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Gig Economy Pressures Make Drivers 'More Likely To Crash' (bbc.com)
Drivers and couriers who get their work from apps face a "heightened risk" of crashes, a study suggests. From a report: Research from University College London (UCL) indicated 42% of "gig-economy" couriers and taxi drivers reported vehicle damage because of a collision. Close to half admitted time pressure could make them break the speed limit. Distraction by smartphones and tiredness from overwork were also flagged as risks for those delivering food and parcels. The report draws on 200 responses to an online survey from drivers and couriers, as well as 48 in-depth interviews. The study does not focus on any one particular company, although Uber and Deliveroo are both named as examples of companies that enable gig-economy work -- where employees are not paid a salary but instead get money for each job completed. Of those surveyed, 63% said they had not been provided with safety training on managing risks on the road, while one in 10 reported someone had been injured in a crash while they had been working.
Low Cost - quality - safety.
Pick a dot in the triangle you like best. The further you move towards low cost trough lack of regulation you decrease quality or safety.
In interesting solution would be if the apps started fining those they are paying if they were speeding. probably wont' happen unless a lot of people die.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
No I am not RTF... f clickbait. Did they correct for miles driven? Obviously if you are doing Uber many hours a week your collision risk goes up.
love is just extroverted narcissism
42% of "gig-economy" couriers and taxi drivers reported vehicle damage because of a collision
How does that compare to the general public? how about when corrected per vehicle mile/hour?
Of course an Uber or Taxi driver is going to be more likely to get into a collision since they drive more. I drive 20 minutes in the morning and evening on familiar routes that I've driven hundreds of times before. I deliberately avoid congested downtown areas when I drive, choosing off-peak times to drive downtown whenever possible.
A car-share driver is in the car all day long, called out to areas throughout the city and beyond in areas were he may have never been, and his busiest time is also the most congested time, he can't change his work hours to avoid congestion since that's exactly the times his customers most want to travel.
Where we do studies to learn things that became obvious thru pizza deliver in the 1970s!
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I thought this article was about Device Drivers that wouldn't crash...wishful thinking.
Are these apps not designed so that they can only be used when the vehicle is stopped? That is listed as a major factor in TFA so either drivers should be putting their phones down while driving or the app should be redesigned. I would say something to my cab driver if they didn't have their eyes on the road.
Also, it mentions that Uber "obliges (sic)" drivers to take a break, but how can they expect to control that seeing as the whole structure rewards drivers for taking rides and penalizes them for not taking rides? If they truly wanted them to take breaks, then they should be rewarded for taking breaks.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
With little training driving on personal insurance. Sooner or later one of them is going to cause a big enough wreck that nobody wants to pay for it and the person they hit is screwed. Nevermind that when you get hit by an Uber driver they've got incentive to try and drive off....
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It doesn't say whether the distinction is made, but I've never seen a taxi driver on their phone and that is listed as a major factor. Even picking a powered off phone up while driving is illegal where I am from. The most I have seen taxi drivers do with their meter while driving is to press a couple buttons, and it is always placed where they can still see the road.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Low Cost - quality - safety.
Pick a dot in the triangle you like best. The further you move towards low cost trough lack of regulation you decrease quality or safety.
In interesting solution would be if the apps started fining those they are paying if they were speeding. probably wont' happen unless a lot of people die.
You CAN have low cost, quality and safety.
The catch? The CEO wan't make 400 times what everyone else makes and shareholders just won't make the returns they want.
So, stick it to Wall Street and the CEO.
And the problem with that is? Nothing. There is no CEO in the States that's worth his money. None. No exceptions.
Don't bother posting, "What about so-and-so?"
Nope. Not even him. Yes, especially Musk.
In this country (U.S.) we used to teach people to drive when they were in highschool. That stopped at least a couple decades ago, and while vehicle safety features and overall quality has improved, driver skill has declined as a result of less rigorous driver education and training. Just learning barely enough to pass a multiple-choice test and a barely passing grade on a short skills test isn't enough, it's why we have crashes and deaths, and it's why a segment of the population wants to jam so-called 'self driving cars' down everyones' throats now, regardless of the damned things not being anywhere near good enough now or likely ever. What we need is better driver training, education, and TESTING, including re-testing more often, and perhaps mandatory refresher education and training at regular intervals, regardless of driving record. This should most certainly include, and perhaps start with, any sort of 'commercial' driver, meaning Uber, Lyft, and similar drivers. That's the way forward, folks.
and then they can't be 1099'ers and must be w2 and even then they can't dock them under minwage. So at best fire / cut work hours of people who do it. But may lead to some on long ride just dumping someone at the site of the highway or speeding to get them home after an airport pickup so they don't hit 29+ hours an week.
Just try to do the speed limit on some roads you will get crushed by others doing 70+ in an 55.
https://www.restaurant-hospita...
uber should pay for time to go backup pickup point (airport) at the very least.
you need data to back up your assertions.
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Bullshit. You do not need a 'control group'. The article (and headline) are not about whether or not gig-economy drivers are more or less safe than other drivers, it is about whether or not the 'pressures' of being a gig-economy driver are making them less safe than they would otherwise be. The given examples of things that make them unsafe is running red lights and speeding due to 'time pressure', using a required but distracting app, driving while too tired, etc. There is no possible way that you can spin that doing those things makes you 'safer' or even 'as safe' as someone who does not do them.
This past weekend, I had to take Uber rides from western Suffolk County NY to Queens and back, about 30 miles each way. Both drivers were scrupulous about following the speed limit, maybe a couple of miles over, when they easily could have gone faster. (I certainly did not ask them to.)
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In South Florida, the taxi drivers are on the phone ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
I don't know what fantasy planet you come from where Taxi drivers are some kind of fucking paragon of service and safety. Services like Uber came to be because TAXI DRIVERS ARE SCUM.They cheat, they do everything they can to maximize the cost of the ride. They pretend their card readers are busted because they want to be paid on cash.
The worst uber/lyft drivers are TAXI drivers looking for extra money.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Well that's not the case everywhere. is it not illegal for them to be on their phones while driving? All you need are reasonable laws.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Or here is a crazy thought we could actually just increase the posted speeds to the rates most people want to drive at now. The fact is there are places were most people speed. Those places should have the speed limits increased. Most people are breaking the law therefor so thefore the law is undesirable as viewed by the public. The democratic thing to do is change it. Sure it might be "less safe" but the vote has gone against reducing traffic deaths and increasing speeds - so there
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
The democratic thing to do is change it. Sure it might be "less safe" but the vote has gone against reducing traffic deaths and increasing speeds - so there
One of the major purposes of government on the roads is to protect human life and ensure safety: even when doing so results in inconvenience for most drivers.
You don't get to vote to put other people's lives in danger, even if you are in the majority --- that is not how government works, And it is part of the reason we have representative governments not mob rule; the representatives are to recognize when the majority are in the wrong due to present-focus or other cognitive issues which entice people doing things against their own interests and help provide the regulation and enforcement to protect them anyways ---- In other words, if a majority of people speed at X, that calls for further changes to the road features to dissuade speeding or stronger enforcement of the speed limit to protect the safety of both the law-abiding minority and dissuade the violating majority, not changing the speed limit.
Disagree strongly. A democratic society or a representative society does get to vote on how much safety is enough when it comes to our shared space and shared resources like roads.
There city councils deal with speed limits in various places all the time. We could just make all interstate highways 25mph zones and probably all but eliminate collisions but that does not make it right - it makes it safe - but not correct.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
There must be a balance of risk to benefit. People, in general, are terrible at assessing risk. So we hire people who are trained in risk assessment, etc to help us out.
The problem is that this has been tried and it does not work. Increasing speed limits tends to lead to people driving even fast.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
I also like the part where they complain about not being given safety training for driving.
They should increase the speed limit to a clearly unsafe rate and impound cars that exceed the speed limit.
Cheap storage VM.
But recently, anytime some moron is dangerously tailgating me trying to get around me, they have a Lyft/Uber sticker on the car. I don't think they speed with passengers in the car, but getting to pickups drive like madmen.