In this week’s rideshare and delivery news, Walgreens, DoorDash and Uber team up for prescription delivery, a new start up wants you to clean WHAT, and Uber and Lyft are in hot water again. All that and more with senior RSG contributor Paula Lemar!
Walgreens, DoorDash and Uber Team Up to Launch Free, Same Day Rx Delivery of HIV Medications (Walgreens News)
Summary: Walgreens, in partnership with DoorDash and Uber, today announced free, Same Day Rx Delivery of medications for the prevention and treatment of HIV. This service is available to eligible patients within 15 miles of thousands of participating Walgreens retail pharmacies nationwide.
“While most of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens pharmacy, transportation remains a critical barrier to accessing healthcare,” said Kevin Ban, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Walgreens. “With more than half of Walgreens stores located in socially vulnerable or underserved communities, we can help make HIV prevention and treatment options more accessible, convenient and equitable across our communities.”
This initiative is the latest offering in an ongoing collaboration between Walgreens, DoorDash and Uber. In December 2022, following the companies’ response to the White House COVID-19 call to action, the companies launched free Paxlovid delivery services aimed at increasing access to COVID-19 treatment, with a focus on reaching those in socially vulnerable or medically underserved areas….
My Take: It would be nice if more prescriptions could be delivered for free, and with same-day delivery. But this is a great start!
It’s always good starting with the most vulnerable in our community and making sure they are being properly cared for and able to receive necessary treatments without the hassle of having to leave their homes, potentially coming into contact with immune-compromising germs.
Keep the ball rolling, Walgreens, DoorDash and Uber! There are other diseases that should hold the same considerations and need the same accommodations.
Startup pays you to wash other people’s dirty laundry (KTLA)
Summary: Laundry day isn’t necessarily at the top of many people’s to-do lists, but what if you were paid for it?
That’s the idea behind a startup called SudShare. It’s sort of like Uber for laundry.
Once you sign up, you agree to wash other people’s dirty laundry in your own home.
You pick up, wash, fold and deliver the clothes back within 24 hours or even the same day for extra cash….
My Take: I honestly don’t think I’d mind this. I am not a huge fan of doing laundry, but if the pay is worth it, why not? Though I wouldn’t want to be held responsible if it wasn’t washed to their standards, or folded correctly or whatever else someone would find to complain about.
And at $1 per pound of clothing, keeping 75% of that, it sounds like a good deal for both parties. It’s getting paid to do a relatively simple chore, and it sounds cheaper than taking your dirty clothes to the laundromat, plus as the customer, you’d have free time to do whatever you want or need while your clothes are being taken care of by another person.
Check out another “Uber for Laundry” company here: People Are Doing LAUNDRY For Others As A SIDE HUSTLE! – “The Uber for Laundry”
I doubt it’s in my small town that is a bit too far outside of the metro, but I’ll keep my ears open for anything similar in my area. I’d be willing to give it a shot. And there’s that possibility of having regulars. Laundry tends to be a weekly chore for most households (if not more frequent than that), so it could become a fairly steady source of income.
Uber and Lyft Are More Likely to Fire Drivers of Color, Report Says (Wired)
Summary: James Jordan had worked as an Uber driver in Los Angeles for five and a half years by the spring of 2022. But in late March, after a flurry of customer complaints, Jordan found that his account had been permanently deactivated, leaving the single father of five, for whom Uber was his only source of income, functionally jobless with no notice.
“I had done more than 27,000 rides,” he says. “Then in one week or 10 days, I got more complaints than I had within those five and a half years.”
Jordan, who estimates that he earned between $8,000-$10,000 per month as an Uber driver, appealed to the company multiple times, frantically emailing to try and get his account reinstated, but was told that his deactivation was final. One customer alleged that Jordan had tried to hit her with his car. In response, he offered to send the company footage from his dashcam to prove the incident hadn’t occurred. “But they weren’t interested in that,” he said….
My Take: I am left wondering if this is an Uber/Lyft problem, or if it’s a passenger problem. There are racists and those who will let biases get in the way of their experience and report drivers for literally nothing just because they don’t like the color of the skin of their driver, or don’t like the fact that their driver doesn’t speak perfect English.
I am a white female and I can’t even count how many times I had passengers get in my car and say something along the lines of, “Oh, thank goodness, you’re white and speak English.”
It’s those people who will look for and nitpick everything any non-white driver will say and do, leaving them to report incidents they may not have reported otherwise.
As a passenger, I have only ever reported a driver when they have driven dangerously, making me feel unsafe. But there are passengers that hold different standards for each driver they have. It’s horribly unfortunate that this is the case, but there’s only so much Uber and Lyft can do if passengers report drivers for being unsafe or rude, etc. There really is no “proof” to show that the driver did nothing wrong. And there’s no real way to prove that it’s a racist or biased thing on the part of the passenger. The platforms have to take reports seriously.
If you’ve been deactivated, check out How to Appeal an Unfair Deactivation From Uber or Lyft.
DoorDash launches its first co-branded credit card with Chase (TechCrunch)
Summary: DoorDash is launching its first-ever credit card with Chase, the company announced on Wednesday. The DoorDash Rewards Mastercard will provide cardholders the opportunity to earn cash back on delivery and every other purchase made with the card.
Cardmembers will get 4% cash back on DoorDash and Caviar orders from merchants on the DoorDash platform, 3% cash back on dining when purchased directly from a restaurant either online or in-store, 2% cash back on grocery stores either online or in-store and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Cardmembers will also have the option to use rewards to pay for part or all of a DoorDash or Caviar order, along with the option to redeem rewards for gift cards from a variety of brands and retailers.
New cardmembers will get a free year of DashPass, the platform’s $9.99 per month subscription service that offers free delivery and other perks. DoorDash Rewards Mastercard cardmembers can extend their complimentary DashPass membership every anniversary year when they spend $10,000. Cardmembers will also get a $100 cash bonus after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months from account opening….
My Take: I’m actually a bit surprised that DoorDash hasn’t done this previously. It’s not surprising that there are perks for DashPass users, and of course, there are rewards for cardmembers.
Would you do someone else’s laundry for money?
-Paula @ RSG
