Becoming a gig worker for Uber is hassle-free, as all interested individuals need to do is log on to the website, or on the app, and apply to be a driver by creating an account and going through the process.
A Central New Jersey resident said he began driving because he wanted to see if he would be good at customer service.
"I wanted to see if I was going to be good at customer service, if that makes sense,” Uber driver Julius Moldvan said. “If I could handle, you know, a car service or driving people around, you know. Because my normal 9-to-5 job is I work for UPS full time, so for me, Uber was just going to be like a part-time gig anyway, just to make extra money and pay off things I needed to pay off.”
Moldvan said he does not intend to do it full time. He recalled how he started to meet some more great people while doing a gig as an Uber driver.
"It’s just something I saw on the TV — an advertisement — and I said, ‘Well, one of two things: it can either work out or it can’t.' I’ve been there five years now," he said.
The first Uber user requested a ride using the app on July 5, 2010, in San Francisco. The next year, the service went global with rides being offered as far away as Paris.
In July 2012, Uber began offering ice cream delivery in seven U.S. cities, a precursor to its Uber Eats service, which first became available in 2015 in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there's no official definition of the "gig economy," but it describes a "gig" as "a single project or task for which a worker is hired, often through a digital marketplace, to work on demand." It also classifies gig workers as those doing contingent work or employed under "alternative employment arrangements."
A recent report by The Hamilton Project stated that as the post-Great Recession market continues to recover, on-demand gig work benefits workers and the economy by supporting job growth and personal income. The authors of the report pointed out that the gig economy offers flexibility, minimal training costs and low barriers to enter the workforce, allowing workers to supplement their incomes as needed or to create a new income for themselves. Likewise, the report stated that customers benefit from services offered by gig workers and the low costs that are associated with them.