Until recently, to drive across town, grocery shop or clean the house, there were only two options: Do it yourself, or search the Web or a phone book for a service worker to do it for you. The on-demand economy (aka the sharing or gig economy) is changing that. Now, with just the click of a button on a smartphone app, customers can have a cab, personal shopper or home cleaner at their doorstep. On-demand companies make it easy to get goods and services quickly using an app-based system that connects the customer with another person in their geographic area who can provide what they are looking for.
Consumers like the efficiency of this arrangement, and many on the other side of the transaction do, too. The app-fueled and largely low-skilled nature of on-demand work means that almost anyone can do it, and they get the flexibility to work only when they want to. Some work for multiple on-demand companies at the same time to make a living, while others only switch on their apps when they need some extra cash. Kristin Sverchek, general counsel of San Francisco-based Lyft, an on-demand company that provides car rides, says that drivers who supply rides on the Lyft “platform” have a lot more freedom than they’d have in other jobs. “If drivers were employees, you’d expect them to work a set schedule, clock in and clock out, and wear certain clothes,” she says. “There would be repercussions if they didn’t comply, but none of those rules are present with us. Incidentally, this is exactly why a lot of drivers like driving on the Lyft platform.”
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