Chicago Rideshare Workers Continue Business As Usual
As Mayor Lori Lightfoot changes the city's phases in response to COVID-19, rideshare workers are maneuvering through uncertain times.
Jordan Rieser, an UberEats and Grubhub worker of two years shared with The Real Chi “I work full-time, even sacrificing my weekends for this job.”
To stay in business during the coronavirus pandemic, Uber has listed on their website under the COVID-19 resources tab a wide variety of ways they plan to keep drivers and customers safe.
“I have noticed a lot of effort, they have shipped out free masks, hand sanitizer, and gloves,” said Rieser. “They'll even ask if you have cleaned your car today for your safety and the safety of customers, if they didn't care they wouldn't do that.”
One of Rieser’s colleagues, Jon Tiberi, has had an experience similar to Rieser. Tiberi, who has worked for Uber and UberEats since the summer of 2017, shared, “I have been solely delivering food during the pandemic part-time.”
Tiberi believes that Uber is doing a great job with safety precautions, however, for his own health and safety he has focused on working in food delivery and his separate remote job.
“UberEats has great safety precautions,” states Tiberi. “For example, when I get an order from a restaurant my instructions are usually to leave the food at the customer's door and take a picture so they can see where I left it. This saves any face-to-face interaction between me and the customer.”
Ridesharing for Rieser and Tiberi have been very positive experiences thus far, however, if either one of them were to get into a car accident, suffered an injury while working, or even contracted the coronavirus and can't work, Legal Rideshare would be there to assist.
Located adjacent to Wrigley Field on 3808 N. Clark St., Legal Rideshare is the home of the “RideShare Lawyers,” the “first” law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber, Lyft, bikeshare, and e-scooter accidents and injuries.
Attorney Bryant Greening said that “with COVID-19 more people are worried, both coming from drivers and passengers.”
He additionally stated that rideshare companies are not doing enough.
“They are simply saying the right things, but in terms of enforcement they really are not doing enough. For instance, Uber is requiring drivers to take photos of themselves before they start a shift, but that driver can simply remove the mask a second later after they take the photo,” Greening said.
Greening provided a possible resolution to the issue by better enforcement of rules and communication.
“There are a million different ways rideshare companies could go about ensuring safety to drivers and passengers,” he said. “For instance, I can see a button that each person would have available where they could easily push when someone is not wearing a mask and then the rideshare company could send a reminder to that person to have their mask on.”