Each time, I completed the ride with a sour taste in my mouth. I make an extra effort to keep her comfortable. I used to drive around between rides, trying to make myself somehow more available to the next rider. Driving for Uber and Lyft is a lot like a game.
Uber drivers claim that a new startup has them doing more work for no added pay.
Thank you so much for your interest in learning more about GoGoGrandparent, if you’re a driver and have some questions, this FAQ is for you. At the request of a driver, we turned parts of this FAQ into a video to answer any questions you might make money driving for go go grandparent. In the next ten years the number of seniors in the U. This is moneyy to dramatically change the way the service industry will work. People in their 80’s miss things like app notifications and text messages. This can lead to a lot of time being wasted because a passenger didn’t catch that fr ride is having mqke finding them or that their driver is outside. Based on experiences with my own grandmother we saw that on demand transportation requires that a friend or family monitor rides and coordinate with drivers to insure everything goes okay.
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GoGoGrandparent is a new startup with a seemingly wholesome mission: It wants to make it easier for seniors, specifically those without smartphones, to use Uber. But drivers don’t see a penny from the company, and ultimately feel shortchanged for doing more work. Twentysomethings Justin Booogaard and David Lung created the company after Booogaard’s grandmother, Betty, wanted to hail an Uber, but couldn’t since she didn’t have a smartphone. The two bootstrapped a phone operator system to book a ride for her, and realized they might actually have a business. Only a quarter of adults age 65 and older own smartphones , according to a Pew Research Center study.
Uber drivers claim that a new startup has them doing more work for no added pay.
GoGoGrandparent is a new startup with a seemingly wholesome mission: It wants to make it easier for seniors, specifically those without smartphones, to use Uber. But drivers don’t see a penny from the company, and ultimately feel shortchanged for doing more work. Twentysomethings Justin Booogaard and David Lung created the company after Booogaard’s grandmother, Betty, wanted to hail an Uber, but couldn’t since she didn’t have a smartphone.
The two bootstrapped a phone operator system to book a ride for her, and realized they might actually have a business. Only a quarter of adults age 65 and older own smartphonesaccording to a Pew Research Center study. For Uber, this is an obvious barrier to entry, and the reason why GoGoGrandparent was founded.
It works like a taxi dispatch—seniors call the GoGoGrandparent phone number from their landline or dumb phone. Then, the company’s operators hail a car for the passenger using the Uber app, and inform the driver of any assistance they might need.
After the call, the entire ride is negotiated through the app, and the passenger is sometimes none the wiser. I first learned about GoGoGrandparent on the Uber grandparwnt subredditwhere drivers accused the company of violating Uber’s Terms of Service, and introducing a host of liability grabdparent. One Uber driver told me that while maek enjoys helping elderly passengers, he doesn’t approve of Make money driving for go go grandparent so-called predatory tactics. Conversation between a GoGoGrandparent operator and an Uber driver.
They charge the rider a premium for doing nothing, all they do is request an Uber ride for someone else,» he said in a Reddit PM. There’s no direct line of communication between riders and drivers during pickup, he added. Face it, Uber is not known for sticking up for their drivers, and if something happens, I bet GoGoGrandparent would disappear in a heartbeat.
The startup was funded in by Y Combinator, which notoriously seeks tech fixes for the world’s biggest problems. But how ethical is GoGoGrandparent, really? Superficially, it’s a classic middleman. The benefits of using GoGoGrandparent, as opposed to another shuttle service, are seemingly cost and availability. Despite assurances that operators «communicate, screen and supervise drivers» to ensure their customers’ safety, this isn’t technically possible. GoGoGrandparent can’t surveil the inside of an Uber car.
Booogaard seemed hesitant when I asked him about this feature, telling me that GoGoGrandparent only monitors each trip on the Uber app. If a ride were going off-course, he said, operators could immediately intervene.
Of course, there’s no way for GoGoGrandparent to immediately discern a detour from a disaster. The same goes for a rider changing their destination en route. Something like this doesn’t seem scalable if operators are fielding a large number of calls. And for drivers, many of whom «ask to do this for free,» Booogaard claimed, the downsides are numerous. Some feel as if they’re grandpadent more work for less pay ; a concern that Uber tried to ameliorate with its UberASSIST program, an unpaid course that teaches them how to assist the elderly, or people with disabilities.
To incentivize the program, Uber deducts only 15 percent from these rides, vriving to 25 percent for normal trips. With GoGoGrandparent, this isn’t always the case.
GoGoGrandparent will sometimes ask drivers to walk passengers to their destination, or help them into their car—things drivers may be happy to do for UberASSIST pay, but less than willing for basic rates. Responsibility in the event of an accident is another moeny. GoGoGrandparent’s safety pledge links to Uber’s own damages terms. Uber did not respond to questions about its relationship with GoGoGrandparent. It’s still unclear make money driving for go go grandparent the company’s business model is a violation of Uber’s Terms of Service.
Booogaard said he «met with and spoke with Uber,». While he couldn’t tell me how GoGoGrandparent interfaces with Uber’s platform, he compared the startup to other eriving that use UberCENTRAL —a dashboard that allows partners including senior centers to hail rides on behalf of their customers.
This story has been changed to reflect. Apr 13pm.
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The next day I signed up for both Granrparent and Lyft. You can also use a computer to call for a ride or schedule a car service, depending on the specific agency. Egoupee New Member. Ubercheats Member. When you’re setting up the account, agreeing to receive live updates on every ride request without having to micro-monitor every step like how far is the driver or when will the driver arrive. An in-depth guide GoGo Grandparent Riders. Load. Yes, I too wonder what causes a rhinoceros to have such a large horn. So, Lyfts and Ubers, like other transportation services, are safe to travel in. Some make me laugh, and some make me want to .
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