Tony Pierce is a freelance writer who lives in L.A. He has driven for Uber and Lyft for a decade, completing over 10,000 trips. He hosts Hear in LA, a podcast about the city’s neighborhoods.
After spending all day in an air-conditioned Beverly Hills office, I took the elevator to the basement, drove my Tesla Model Y to Century City, parked in front of the CAA Death Star and fired up the Lyft app.
My day job was boring. Rideshare driving was the opposite. It wasn’t for everyone, but I’d been doing it for a decade.
Partly because the passengers were fascinating, seeing every nook of L.A. was wild and sometimes it was heartening to be there when someone needed to vent.
But also because it was fun to see whether you could do two things: get a tip and push your earnings above $30 an hour — enough, after covering your overhead, to beat McDonald’s pay.
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Comments
Has to be Todd Feldman!!
The ‘no tip’ sent me. I just got reamed by my boss’ boss for using uber during a con instead of crashing my personal car and dying due to sleep deprivation. Then I was told to stop tipping uber drivers on the company dime.
I’m not a CAA assistant anymore. I’m nearly 10 years an executive now at a fairly famous brand. Hollywood shit has levels, just like hell.
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