Guest column: Rideshare drivers need businesses' help
Rideshare drivers help restaurants and improve public safety by getting patrons home safely after a nice meal or a late night out.
For years, drivers have been asking to remain independent contractors and keep the freedom and flexibility that they prefer. But this freedom is under threat. There are currently efforts in the courts and at the State House to force rideshare and delivery drivers to become W-2 employees. Now, these drivers need help from the business community and our customers.
In the restaurant industry, we count on workers to wait on diners, cook meals, wash dishes, mix drinks and take care of customer needs. As with most employers, I set a schedule. Uncertainty is bad for business. Without those schedules, I wouldn’t know how many customers I could serve or when I could serve them.
For many workers, those schedules simply will not work. For some it’s because they need to care for their kids or elderly parents, or they attend class, or they work another job. In the past these folks had few or no options for alternatives that allowed them to set their own schedules. Now they have rideshare and delivery driving.
But special interests want to force independent drivers to become employees, ending their flexible schedules. Some of the legislative proposals go even beyond this, not only forcing drivers to be employees but also requiring them to report to dispatch zones in between rides and obtain permits from any city or town they wish to drive in – the exact kinds of requirements that made taxis nearly impossible to find outside of major cities.
Proposals like this would not only lead many current drivers to quit but could also effectively cap the number of drivers in the future and severely limit them in places outside of Boston.
There is still hope for drivers. Some of the bills at the State House would deliver the independence and benefits drivers need. The bills would guarantee their freedom to drive when, where and for however long they want, for as many companies as they want, while also adding new benefits that drivers have asked for: guaranteed minimum pay, flexible benefits, paid sick time, paid family medical leave and more.
Perhaps, more importantly, these bills begin a conversation around what drivers want, and could resolve this issue before the end of the year.
For drivers and the countless businesses who rely on them to get our patrons home or deliver their meals or groceries, this critical issue must be a priority. Uncertainty is bad for business, and it’s bad for drivers.
I hope that other business leaders in the Worcester region will join me in calling on the Legislature to find a solution that protects drivers’ flexibility. It’s time to listen to the thousands of app-based drivers and deliver for them, this year.
Johnny Piccolo is owner of Piccolo’s Restaurant and president of the Shrewsbury Street Merchants Association.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: John Piccolo column on rideshare and delivery drivers as W-2 workers
