IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/bdah6.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Driving to Opportunity? Work and Car Access Among Low-Income Ride-Hail and Delivery Drivers

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, Anne

    (University of Oregon)

Abstract

Personal vehicles positively impact outcomes ranging from employment to activity participation. Yet owning and maintaining a personal vehicle often proves challenging for households earning low incomes. Ride-hail and delivery platforms, which allow drivers to operate personal vehicles or rent vehicles by the week, may offer low-income workers new access to vehicles and alter the labor market landscape. This paper uses data from three focus groups and a national US survey of active Uber ride-hail drivers and couriers living in low-income households to examine 1) peoples’ motivations for driving on ride-hail or delivery platforms, 2) how driving impacts car access for low-income households, and 3) how driving fits into peoples’ broader work experiences. I find that ride-hail/delivery work is far from one-size-fits-all. Drivers use platform work to complement, supplement, or replace traditional work; in other words, people drive to fill gaps in employment, earn extra money on top of primary full-time work, or opt to drive over other jobs. The role driving plays in peoples’ lives often changes over time in response to variable household and financial needs. Drivers leverage the position’s flexibility, which is rarely found in employment opportunities available to people earning low-incomes. Drivers also report how platform work can both alleviate existing financial precarity and create new forms of economic uncertainty. For a subset of drivers, many of whom could not previously afford a personal car, ride-hail/delivery work—and particularly renting vehicles from company partners—appears an important avenue to access and maintain a personal vehicle.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Anne, 2024. "Driving to Opportunity? Work and Car Access Among Low-Income Ride-Hail and Delivery Drivers," OSF Preprints bdah6, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:bdah6
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/bdah6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/66df1dfd2eebcdeabca3c855/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/bdah6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Griliches, Zvi & Mason, William M, 1972. "Education, Income, and Ability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages 74-103, Part II, .
    2. Grengs, Joe, 2010. "Job accessibility and the modal mismatch in Detroit," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 42-54.
    3. Evelyn Blumenberg & Anne Brown & Andrew Schouten, 2020. "Car-deficit households: determinants and implications for household travel in the U.S," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1103-1125, June.
    4. de Nicola, Francesca & Giné, Xavier, 2014. "How accurate are recall data? Evidence from coastal India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 52-65.
    5. Klein, Nicholas J. & Tran, Minh & Riley, Sarah, 2020. "“Desperately Need a Car”: Analyzing Crowdfunding Campaigns for Car Purchases and Repairs on Gofundme.com," SocArXiv 8x7d2, Center for Open Science.
    6. Morris, Eric A. & Zhou, Ying & Brown, Anne E. & Khan, Sakib M. & Derochers, John L. & Campbell, Harry & Pratt, Angela N. & Chowdhury, Mashrur, 2020. "Are drivers cool with pool? Driver attitudes towards the shared TNC services UberPool and Lyft Shared," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 123-138.
    7. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Pierce, Gregory, 2017. "Car access and long-term poverty exposure: Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 92-100.
    8. Evelyn Blumenberg & Michael Smart, 2010. "Getting by with a little help from my friends…and family: immigrants and carpooling," Transportation, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 429-446, May.
    9. Jonathan Gruber, 2022. "Designing Benefits for Platform Workers," NBER Working Papers 29736, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Anne Brown & Nicholas J. Klein & Michael J. Smart & Amanda Howell, 2022. "Buying Access One Trip at a Time," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 88(4), pages 495-507, October.
    11. Cody Cook & Rebecca Diamond & Jonathan V Hall & John A List & Paul Oyer, 2021. "The Gender Earnings Gap in the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers [Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(5), pages 2210-2238.
    12. Jeroen Bastiaanssen & Daniel Johnson & Karen Lucas, 2020. "Does transport help people to gain employment? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 607-628, July.
    13. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2020. "Suburbanization of transport poverty," SocArXiv hkpfj, Center for Open Science.
    14. Jeff Allen & Steven Farber, 2020. "Suburbanization of Transport Poverty," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 111(6), pages 1833-1850, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Klein, Nicholas J. & Brown, Anne & Howell, Amanda & Smart, Michael J., 2024. "Invisible Rides: How Car-Less Americans Access Cars," SocArXiv 4ngtr, Center for Open Science.
    2. Wendy M. Purcell & Brian S. Feldman & Molly Finn & John D. Spengler, 2021. "Exploring a Culture of Health in the Auto Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Eva Van Eenoo, 2023. "Zero-Car Households: Urban, Single, and Low-Income?," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 27-40.
    4. Kar, Armita & Le, Huyen T. K. & Miller, Harvey J., 2021. "What is essential travel? Socio-economic differences in travel demand during the COVID-19 lockdown," OSF Preprints qtkhb, Center for Open Science.
    5. Bose, Pablo S., 2014. "Refugees in Vermont: mobility and acculturation in a new immigrant destination," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 151-159.
    6. Miwa Matsuo & Hiroyuki Iseki, 2020. "Giving up Job Search Because I Don't Have a Car: Labor Market Participation and Employment Status Among Single Mothers With and Without Cars," Discussion Paper Series DP2020-07, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    7. Elizabeth Delmelle & Isabelle Nilsson & Providence Adu, 2021. "Poverty Suburbanization, Job Accessibility, and Employment Outcomes," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 166-178.
    8. Barajas, Jesus, 2019. "The Effects of Driver Licensing Laws on Immigrant Travel," SocArXiv sw7rp, Center for Open Science.
    9. Morris, Eric A. & Blumenberg, Evelyn & Guerra, Erick, 2020. "Does lacking a car put the brakes on activity participation? Private vehicle access and access to opportunities among low-income adults," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 375-397.
    10. Barajas, Jesus M., 2021. "The effects of driver licensing laws on immigrant travel," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 22-34.
    11. Zhu, Pengyu & Zhao, Songnian & Jiang, Yanpeng, 2022. "Residential segregation, built environment and commuting outcomes: Experience from contemporary China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 269-277.
    12. Cheng, Jianquan & Bertolini, Luca, 2013. "Measuring urban job accessibility with distance decay, competition and diversity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 100-109.
    13. Lovejoy, Kristin, 2012. "Mobility Fulfillment Among Low-car Households: Implications for Reducing Auto Dependence in the United States," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt4v44b5qn, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    14. Fei Li & Christopher Kajetan Wyczalkowski, 2023. "How buses alleviate unemployment and poverty: Lessons from a natural experiment in Clayton County, GA," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(13), pages 2632-2650, October.
    15. Boisjoly, Geneviève & Serra, Bernardo & Oliveira, Gabriel T. & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2020. "Accessibility measurements in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife, Brazil," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Lin, Dajun & Lutter, Randall & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2018. "Cognitive performance and labour market outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 121-135.
    17. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2023. "Scientific Background to the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2023-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    18. French, Eric Baird & O’Dea, Cormac & MacCuish, Jamie, 2021. "The Intergenerational Elasticity of Earnings: Exploring the Mechanisms," CEPR Discussion Papers 15975, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Jangik Jin & Kurt Paulsen, 2018. "Does accessibility matter? Understanding the effect of job accessibility on labour market outcomes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(1), pages 91-115, January.
    20. Jun Guan Neoh & Maxwell Chipulu & Alasdair Marshall, 2017. "What encourages people to carpool? An evaluation of factors with meta-analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 423-447, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:bdah6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.