COVID has taken a toll on a number of businesses where humans have to personally interact. The ride-sharing companies are among them. Today, there are roughly 6,500 Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers registered with the city of Portland, compared to 17,000 three years ago. “A lot of the drivers are not coming back because they’re concerned about COVID,” said Uber driver Jerald McClinton. During the pandemic, 77% of Uber and Lyft drivers in Portland said COVID was the primary reason they stopped driving.
Drivers also left because there wasn’t as much demand. Portland went from almost 13 million Uber, Lyft and taxi rides a year in 2019 to roughly 4 million in 2021. Drivers weren’t making as much money and pay models changed, along with bonuses. Additionally, Uber and Lyft drivers were eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds under the CARES Act, easing some financial pressures.
“A lot of drivers switched over to Uber Eats, Door Dash, Instacart, many other gig economy jobs,” explained Sergio Avedian, who writes for a industry blog. “Top to bottom, everybody was forced to hit their reset button—value their worth, what they’re doing and should they change jobs,” said Avedian.
Analysis by the research firm Rakuten Intelligence found the cost of a ride from a ride-sharing app like Uber or Lyft increased 92% nationwide between January 2018 and July 2021. Before the pandemic, the rideshare companies subsidized the price of rides with promotions and discounts — even lowering the cost of rides to attract new users to the apps.
Drivers and riders alike commented in Portland social media platforms, Ian Strappini, via Facebook: “Barf, only real Portlanders take Radio Cab.”
“Currently, only a few cities in Oregon have ride sharing and it’s creating a very large patchwork quilt of different regulations and inconsistent requirements,” said state Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro. “All communities around the state deserve access to safe, reliable and affordable transportation options.”
Furthermore, there were suspensions in 2019, 168 in total, that were confirmed by the Portland Department of Transportation, ABC News reported. In some cases, the department completely revoked permits for the workers in question. Two of the Lyft drivers were convicted felons, one with a sexual assault conviction. The second had been convicted of assault with intent to murder. The issues surrounding the drivers in question were discovered as the Portland Bureau of Transportation conducted random checks, according to John Brady, director of communications for the agency.
“For 80 people a month, we do the full background check, we do criminal history and if the person is on the sex offender list,” Brady told ABC News. They also do a series of random field checks using “secret shoppers and uniformed personnel” who check the safety of the vehicles and more.
“We want these consumers to be safe, in terms of physical safety and the mechanical safety of the cars as well as the drivers, so we would like Uber and Lyft to do everything that they can to make sure that that takes place,” Brady added. “We’re still going to continue to do our own checks, we found it a good backup system to enhance consumer protections.”
“We are constantly working to improve the safety of our platform and are committed to delivering the best experience for all users,” the company said.
