DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber employees: Gig work feels more like a 9-5 job

However, people on the job say things like performance metrics often affect that flexibility. The end result: jobs that pay like gigs, but with demands that most workers would associate with the 9-to-5. And that causes discontent among some workers.

An example is DoorDash’s “acceptance rate.” While in the app, DoorDash sends the Utah worker orders he can deliver, including details on how far he should drive and how much the gig would pay if he accepted it. He can refuse, but that drags down his acceptance rate.

If he falls below 50%, DoorDash gives him less of the top-paying ones. The requirement is one of multiple metrics workers must meet to be part of DoorDash’s Dasher Rewards program, which can give gig workers access to “high-paying orders” and flexibility when they work, DoorDash says on its website or.

“It doesn’t really feel like I have a contract,” the Utah worker told Business Insider. “You can’t Doordash whenever you want unless you’re at the top Platinum level.”

A DoorDash spokesperson said it’s “patently inaccurate” to say the company counts orders its contractors don’t take against them. However, the spokesperson confirmed that DoorDash requires its workers to maintain an acceptance rate of at least 50 percent to participate in its Dasher Rewards program in most of the places it operates. Other factors, such as customer ratings, also count for the program.

“To be extremely clear, each Dasher has the freedom to accept or decline as many offers as they want, and they are never penalized based on their acceptance rate,” the spokesperson said.

But metrics like this are just one aspect of delivery work that workers say feels like traditional work.

For example, one delivery worker in Chicago told BI that he avoids Grubhub because of the app’s scheduling feature. The feature requires workers to sign up to deliver in specific shifts, which can range from 30 minutes to several hours. Grubhub did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

While workers don’t have to sign up for blocks to deliver for Grubhub — the app also offers the option to pick up one-off orders — the company tells its contractors that “block scheduling is the best way to maximize orders and sustain revenue “.

Instead, the Chicago-based delivery boy said he prefers Uber Eats because the app allows workers to “work whenever you want, wherever you want.” He added that the downsides of having a low acceptance rate and customer ratings “are not as tough as the other apps.”

Other gig workers say they spend unpaid hours waiting in a parking lot at stores like Costco and Walmart just to claim orders — a habit they say feels more like working a regular job than working on their time.

Many delivery apps, such as Instacart and Walmart’s Spark, give workers closer to a store better access to orders, incentivizing workers to show up at the busiest times of the day in hopes of claiming an order.

Some recent laws have tried to clarify what companies can ask of gig workers.

Seattle’s PayUp for Delivery Workers Act, which went into effect in January, prohibits delivery companies from retaliating against workers who limit their availability or reject orders they deem not worth their time.

Companies must also provide gig workers with details about their salary and what filling the order will entail, such as how long the order will take for delivery, before the gig worker will accept it.

“Now in Seattle, we’re really independent contractors,” a delivery worker who works in the Seattle area told BI.

Meanwhile, in April, the US Department of Labor implemented a new rule that distinguishes between employee jobs and work performed by independent contractors.

The rule indicates six factors employers can use to determine which category a worker falls into, such as whether the worker can refuse jobs and whether the employer sets a worker’s schedule. It also replaced a Trump-era rule that considered only two factors and was more favorable to employers, David Jacobs, an assistant professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business, told BI.

Gig delivery companies like DoorDash and Instacart told BI earlier this year that they don’t plan to change how they classify their independent contractors based on the rule. A legal expert told The Wall Street Journal at the time that it would likely be tested in court by disputes between contractors and companies over whether they should be classified as employees.

Jacobs said the rule is just one example of the broader conflict between gig workers and the companies they work for over how their jobs should be classified. For many workers and their advocates, “there’s clearly a desire to convert jobs into more traditional jobs with mutual obligations,” he said — namely roles that might require more benefits.

But from companies, there’s a lot of focus on the other model, “which is to maintain flexibility,” he said.

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