Ride-share driver has time for work, family

Future of Work
Uber
Uber Car | File Photo

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(Sponsored Content) — Imagine being able to wake up at 8 a.m., cook breakfast, and have time to relax before starting work whenever you want.

That is the life people in the freelance workforce have; some dreamt of living it before entering it. One large gig economy company is Uber, where David became a driver in 2017.

“Well, like most drivers, I do Uber and Lyft,” the Miami-based driver said. “Alright, 95% of them. All the drivers do both. I do some private driving, and I know a lot of (people that do) airport stuff and whatever. That's pretty common for most drivers as well. I just lump it all together. My hours, I averaged over 40 hours a week driving.”

While freelance work does allow you to work however many hours of your choice, as David said, he goes well beyond that. 

He’s a father, has adult children, interacts with his in-laws, and has a wife with Alzheimer’s. Before coming to Uber, he worked in sales.

Unfortunately, his desire to spend time with his family cut into work.

“I needed something that provided flexibility of hours and days,” he said. “Our daughter came up with the idea of ‘you drive Uber, you can do that any day of the week and the hours of the day or night that you want.’ So long story short, we gave it a shot and found out that I could work around their schedules and 4 and a half years later, here, I am still doing it.”

YouTube features videos of ride-hail drivers recording their trips for legal reasons. Some drivers sit through drunken people in their cars, or deal with aggressive passengers.

Thankfully, David hasn’t experienced any poor behavior from his passengers.

“By and large, people are great,” he said. “But if whether you’re dealing with a lot of people, whether it's retail or anything where you deal with a lot of folks on a regular basis, you’re going to have a lot of good people, and you’re going to have a few bad apples.”

A benefit for David is he says he gets more money working in the evening from people leaving bars.

“The reason that I do (that) is there's more money to be made in the later hours of the day in the evening. And that includes people who tend to over-imbibing.”

David’s freedom of working in the evenings and having time for his family are benefits often found in freelance work. Now, he’s doing what he wants on his time.

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