Brian Merchant: Uber and Lyft's 'deactivation' policy is dehumanizing and unfair. It must end
By any metric, James Jordan was an exemplary Uber driver. Starting in 2016, he worked 10 hours a day, six days a week. Over the course of 5 1/2 years, he logged 27,000 trips and maintained a rating of 4.95.
He drove so much because he needed the cash. A 55-year-old single father of five in Inglewood, California, there were plenty of expenses, and Uber was his family's source of income. Then, one day in March 2022, that source was abruptly shut off.
He had been driving in the morning when he logged off to pick up his daughter. When he opened his phone to prepare for his next shift, he got the message: He'd been "permanently deactivated" — the gig work industry's euphemism for fired.
"It was a total shock. My gut fell, my emotions were all over the place," Jordan said. "For 5 1/2 years my family relied on the earnings from Uber, to pay rent, pay for my car, all that. To have that taken
