Gig Work and Corporate Takeovers: What Happened to the Little Guy?

From flexible side gigs to corporate-driven limitations, here’s how my hustle with Roadie went from thriving to barely surviving when UPS bought the company.

Chasing the American Dream seems like a magical experience, but in reality, it’s hard work. The pressure is on today, whether you’re like me, a husband and father providing for a family or living on your own. I know I’m not alone in that feeling. 

Having to make ends meet has been a staple of American culture and there’s no shame in it, it’s just a part of life sometimes. I saw my parents work hard at their primary jobs as a kid, but I also saw they needed a side hustle to keep up with expenses. With how expensive the cost of living has gotten in our country; we see the demand for various sources of income to flow our way. 

My experience has been no different than that of my parents. For that reason, in January 2023, I took up delivering with Roadie, a crowdsourced same-day delivery platform. However, what I didn’t know was that in 2021 UPS acquired Roadie and the small company merged with the longtime parcel service. After my first year, what I liked about the company changed. Roadie would retain its identity and function, but their goals were now much bigger.  

I liked delivering with Roadie because I didn’t need to handle food but instead delivered merchandise from places like Home Depot and Walmart. I was also able to deliver bagged medications which I picked up at different pharmacies around town. It also gave me the opportunity to have more control over what, where and when I was delivering. Things were going well and according to my numbers, I was making much more than just ends meet. Roadie had become my part-time job. 

The changes UPS brought to Roadie drastically changed everything I appreciated about the company. I earned $6444.28 dollars within a year. From January 2023 to April 2023, I made $3285.45—that’s half my earnings for the year in just 4 months, according to my paystubs. With that number in mind, I projected making close to if not more than $12000 by the end of the year. 

After those initial months, however, the number of deliveries available to me with Roadie began to drop drastically, to the point where I was only making anywhere from $10 dollars to $100 dollars a week. I had to compensate by not only delivering with Roadie but also delivering with Door Dash and Wal-Mart’s Spark Driver apps too. 

The way UPS shaped the new look of Roadie was by focusing on big and bulky items and promoting this service on their website for more companies to do business with them.  Research has shown that 46% percent of people abandon items in their shopping carts online when they see they can’t get them delivered the same day. This is the angle they use for having bigger deliveries be the focus, according to Roadie. 

The deliveries available to me were less frequent because of their size. Now I needed a much larger vehicle to just keep up with what I was doing. I decided this no longer looked like a place where I can make ends meet, but more of a contracted business I would have to invest in to continue working. The investment to me and my situation was illogical. 

Roadie has been advertising for larger deliveries on their blog since early 2023. I look at this as the big company taking jobs away from the little guy. I’m married with children, but I also know what’s it’s like to be young and lean on a source of income that is quick, easy and available when you need it. 

Don’t get me wrong, the company works great for those that desire to deliver merchandise on a larger scale, but for the little guy, this doesn’t work. Giving drivers incentives such as discounts on gas, phone services, car rentals, and vehicle maintenance all seem like great benefits, but for the sake of removing opportunities to make ends meet from people, it leaves a sour taste. 

When a person decides to start a business, the objective is to provide a service, make money and make the company grow by creating jobs. But somewhere along the way, money becomes the only objective and a rebranding has to happen. This always comes at the expense of the little guy.