Andy Newman's Delivery Days

The Brian Lehrer Show | Jul 24, 2019

Andy Newman, New York Times metro reporter, chronicled his day as a deliveryman for delivery apps like Grubhub and Seamless. Here's a video of what that day looked like from his perspective.

From Andy's story:

Delivering in the city, I learned that some people apparently consider the person who risked life and limb to bring them their cheese rose oolong tea unworthy of even hello. A lot of my deliveries were to fancy new glass towers that looked like the buildings in video games. The twentysomethings inside would barely crack the apartment door enough to take the bag of food, or maybe just mouth “thanks” without interrupting their phone call.

Andy's reporting found that delivery middle-men apps like DoorDash are manipulating the tipping economy in a way that saves the company money, but costs workers' tips. Hear him break it down by "delivering" a burrito to Brian in the studio.

Andy learned how this everything-on-demand technology is transforming low-wage work and joined us to share his experience and answer your calls. 

 

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