Several drivers said they enjoyed the flexibility of the work, and of “being their own boss.”ĭeborah Douglas said she used to work as a Class A truck driver, working app-based driving on the side. I want to do my job, but they’re literally pricing people out of working and we cannot do it anymore,” said Alex Johnson. “There’s a lot of advantage to having this new technology and the … convenience for people who need to travel from place to place, but what we haven’t done is taken into consideration the impact on people that are doing the driving,” said Kushner.ĭrivers at the press conference held up photos of trips they were offered by the companies showing the amount they paid per trip.Īlex Johnson, a driver who spoke at the press conference, held up a poster of a trip that paid $5.71 for three deliveries - a trip estimated to take a total of 45 minutes. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, chair of the Labor Committee, said at the press conference that she had helped represent taxi drivers in the past, many unionized, but that the protections they receive haven’t yet been extended to app-based drivers. The state’s commissioner of labor will be required to make yearly adjustments to the hourly rates based on inflation and the cost of gasoline. Transportation companies like Uber and Lyft and delivery companies like DoorDash and GrubHub will be required to pay drivers 85 percent of the fare that is charged to the passenger, or a minimum of $1.30 per mile plus 60 cents per minute worked by a driver. I made $34 yesterday in four hours,” said Delewski.Ī bill being heard in a public hearing on Wednesday would try to address this by setting a minimum wage for drivers that work for rideshare apps and delivery services. Now, he said, the same trip will earn him $25 - although the customers are still paying the same amount. James Delewski, a rideshare driver from Southington, told CT Examiner that he used to be able to get $50 for a trip from Greenwich to New York City. Many were members of the nonprofit Connecticut Drivers United, a coalition of delivery drivers started in 2020. Multiple drivers gathered outside of the Capitol on Wednesday echoed Fontanez’s experience, saying that over the last few years they had watched the amount they were able to earn on apps like Lyft, Uber and Doordash drop further and further. “They’ve lowered the prices five, six times already,” said Fontanez. Now, according to Fontanez, a long day of driving earns him about $200. But since the pandemic, he said, prices have been dropping. He works until 2 p.m., breaks long enough to pick up his daughters from school and drop them at home, then continues driving until 9 p.m.įontanez, who has been working as a driver for five years, said he used to make $300 to $400 a day. HARTFORD – Xavier Fontanez, a full-time rideshare driver who lives in New Haven, starts his days at 5 a.m.
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