The Case for Regulating App-Based Work

This work should be simple. Pick up food, deliver it, and earn a fair wage.

Instead, as an app-based food delivery driver, I rushed to meet shifting expectations, drove through questionable areas, and accepted deliveries that barely covered the gas, all in hopes of staying in the good graces of a machine. I was micro-managed by an algorithm with little transparency, all under the guise of flexibility.

Now, as a tech policy researcher, I decided to explore the impact of artificial intelligence on the gig economy in the United States. I wanted to confirm what the research already suggested: algorithms, not drivers or consumers, set the terms of courier work. In November 2024, I signed up to deliver food to see firsthand what decisions were being made, how they felt in practice, and how they shaped my behavior. For several months, I picked up periodic shifts, usually 4-6 hours on Saturdays and a couple of hours in the evenings during the week.

The lessons came fast. No single moment felt dramatic, but together they created a working environment dominated by invisible rules, one in which access to income was filtered through a black-box algorithm.