Autism and Employment (another PennSilverTaco thread)!

Amanda and I will be in the 717 all next weekend!

 

That area between "fun and crashing" is addictive.
I was in that zone more than I should have been on my GSXR.
Good thing my brother had a kid. He sold his bike and I no longer had anyone to "ride" with.
Probably be dead if it weren't for my niece.

 

At the bar where I worked as a barback, servers gave 10% of their tips to the bartenders for making the drinks, and bartenders in turn gave 10% of their tips to the barbacks...

 

My 84 Camaro took me to that zone quite a few times..and it's for similar reasons it's probably best I have never owned a motorcycle.

 

@Just_A_Guy

So, here’s my theory as to why my truck handled the first year I did DoorDash and Uber Eats so well; I only had like a little over 90K miles when I started doing Uber Eats in December 2018. Considering I’d had the truck for nine years at this point, that was low for a Tacoma and the miles had been really leisurely. I started doing DoorDash in July 2019, and I was literally just under 100K when I started. I hit 99K on June 29th like two miles from my cousin’s house in Wilkes-Barre and actually hit 100K while doing DoorDash in mid-July. According to Carfax, my truck had just over 104K miles when it passed an emissions test in September 2019.

According to the Carfax report, my truck had just over 108K miles in January 2020 when I brought it to the dealer to address a noise the brakes were making. I abruptly stopped doing DoorDash in March 2020 because of COVID, and didn’t start up again until January 2021.

Most of the driving I did in 2019 and 2020 was very easygoing and a lot of it was highway driving; I had just under 125K in February 2021 at the time of an oil chance, according to Carfax. It was between July 2019 and the spring of 2021 when my truck from “low mileage” to what I would consider “average mileage”.

During the summer of 2021 is when I went from “average mileage” to “high mileage”; I had almost 137K when the truck got inspected in late August 2021, and exactly 140K when the frame was replaced in November 2021.

From January 2023 to July 2024, I put about 40K miles on my truck!

I didn’t do DoorDash from March 2020 to January 2021, and then I took a break from it for about six months starting in June 2021, due to a minor fender bender. I did it a little bit in 2022, but ultimately stopped before the beginning of 2023.

I swore that I would never do DoorDash again, but then I got laid off from NAVMAR and did what I had to do, also doing Uber Eats for the first time in years (in addition to DoorDash).

When Amanda was still working in the elementary school cafeteria, I would drop her off at 9am and drive an hour up to Bethlehem; I always felt like Bethlehem was a much more lucrative market, because the Lehigh Valley area was less populated than Central Bucks and not as saturated. In addition to that, customers seemed to pay more for shorter delivery distances…

Unfortunately, I was driving more than 60 miles round trip and this equated to more wear and tear on the truck than the profits were ultimately worth…

I am so glad that I don’t do gig work anymore!

 

I talked to a guy at the gas station once.
He had like a 2010 or Prius. It had over 200k
And over 100k was from doing pizza deliveries......

Can't say I would want that job, even if it paid good.

 

You better stay away from gig work this time!!!

 

Usually, delivering pizzas doesn’t pay all that good unless you get a couple of really good tippers per shift. When I got my first pizza delivery job back in 2015, I was fine with it because the overwhelming majority of my income came from barbacking at Puck and I loved that job. Also, gas was affordable and inflation wasn’t that bad back in 2015…

 

The only side hustle I have is scrapping HVAC/R equipment. I pick up the A/C and refrigerators locally, dismember them at my house or a friend’s house, and drive them to the scrapyard that’s less than six miles from my house. The 1995 Carrier window A/C that I scrapped a couple weeks ago was given to me by my boss at the nursing home , and he literally handed over in the parking lot at work, so that couldn’t have been easier!

The issue with DoorDash and Uber Eats is that they make great side hustles, but they suck as primary sources of income; I am not doing either one right now because I would rather do stuff with my girlfriend on our weekends off.

Once car show season is over, we are making enough money at our full-time jobs that I don’t need a side hustle. Tearing apart air-conditioners and scrapping them is just fun and happens to be profitable; I will be keeping my DoorDash and Uber accounts active just in case something happens with my new job, but that will only be for an absolute emergency. The last time I made record profits doing gig work, gas was less than $3 per gallon.

 

@Just_A_Guy
@TnShooter

Also, let’s say that wear and tear on one’s vehicle wasn’t an issue…

I didn’t notice it as much when I started doing Uber Eats, but as long as I’ve been doing DoorDash, there’s been hostility towards the drivers on the part of restaurant owners (and to a lesser extent, restaurant employees).

The biggest grievance is the perception that gig workers are taking income away from their on-the-books delivery drivers…

FUN FACT: Doing business with DoorDash and Uber Eats is optional! If you don’t like your drivers competing with gig workers don’t enter into a contract!

 

@Just_A_Guy
@TnShooter

One of the confrontations I had was the result of legit grievances that the restaurant owner had with DoorDash, but that I have absolutely no control over as a mere driver. One time in 2019 (it had to be 2019 or maybe very early 2020, because no COVID restrictions were in place), the owner of a soup and seafood place in Doylestown was upset because he updated his menus on a seasonal menu and DoorDash wasn’t updating his menus in-app. As a result, he would prepare the closest thing to what the customer wanted. More often than not, the customer would be unsatisfied and absolutely nuke his restaurant on Yelp.

The owner apparently contacted DoorDash corporate numerous times, but got nowhere. He somehow got it into his thick skull that DoorDash drivers had sometime to do with his, and decided to take out his frustrations on the next unwitting driver who came through the door. That driver happened to be, and it went about as well as you would expect; I have flipped out on schoolteachers, my parents, numerous security guards, two cops, and a former employer. Nothing bad happened to me in those instances, so do you really thing I’m going to take shit from a glorified fishmonger?!?!

I was actually calmer in that instance and the guy ended up apologizing, but the damage was done, and I never picked up orders from there again.

 

@Just_A_Guy
@TnShooter

This incident also happened sometime in 2019; I delivered a heft multi-person order to a business complex. I believe it was a doctor’s office or a law firm, but I don’t remember.

I got the food there well within the time limit, parked the truck, and went inside the building. There were several women in there conversing, and while nothing happened at that moment, I got the feeling that they weren’t too happy with me. As I was walking back to my truck, I was looking at my earnings and realized that I hadn’t received a tip!

I wrote them off as being stingy assholes and continued back to the truck…

I believe I had DoorDash magnets on the truck, and this is how the other woman knew I was a DoorDash driver. I had already gotten in the truck and was just sitting there with the A/C on because I hadn’t gotten another order.

A middle-aged women pulled up in a late model Subaru Forester, got out of the car, and just started angrily staring me down. This made me so uncomfortable that I finally rolled down my window and asked if there was a problem; I didn’t think she was with the women in the building and there were no bumper stickers on my truck at that time that would have triggered the typical Doylestown resident.

She told me that another DoorDash driver had delivered their food to the wrong business in that complex and they couldn’t find it. This woman had apparently left him a hefty tip, and they made the decision to reorder the food; I’m guessing that Subaru lady was the one whose DoorDash account it was, and I wasn’t moving fast enough for her, so she hopped in her car and drove to the restaurant to pick up the food. I had apparently already picked up the food and was en route to their place of employment when she got to the restaurant, angering her even more. She got it into her mind that I must be the same DoorDash driver who delivered their food to the wrong place and still pocketed the tip.



I flipped out at her for thinking that there was one DoorDash driver serving all of Doylestown. After all, the app gives the customer our name and what vehicle we are driving!



The ignorance of DoorDash customers knows absolutely no bounds, and this was BEFORE COVID!

Subaru lady was genuinely apologetic, but I still didn’t get a tip…

 

People are somethin’ else.

 

Another reason I am uneasy about delivering food these days is that delivery drivers have been shot at for pulling into the wrong driveway. Some have actually been hit, and at least one has been killed that I am aware of; I have lost count of the number of times that I have pulled into the wrong driveway or even dropped off food at the wrong house!

 

@ABA180
@Just_A_Guy
@Steves104x4

And then a DoorDash driver in Virginia, who was licensed to carry, shot a YouTube prankster in self-defense because the guy was harassing him while he picked up an order at a shopping mall. He did end up getting convicted of reckless endangerment for discharging a firearm in a mall, but there was extensive footage of the moments leading up to the shooting and it was deemed to be self-defense.

If I were in the same situation and I had a gun, I would not have shot the guy. However, if some random guy walked up to me and started harassing me, I would have given him two warnings to back off and leave me alone; I then probably would have shoved the guy away from me. If he didn’t get the message at that point, then I probably would have knocked him out!

 

That's stupid..I could see maybe the employee hired to drive thinking that but it's not you who is the issue, and it's damn sure asinine for the ownership to feel this way.

A few years ago at least I heard Uber/Lyft could be a decent enough income, I knew a couple of people who did it. Definitely had quirks but week to week could make enough of a living. One tried to "specialize" doing rides to Logan Airport in Boston as the fee was still good and usually tips were as well.

 

1. I got my license in May 2011, and I got pulled over for the first time after getting my license roughly six years later, in May 2017. With the exception of the time in April 2021 when I drove partially up onto the sidewalk to get a round a long line of cars waiting for the Wendy’s drive-thru that had spilled out onto the road was blocking traffic, and last November when I got stopped for having Christmas lights on my truck, every time I have ever been pulled over has been the result of complacency and inattentiveness rather than a blatant disregard for the law. May 2017: 43 MPH in 25 MPH zone, at midnight, on a deserted road ($180 ticket, pleaded down to 5 MPH so I didn’t get points on my license
2. September 2017: Making a left turn at an intersection where the straight light was green but the left turn arrow was red (written warning; no ticket)
   
3. January 2019: Driving while drowsy, zoning out, and treating a red light like a stop sign; once again, it was midnight and there was nobody on the road (pleaded down to a lesser offense with no points on license
   
4. April 2021: The aforementioned “using a sidewalk as a shortcut” incident (Careless driving ticket, pleaded down to a lesser charge with no points)
   
5. June 2021: Not a traffic stop but rather a minor accident and my first at-fault accident in many years ($165 ticket because the other vehicle had to be towed, thrown out in court; I had accident forgiveness so my rates didn’t go up, and I paid out of pocket to fix my truck)
   
6. January 2023: First of two stops in Jersey in six days; Failure to maintain lane” (written warning, no ticket)
   
7. February 2023: 81 in a 65 and once again “failure to maintain lane” (reduced on the spot to a $55 ticket that had no effect on my driving record, but seriously, fuck Jersey)
8. July 2023: 45 MPH in a 25 MPH zone (pleaded down to 5 MPH over)
   
9. August 2023: “Swerving and speeding” (unmarked green Charger was tailgating me on a deserted road after midnight, so I sped up; I got a written warning and no ticket)
   
10. November 2023: Pulled over solely for having Christmas lights on my truck (written warning, no ticket)

 

This is why I drive 11 mph. Edit: and not because I want to.