Barely got time to go to the gym. you
6:56 barely really got time to do anything for yourself. And then if you really want to make money, you got to work on the weekend.
7:03 You got to catch Friday and Saturday. That was a normal human day. Like who the hell want to work on the weekend? Like man, it's cool, but it's like man,
7:12 having a job is way better because you at least you get a peace of mind. You get to save your car life and you got structure. With Door Dash, man, you
7:20 don't know what you going to make in a day. One day you might make 150, the next day you might make 50. And it does depend on what type of vehicle you have
7:26 if it's paid off or not. But if you're paying the average car payment of $700 plus every single month while you're actively beating down the car, it cost
7:35 you way more money in the long run, even if you're making several hundred in a day. Modern vehicles are not built to last. So if you're racking up the miles
7:41 on Uber, doing Door Dash, Lift, all of it. Your upkeep and maintenance bills are going to be through the roof. Of course, gas prices, insurance, and
7:48 you'll probably be in the market for yet another vehicle a lot sooner than you think. So the gig economy, millions of people are freelancers, [snorts] Uber
7:55 drivers, part of hustle, you know, the hustle culture, which is, you know, it's it's flexibility, but for financial security, it's it's bad because you have
8:03 to physically work to make money. Anytime you have to physically work to make money, you're capped. It's bad for long-term flexibility. And what I mean
8:12 by bad, I mean gig working. It's terrible because 58% of gig workers say they struggle to cover $400 of emergency expenses. Now, I know in today's world
8:20 that's a problem for many. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck. But at least if you have a salaried 9 to5, you know, you're getting your checks weekly
8:28 or bi-weekly. If something happens with your vehicle, you can't go out and Door Dash or Uber for the night. You're not getting paid whatsoever.
8:34 >> I get asked a lot of times, Door Dash worth it? How much you make per order? How much you make per hour? The answer is kind of complicated.
8:42 For the most part, it's called market dependent. Every city you work in is going to operate a little bit differently. Some cities have a higher
8:49 payout. Some cities have a lower payout. The town I work in is generally a lower payout. If there is nobody logged in or maybe like one other driver logged in,
8:59 yeah, it's kind of worth it. You'll actually make a lot of money. If every other mother's logged in, like in the summertime,
9:07 Door Dash isn't worth it at all. You're better off just finding something else to do. Work at a gas station, work at the dollar store or something.
9:14 you're just going to get the scraps left over that everyone else is throwing away. And the honest answer is the dark truth
9:22 behind it. The more people that sign up in your area, the less you are going to make. And I know everybody's been hearing
9:30 about side hustle culture over the past several years, having different streams of incomes with other jobs. And the more people that sign up, the less money all
9:38 of them are going to make. I mean, we could take a look at this example. Somebody Ubering for 12 hours. I just drove Uber for 12 hours straight. Can
9:45 you guess how much I made? I did take maybe an hour and a half off cuz I had to drive my friend to work and then take a couple breaks. So, in about 10 and 1/2
9:53 hours, 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. while it was dark outside to while it's dark outside again. And today was not there were boosts, but it wasn't like a lot of
10:03 dollar boosts. Like, it was just like busy enough for me to keep going. I made $270 in like 10 and a half hours. So, it
10:12 averages like $25 an hour. I'm going to keep going, I think. But, I made like 270 in 12 hours including breaks or whatever. Usually, I just go in the
10:24 morning and then I go again in the evening or like afternoon, but it just stayed busy. So, I just kept driving and kept driving and then it was still busy
10:33 every time I wanted to quit. So, here I am 12 hours later still driving. >> And we could go right over to the comments. 270 is not a lot of money. She
10:41 still has to buy gas. Her insurance will likely go up if they find out that she's using your vehicle for Uber. Add wear and tear on the vehicle as well. This
10:49 stuff is not easy. And $25 an hour is around $50,000 a year. Pulling 12-hour shifts 5 days a week as well as putting heavy miles on the car. I don't think
10:59 it's worth it at all. And that's what somebody else said. Minus gas and car wear, $10 an hour. I drove Uber for 5 years in Chicago. Not sure where you
11:07 are, but if you're in a big city, try this. 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and then 400 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. You'll make more and work less, which could definitely be
11:15 the case in his situation, being in a city with a higher payout and doing it years ago. The money doesn't seem to be nearly as good in today's world. You
11:22 guys got to understand like door dashing is just a dead end street. I mean, it's just not what it used to be like at all. When it first came out, like you could
11:29 go out there and make $700, $800 easy in a week, but now everyone's doing it. No one's tipping. It just doesn't make sense at all. Like Door Dash will have
11:36 you drive 20 miles to deliver food for like an $8 pay. So if you're still Door Dashing or you're thinking about Door Dash, just don't even do it. It takes 6
11:44 to eight hours to make over $100 and I try to make at least $85 on slow days. Door Dash was only successful because of the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is
11:53 over, Door Dash is not needed. We still see people racking up the bill though because they're too lazy to go get their fast food. They'd rather pay even more
12:00 money to have somebody deliver it. But I agree, the pandemic was definitely the peak. And while I was looking up this topic, I got a sponsored post from Door
12:08 Dash. POV, when you're chilling and having fun all while making money dashing with Door Dash, just making a pretty cringy advertisement. I don't
12:17 know how this would be relatable to anybody because you go over to the comment section. I tried it for 2 weeks. It only messes up your car. I would
12:23 never do it again. You guys are saying it's not worth it. I've literally made $300 in 2 weeks. I really hope that means she did it for only a couple
12:32 hours. I've been a Dasher since 2019 and they keep deactivating and reactivating my account. It's a pain. Seems like there are issues with accounts and apps
12:41 just like Instacart, but we could just move on. More gig workers in the economy means there's a trash job market. And this is not a dig gig workers. They're
12:50 hard workers who largely don't want to be gig workers. But here are the numbers. Since 2020, gig workers in the US have doubled, more than doubled, from
12:59 13 million to 27 million. And according to a McKenzie survey in 2022, 62% of gig workers don't want to be gig workers. They want to have a traditional job. I
13:12 have three advanced degrees and three gig jobs after a second mass layoff. It is a trash job market. And not only are they paying their workers less, but
13:22 they're also making it more expensive for the customers. >> You have to hear this. Uber's not just using surge pricing to charge riders
13:30 inflated fairs. They're also using secret algorithms to undercut your driver's pay. More Perfect Union conducted a test and found that 63% of
13:39 the time Uber offered different fairs to drivers for the exact same ride. And this could vary from a few pennies to a couple dollars. But if you multiply that
13:49 by the billions of trips made every quarter, that means Uber execs are pocketing millions of dollars instead of paying their drivers fair wages. And
13:58 what makes this even more scary is that we don't know how exactly this invisible hand works. >> Could it be the unbelievable amount of
14:05 data all these companies have on everyone? Putting it into some crazy algorithm and being able to squeeze out as much money as possible. Yep, I'm a
14:13 full-time Uber driver and today I had to help a customer adjust their ride and got to see that they were paying $30 for a ride that I got paid $11 for. I know
14:22 from firstirhand verification that they're also marking up item prices from restaurant menus. They listed a KFC bucket at $2049 when the KFC app for the
14:32 same restaurant showed $17.49. The more you use it, the more it charges you. I say this from experience. They keep inflating fairs for customers used to
14:40 pay $1010 to my job and now it's up to $40. It's insane. Another comment saying Instacart does the exact same thing. And we got another example here. how little
14:50 the payouts could be. >> If you are someone that you know is thinking about working for either Uber or Lyft, watch this video because it is
14:58 a terrible financial move and a job I would never take or recommend to anyone. And here's why. >> Wondered how much Uber and Lift drivers
15:05 were making. I just had an hour and 15 minute long drive on a Friday night to an Atlanta stadium and Lyft paid me $21. >> You heard that right. an hour and 15
15:18 minutes of total job time in that car. Watch her full video. She made $21 driving for these companies. So, of course, that is ridiculously low
15:28 along with it being Friday driving through a big city. However, we can take a look at the second part of this video where he actually calculates how much it
15:35 hurts your vehicle as well. And if that video is not enough to catch your attention, here is another reason when we break down the math why working for
15:42 these companies is a horrible idea. All right, for starters, for a lot of people who are considering working for these companies, keep in mind this. When you
15:50 take your personal car and you drive this for professional work, one of the first things I want you to recognize is the depreciation you're putting on your
15:57 car. That's the wear and tear. So, if you actually account for this, which is right around 65 cents per mile, which is what the IRS will give you, let's do the
16:06 math for her hour 15 minute commute time. So, for a lot of Uber and Lift drivers, for an hour and 15 minutes, let's just say you're at 125 miles
16:14 driven. If that depreciation is at 65 cents a mile, that's $81 that you've depreciated on wear and tear on your car. And let's just say a lot of it's
16:24 just sitting in traffic and cutting that down in half. That's still $40 of depreciation on her car. And if just making 20 bucks and wear and tear on
16:32 your car isn't enough, well, yeah, you know that thing called car insurance? Well, the premiums that you pay are going to be even higher when you start
16:39 looking at becoming an Uber or a Lift driver. And don't even get me started on liability coverage if, god forbid, something happens to the passengers
16:47 you're driving around. So, that initial $21 made ended up costing her money in the long run. I quit doing it altogether. Not worth it at all. The
16:55 creator responds, "Corporate stealing all of these drivers hard-earned funds." Another comment, "When I stopped making $200 for 4 hours of work, I stopped
17:03 driving Uber and Lift." Another example there. It seems like you were able to make a lot more money in the past. >> Y'all, door dashing is not worth it.
17:12 I've been door dashing all day. I had like an hour in between cuz I just like didn't get any orders. I've been door dashing since 12:45 is when I logged on
17:22 and it's currently, let me see. Okay, I don't know what happened. It's currently 8:08 and I've only made like I think $82 and I'm sitting waiting to get
17:33 another order. >> That's just a little over $10 an hour, fellow Door Dasher. And I don't know how people live off of this. Sometimes I
17:40 wait literally hours for an order and then get discouraged and log off for the day. And there's another comment here. This is why I Uber. And that's a good
17:48 transition into the last clip. Well, another day, another Uber screen grab. This time, Uber X [clears throat] wants me to drive 5.4 miles, taking me 12
18:02 minutes to go take a person, not even a mile. Shopen Plaza. That's Hotel Intercontinental. So, this is I'm in
18:13 Coconut Grove. Please drive to Bickl. You know, we're taking I95 and everything. There's there's exits here. There's bridges to
18:25 take this guy almost a walkable distance. As a matter of fact, I think in 12 minutes you could probably walk that. [laughter]
18:37 But it's okay. Don't worry about it. We have a poor idiot who's going to put wear and tear on his car and drive all those miles just to pick you up for your
18:49 convenience. Oh, and don't worry. We pay them fairly. We pay them very fairly, just about $35. Every day for a week that I logged in, they tried having me
19:00 drive 26 minutes away for a $5 drive, and that's an hour in Miami. Traffic is definitely not going to be 12 minutes. But that's all I got for you guys today.
19:10 Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. YouTube thinks you'll like this video popping up on screen right now, but hopefully you guys
19:16 enjoyed this video. If you did, please leave a like and I'll talk to you guys