This Week in Rideshare: Harassment, Amazon and Glitches.

Women gig workers share their stories, Amazon buys Grubhub and a glitch sacks DoorDash. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

MONDAY 7/4/22

A 6-year-old girl was hit by an electric scooter and was severely injured. ABC7 Chicago reported:

A family is left stunned after a 6-year-old girl was run over by a teenager on an electrical bicycle.

She said a nearby police officer caught the 16-year-old a couple blocks away before the family rushed the girl to Community First hospital, where she initially was listed in fair condition.

But Corral said they then took her straight to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where doctors found her injuries to be critical.

“I transfer her over to a different hospital where they told us she was bleeding internally,” Corral said.

Now, as Francis recovers in the hospital, her family is thankful her life was spared.

TUESDAY 7/5/22

Women share their stories of dealing with sexual harassment while on the job. The Conversation added:

Women drivers had to deal with unwanted sexual comments and behaviours from customers, and considered this to be part of the job. To reduce their risk of harassment, women would be more selective of when and where they would work, which further worsened the pay gap because they would miss out on prime earning opportunities, such as weekends and evening hours.

Due to concerns about the immediate threat and rating retaliation, the women workers we interviewed found it difficult to stand up for themselves in the moment. They hesitate reporting these encounters because the recourse process is time-consuming and difficult.

The only option left for them is to let the harassers get away with bad behaviours. To de-escalate potentially dangerous situations, the women laugh off the remarks or play along. Annette, an Uber driver, called this tactic “delay and deflect.”

WEDNESDAY 7/6/22

Amazon goes head-to-head with DoorDash & Uber. MarketWatch reported:

Through the arrangement, Amazon will make Grubhub a benefit to Prime members and offer members the chance to get delivery fees waived from certain restaurants, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, Amazon has an opportunity to take an initial 2% stake in Grubhub, and it could boost that stake to 15% if it hits targets around user acquisition. Just Eat shares are up more than 19% in Wednesday trading in the Netherlands, while shares of U.S.-based food delivery companies are falling premarket. Shares of DoorDash are down more than 7% and shares of Uber, which operates the Uber Eats delivery service, are off more than 3%. Just Eat still intends to look into a potential full or partial sale of Grubhub, per the Wall Street Journal report.

THURSDAY 7/7/22

Uber is hopping on the charter bus business. The Dallas Morning News reported:

Through a partnership with US Coachways, a nationwide bus service that originated in New York City, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston travelers are the first who can rent a charter through Uber. The option will roll out to other cities in the coming months.

The company says it will “share prices upfront so there are no surprises.” To book a last-minute round trip for 10 people on an Uber mini bus from downtown Dallas to the Fort Worth Stockyards on Saturday night, for example, the app gave an estimate of $1,526 for the trip. The prices fluctuate based on demand.

FRIDAY 7/8/22

A DoorDash glitch unloaded free orders for customers. New York Post added:

DoorDash customers were celebrating on Thursday after discovering a glitch that allowed them to get their purchases for free, according to a flood of social media posts.

Customers boasted about ordering free food, pricey tequila, and even contraceptives. Some posted screenshots of extravagant orders in the thousands of dollars. One man tweeted images of dozens of stratospherically priced tequilas he says he ordered during the glitch.

Those included orders of Casamigos Reposado and Don Julio Reposado worth $1,673.73 and $1,949.70, respectively.

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries.