Shifts

Opinion The loneliness of the short-distance driver

How a ride-hailing driver thinks about his job

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Beatrix Lockwood spoke to Jonathan Rigsby, the author of “Drive: Scraping by in Uber’s America, One Ride at a Time.” Illustrations by Maya Scarpa for ...more
Beatrix Lockwood spoke to Jonathan Rigsby, the author of “Drive: Scraping by in Uber’s Ame...more

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When Jon Rigsby started driving for Uber in 2016, he was recently divorced and living near the poverty line. He downloaded the ride-sharing app to supplement the income from his day job as a crime intelligence analyst. By 2021, 16 percent of Americans reported earning money through “gig economy” platforms such as Uber and Instacart, according to the Pew Research Center. The majority said they relied on these jobs to meet their basic needs.

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For the past year, we’ve been speaking with workers across the continent whose jobs did not exist a generation ago to learn more about our new era of work — and what it means for our future. In these comics, you’ll hear from workers, who describe in their own words what they do for a living and how it has changed over time.
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