The dangers of delivery, single parents struggle and a huge win for Minneapolis. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
Bacterial delivery, single parents struggle, and a city council steps up. It’s all here in This Week in Rideshare.
FOOD SAFTEY THROUGH DELIVERY
Cold delivery food may be the least of your worries. New York Post adds:
“I would not order food through a third-party delivery to be delivered to the home,” Dr Darin Detwiler, a former FDA and USDA food safety advisor, told the Daily Mail.
According to the FDA, bacteria can grow swiftly, even doubling every 20 minutes, if food is allowed to sit out at temperatures between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
The risk is greatest for raw foods like sushi, as well as certain kinds of shellfish — but Detwiler doesn’t recommend any third-party takeout at all.
SINGLE PARENTS STRUGGLE DOING GIG WORK
Bri, 40, is struggling to feed her four kids. The single mom in Fort Worth, Texas, drives for DoorDash, Walmart Spark, and the restaurant delivery service Skipcart and makes just $400 a week on average after expenses — nowhere near enough to comfortably pay all her bills.
“It is a never-ending vicious cycle that lures you in with great money at first, to the point you feel it can be relied on, then bam, now you’re making $4 per delivery on average and have to run more than one delivery app at a time and only accept the orders that make sense,” said Bri, who said her income dropped after she lost her Top Dasher status she suspects for taking a week off.
Bryant Greening, cofounder of LegalRideshare, a law firm dedicated to accident and injury claims for ride-hailing drivers, said drivers drawn in by gig work’s flexibility are often not told how expensive gig driving can be if things go wrong, which could have huge impacts on single parents in particular.
“These fluctuations and discrepancies can be devastating to individuals who don’t have other mechanisms to make money, including single parents who are often operating on a single income,” Greening said.
BIG WIN FOR MINNEAPOLIS DRIVERS
Minneapolis city council passes new rideshare ordinance. Twin Cities News reported:
Members of the Minneapolis City Council have passed an ordinance on Thursday guaranteeing minimum pay for rideshare drivers. The vote passed by a 9–4 vote, despite some concerns from council members over the fact that a state task force would be releasing their report on rideshare economics the very next day.
Uber and Lyft have threatened to pull their services from the city if it passes, and both Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz vetoed similar proposals both for the city of Minneapolis and statewide last summer.
Frey has once again said he’ll veto the ordinance, but the City Council’s vote Thursday suggests they’d have enough votes to override Frey’s veto should he do so.
The ordinance guarantees drivers get 80% of canceled rides and earn no less than $5 per ride.
If the ordinance becomes law, both Lyft and Uber say they’ll pull services from the city on May 1, which is the new implementation date following an amendment by the council.
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