Drive: Scraping By in Uber's America, One Ride at a Time

by Jonathan Rigsby

Overview

One father, 3 years, and thousands of rides

Poverty, By America meets Maid in this dad’s darkly humorous yet humanizing story of working long hours and late nights behind the wheel as a rideshare driver

Jonathan Rigsby spends his days as a crime intelligence analyst and his nights as an Uber driver. Reeling from his divorce and struggling to pay rent while caring for his autistic son, Rigsby became a rideshare driver, joining the millions of people with a side hustle just to make ends meet.

With a compelling blend of honesty and sardonic wit, Rigsby invites readers into his car to reveal the harsh reality of gig work for so many: grueling hours, living paycheck to paycheck, and hoping to avoid disaster long enough to prepare for the next bill. Along the way, he showcases the humor and humanity in the private moments of vulnerability that happen when people are left alone with a stranger—from the amusing tales of drunk college students to a passenger getting sick on the dashboard, a mother expressing distress about her son’s addiction, and a violent encounter on the job.

Unflinching and raw, Drive exposes an ugly truth that hides in the gaudy background of the American dream: you can do everything right and still fail. Buckle up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807007938
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	05/14/2024
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	237,014
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Rigsby is a crime intelligence analyst for the state of Florida during the day and a rideshare driver by night. He lives in Tallahassee with his son. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Editorial Reviews

Provocative, eye-opening—and sometimes frankly terrifying—reading.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] grimly frank account of his experiences as a rideshare driver, an indictment of the country’s rapidly expanding gig economy, and a frightening portrait of the ease with which one can slip from middle-class comfort to life on the edge of poverty.”
—Shelf Awareness

“A veritable horror movie of late capitalism, where our hero faces underpay, violent passengers, false promises, technological manipulations, and drunk frat brothers rather than masked slayers. This gripping read forces readers to finally see gig workers all around them, as well as to recognize how the middle class has become the Middle Precariat. We can all learn from Jonathan Rigsby’s long day’s drive into the night.”
—Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped and Squeezed

“Poverty is a relentless attack on a person’s energy and dignity. Jonathan Rigsby’s memoir gives readers a front seat on that punishing journey. He shows how the gig economy depends on trapping workers on a hamster wheel where they can neither stop nor gain ground. Drive is an engaging personal story, as well as a social chronicle that compels us to work for change.”
—Colleen Shaddox, coauthor of Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending US Poverty

“Rigsby’s excellent book Drive shows us how many people are just scraping by in this digital age while exposing an ugly truth about gig economy companies like Uber: they can only be successful by ensuring their workers are not. After you read this painfully honest and poignant tale, you’ll think twice before using a ridesharing app again.”
—Stephen Dublanica, author of Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip—Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

“Jonathan Rigsby’s story in Drive is a heartfelt and eye-opening account of the rideshare experience, as well as a fascinating and poignant personal journey that we all can learn something from. Highly recommended.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation

From the Publisher

2024-01-18
A crime intelligence analyst recounts his experiences working as a night-shift ride-share driver.

Only after financial necessity forced Rigsby to become a ride-share driver did he understand just how difficult—and at times punishing—it could be to work a low-level service industry job he never expected to have. With degrees from Vanderbilt and the University of Chicago, the author had expected that “meaningful work would automatically follow.” What awaited him instead was an interesting but low-paying civil servant job, fatherhood, and divorce after just a few years of marriage. Unable to qualify for welfare benefits in his home state of Florida, the author began working for Uber. At first, every rider “ping” on the Uber driver app seemed to whisper “the promise of a better life,” but long hours spent masking his personal pain behind the wheel drove him to drink excessively and gave rise to a host of health issues including hypertension and anxiety. Rude passengers routinely left him ruminating for days about ways he could have “handled the situation better.” On one particularly harrowing occasion, a rider brutally assaulted him for not complying with his wishes. Because an evening’s wages could fluctuate, the author sometimes supplemented his meager income by selling blood plasma, an experience he describes as “dehumanizing, meant to streamline human beings into an industrial product.” Rigsby is unsparing in his analysis of the technology behind the ride-share system. Their deliberate “gamification” ensnares drivers already conned into believing they are their own bosses by transforming the passenger pickup into a “nefarious” game that keeps them coming back for more. This candid, disturbing book reveals how technology, greed, and the gig economy have contributed to both a capitalist dystopia and the continued “withering of the American Dream.”

Provocative, eye-opening—and sometimes frankly terrifying—reading.

Kirkus Reviews