In mid-April, three gig employees fell sufferer to violent crime in Florida: a lady was kidnapped and sexually assaulted after making a Doordash supply, a pair’s automotive was shot at after turning onto the fallacious driveway trying to drop off an Instacart order, and a person was murdered after making an Uber Eats supply.
Whereas the information is unsettling, for some gig employees, feeling unsafe is an growing concern.
“The security of drivers and couriers is a high precedence, and we’ll proceed investing in important security options like the power to speak with a reside security agent, report journey audio within the app in practically 150 U.S. cities, and share their journey with family members,” a spokesperson for Uber advised Entrepreneur.
Roberto Moreno, who previously labored for GrubHub and Postmates in San Diego County, advised the AP Monday that he stopped working for ride-sharing and supply providers altogether on account of issues for his security.
“Now we have to look out for ourselves as a result of the businesses do not do it,” he advised the outlet.
Moreno additionally famous the disparity between verification wanted from drivers and riders. Drivers are required to submit a selfie, get background checks, and provides different private info, however in terms of riders, “we do not know something in regards to the passengers or the individuals who we’re delivering to,” he stated.
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Gig Employees Rising, an activist group combating for the protection and safety of gig employees, discovered that 80 app-based employees had been killed whereas on the job between 2017 and 2022 — with 31 murdered in 2022 alone, signifying a rise in violence. The report was based mostly on press releases, police information, and court docket paperwork.
“App employees worldwide are grappling with a enterprise mannequin and office practices that depart them going through an unparalleled and racialized well being and security disaster,” the group wrote within the report.
In 2021, NBC Information spoke to 15 gig employees — all of which stated they typically “feared for his or her security,” and that it appears as if violence spiked throughout and following the pandemic.
That very same yr, Uber rolled out new security measures to guard drivers equivalent to thorough verification for riders who use untrackable fee choices like reward playing cards. Final fall, the corporate carried out extra security options equivalent to freezing rider accounts that seem faux or offensive, the choice to video report the trip utilizing the front-facing digital camera, in addition to recording audio throughout a visit.
“We have designed these new options to supply extra peace of thoughts when driving and delivering,” the corporate wrote within the launch.
Nonetheless, amongst all of the gig-driven apps, Uber had probably the most situations of employees killed in 2022 at 39% of complete crimes, in line with the report from Gig Employees Rising.
In regard to the report by Gig Employees Rising, Uber famous that the dying of Milton Pillacela Ayora (which was attributed to Uber within the report) was not linked to the Uber platform, and that one other recorded dying, Michael Wallace, was in 2018 however nonetheless included in the newest report.
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