Ride-hailing apps ask us to get in strangers’ cars, something that our parents specifically warned us against. Now a new generation of gig economy apps asks us to let strangers into our homes and take our pets on walks. While most walks and boarding stays using services like Wag and Rover end well, enough have resulted in lost or killed pets that investors are becoming skittish, and maybe customers should be. [More]
gig economy
Amazon Flex Drivers Are Kind Of Freaking Customers Out
By 10.7.16
Amazon Flex is the e-commerce behemoth’s new service meant to help meet its delivery demand without depending on the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, or FedEx. Flex drivers originally only made deliveries for same-day local orders through the Prime Now app, but recently the company let drivers deliver regular Amazon packages too. As Flex expands to more cities, it’s kind of freaking customers out. [More]
Our Government Has Somehow Managed To Suggest An Even Worse Name For The Sharing Economy
By 6.7.16
If you want to bash your head against the closest rock whenever you hear that a new service wants to be the “Uber of [fill in the industry],” you are not alone. Both the industry and the general public have struggled to come up with names for the new model of sharing cars, homes, etc.: there’s the sharing economy, the gig economy, and now, the government has its own idea for a term that might be worse than all the rest. [More]
Instacart Cuts Driver Pay, Will Make It Up With More Deliveries Or Something
By 3.11.16
Instacart, the startup that companies like Target and Whole Foods are using to offer delivery without hiring their own fleet of drivers, has a lot of competition. Even Google is joining the fresh grocery delivery biz in some of Instacart’s key markets, like San Francisco and Los Angeles. The company is cutting driver pay and advertising to their customers, hoping to maybe make money on most of their deliveries soon. [More]
