Project Summary
This research will investigate concerns about the negative externalities of home-delivery and ride-hauling operations, including their impacts on safety, the environment, and labor security, by analyzing gig economy industries post-COVID-19. Many of these companies have been hemorrhaging cash since they began operations, and some will surely fold in the next few months (Lyft is not expected to continue much longer, Uber is buying Grubhub, many scooter and e-bike sharing operations will cease to operate). California law AB5 went into effect on January 1, 2020. That law changes how gig economy workers are paid, as well as the sort of benefits they are entitled to. Recent estimates suggest that Uber and Lyft could be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in back payments to the state of California for unpaid unemployment insurance as a result of AB5. This survey of both the recent academic literature and popular press articles will be complemented with two surveys of Transportation Network Company (Uber, Lyft), Courier Network Services (Doordash, Instacart), and non-employee delivery services (Amazon, Walmart) workers in California, and will complement the recent, but now outdated, extensive study performed by other University of California researchers (Shaheen et al., 2019). This study is not intended to be as comprehensive as that one — it will focus on ethical concerns related to these industries and changes brought about by the pandemic.
