On-the-Edge: App-Based Ride-Hail and Delivery Workers—A San Francisco Labor Study

You probably know about rideshare and food delivery apps as a service, but do you know about their workers?

App-based deliveries and ride-hailing have become a ubiquitous part of daily life, from jumping in a ride-hail car to ordering pizza with the click of a button. The COVID pandemic has further highlighted how essential these services are, making it easy to get groceries, food delivery, and needed items without leaving the house. While the benefits of these services are increasingly visible, the workers behind these deliveries have remained largely hidden. Until now! 

Join us to learn about a groundbreaking new study of app-based delivery workers in San Francisco. The study, commissioned by San Francisco’s Local Agency Formation Commission and conducted by UC Santa Cruz in early 2020, provides one of the only close analyses of app-based ride-hailing and delivery workers. This webinar lays out the study’s key findings on driver demographics and economics and highlights recommendations to shape this essential industry.

The findings help answer questions about creating environmentally, socially, and economically equitable cities. One key finding was the overwhelming potential for these drivers to mode-shift away from private vehicles: over 70% of app-based delivery workers said that given the opportunity, they would use an electric bike for deliveries. As cities look for ways to meet their climate and sustainability goals, this finding suggests that there are creative ways we can shape this industry to improve both the economic outcomes of drivers and leverage the industry to meet climate goals.