Fired because of Coronavirus

[marty]

Been working as a Uber driver until yesterday.

Copy of email.

A message from Uber

·

Hi Martin,

We are investigating a report from a recent trip. Your account has been placed on hold while we look into this report.

Please note that this investigation can only be completed by a member of our Incident Response Team. It cannot be resolved using other support channels, including the Greenlight Hub and Critical Safety Response Line.

Thank you for your patience while we look into this matter. You should expect to hear from a member of our team soon.

Sent by Bradley on Friday, March 13, 2020 at 10:41:30 PM

Wondering how long is "soon" Will give them 24 hours then ask when soon might be.

This Uber job has been kind of fun. Meet lots of different people. Learn about and see all kinds of stuff.

Here is how a day in the life of a Uber driver can be.

March 13, 2020. Business as usual in Buffalo NY. No Coronavirus in Western NY yet.
$5.00 tip from a few days before. Thank you!
7:46 AM EATS Delivery $16.90 with $4.81 tip. Starbucks to E I Dupont De Nemours & Co [Tire Factory]
8:18 AM UberX, $7.30 Niagara Falls, NY Took guy to work at Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino
8:40 AM UberX, $3.72 Niagara Falls, NY to Niagara Falls, NY. Think it was a girl? One house to another.
9:15 AM Buy 6 bottles of water from Niagara Falls, Dollar Tree. -$1.38 Got a plastic bag. NY just banned plastic bags. Told cashier that I would save and cherish the bag.
9:30 AM UberX, $11.65 Could not find address. Received text "In the back" text again "In the back" then "you going the wrong way" [Customer can watch my car like a ant on their phone.] Call rider ask if she is in the brick buildings? She reply - yes. Tell her that I will try to figure out how to drive around to the back. After driving to other side of brick building complex, rider tells me that she is not in brick buildings but across the street. I tell her to go outside and look at what her building looks like. She starts to yell at me. I hang up. Cancel. Reason - Can't find rider. Sorry No ride for you.
9:53 AM, UberX, $5.06 Niagara Falls, NY, Guy and girl. Suspected drug deal. Back to same spot in Niagara Falls, NY. Friendly people. Fun ride Wondering what type of drug? Overheard on the phone, point five. Think that would be pills? They saw green grapes I was eating before the pick up. We discussed fruit. Told them about some oranges my wife bought. Orange on outside. Blue on inside. Taste good.
10:18 Buy gas. -$18.06 Pee at supermarket. Eat 1/2 ham sandwich. My wonderful wife makes me a lunch. There was also earlier pee at McDonald's.
10:53 AM EATS Delivery $5.44 Bob Evans to Niagara Falls, NY
11:16 AM UberX, $3.66 Took friendly girl from Niagara Falls, NY. Property Management place to Niagara County Social Services. We discussed the virus. Told her to live be happy and I would cry if she died.
11:24 AM UberX, $3.73 Niagara Falls, NY to Niagara Falls, NY. Think it was a girl? One house to another.
11:42 AM UberX, $13.21 Took girl from Youngstown, NY to dentist in Niagara Falls, NY. Fun ride in the country. She told me that she was getting her teeth cleaned.
12:21 PM UberX, $14.39 Drunk guy and girl from Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino to their truck at Tonawanda, NY. They smelled like vomit. She said she lost $20 He lost a few hundred, not sure exactly? I told them that I won't gamble because I don't want to loose a penny. Wife loves to go to Casinos. Girl laid on guys lap for most of trip. Suspect alcohol was why.
12:44 PM UberX, $10.06 Suspected prostitute. Hotel in Kenmore, NY to Buffalo NY. I like prostitutes. Nice friendly pretty girls.
Go home for awhile.
3:21 PM Stock up on water for Uber customers. I like 6 packs of water from Dollar Tree near my house. Keep 6 or so bottles and little packages of peanuts on the rear seat for riders. 16 six packs -$22.20 I drink faucet water from a bigger bottle.
3:40 PM UberX, $0.00 Mona Dr & Lebrun Rd, Buffalo, New York. Can see blue dot which is rider's GPS location which is Veterans Hospital. Rider got in car. I ask are you a employee of patient. He said - What's it to you? I explained my concern of not wanting sick people in my car due to recent virus issues. He asked me to get out of the car and fight with him. I told him to "Get Out" Think I told him to get out twice if I remember correctly. After getting out of my car, he removed the cap from his water bottle and sprayed the inside of my car with water. Small amount of water got on me. I put the car in reverse and drove to the other side of the parking garage so he would not see me. Cancel trip. Reason - Rider Behavior. Drove home and cleaned up the water with a towel. Not a lot of water. Maybe about 1/2 a small plastic bottle.
4:10 PM EATS Delivery $9.36 with $2.00 tip. Denny's to UB South Campus.
4:37 PM UberX, $7.15 with $2.75 tip. Walmart, Amherst, NY to Buffalo, NY 14228美国 UB North Campus. Chinese guy told me about UB and all classes online. He said China was too far to go home. Noticed mandarin oranges in his bags. Told him I like that type of oranges. Told him to eat oranges and stay healthy.
4:59 PM UberX, $11.39 UB North Campus to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Law student flying to NY City. He told me that he was sad about UB shutting down. We talked a lot about my wife and I's medical issues. He told me that he liked Uber drivers who talk. Pee in airport.
5:31 PM UberX, $13.03 Took a girl to work at Dollar General. We talked about toilet paper and lots of stuff. She told me that COVID-19 was made by the Chinese government and the US government did the whole 911 project. I told her that I did not agree but I would still give her 5 stars. Did share my knowledge of steel trusses and poured concrete.
5:55 PM UberX, $6.69 with $3.00 tip. Buffalo, NY to Buffalo, NY. Took girl to finger / toe nail shop.
6:12 PM UberX, $4.99 Buffalo, NY to Buffalo, NY Group of 4. They all seemed happy.

So there ya have it. Spend all day looking for a place to pee. Outside is my favorite place.

So why am I fired? My guess is that 3:40 PM guy at Veterans Hospital with the false pick up address made a complaint about me. I would guess that he is a janitor. Who knows, he could be a doctor? This is the first time I have canceled a trip due to rider behavior.

Could also be the 9:30 AM girl. After 2890 trips over 1.5 years there have been about 5 or 10 where I could not find rider, no where to park or other reasons that I canceled after arriving at or near pick up location. Never hung up on a passenger before. My rating is 4.91%

In the email from Uber it says "recent trip" so that be 3:40 PM guy because I hit the start button that starts the trip.

Now I got time to work on other stuff. Next project. Broke fuel gauge on 1996 Volvo 960 Station Wagon.

 

[HK12K]

There's always Lyft in the meantime.

 

[marty]

Was doing Uber and Lyft with my old car. After I bought a new car, I did not register it for a few months. During that time Lyft changed their rules. No more little cars. 2019 Honda Fit is too small to drive for Lyft.

 

[JackFlorey]

Fired because of Coronavirus

?? Sounds like your account was suspended because of a fight with a customer. Quite different from "fired because of coronavirus."

 

[nicobie]

I'm surprised how few tips you got. Are people always this cheap?

 

[marty]

I'm back Any one want a ride?
Uber Guy called me for my side of the story.

A message from Uber

·

Hi Martin,

Thank you for your patience while we investigated this report. After careful review of this information available, your account has been reactivated. You may continue to use Uber apps.

The actions you take while using the Uber apps can have a big impact on the safety and comfort of others. Our Community Guidelines state any behavior involving violence, sexual misconduct, harassment, discrimination, or illegal activity while using the Uber apps can result in the immediate loss of access to the Uber apps. If other users submit additional reports describing misconduct, you may lose access to Uber permanently.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sent by Xxxx X on Saturday, March 14, 2020 at 9:48:04 PM

I'm surprised how few tips you got. Are people always this cheap?

Most people don't tip. Some give cash. Don't remember any cash last Friday. Niagara Falls might not be the best place for tips? I used to own a rental house there. Put garbage out in a plastic bag. Someone stole the bag.

Would probably get more tips at night when people are going out to spend money. Think Friday and Saturday. Then I would get 4, 600 pound people going to the all you can eat buffet.

 

[markz]

What about Skip the Dishes for delivery, maybe not Uber Eats. I seen tag teams doing skip. Heck I even seen a Skip at the movie theater yesterday, I went to go see Ferrari. Skip picked up popcorn and cotton candy. It was an independent cheap theater, not a major.

 

[Dauntless]

Well, I was notified over the weekend there's be only Monday and Tuesday and then SPLAT! Arrive to a near empty parking lot and never made it inside. Guess I have too much time on my hands now.

The 9 mile parking lot I drive past coming was more than just free flowing, my side hadn't lost near what the other had. Just how many people are not working at all?

This when we haven't seen so many as 1 in 5 million die yet. What happens when we DO reach 1 in 5 million? I seriously think the prevention will prove more deadly than the disease.

 

[Balmorhea]

The point of gathering places shutting down is to slow the rate of new cases that require medical intervention, so as not to numerically overwhelm a system that is set up for typical patient loads rather than public health crises. (Thanks, profit-centered medicine!) Being preemptive about it looks like an overreaction, sure. But if we don’t put the brakes on this virus’s spread, lots of people will die simply because there isn’t hospital capacity for them.

 

[Dauntless]

All assuming that even works.

 

[JackFlorey]

The point of gathering places shutting down is to slow the rate of new cases that require medical intervention, so as not to numerically overwhelm a system that is set up for typical patient loads rather than public health crises. (Thanks, profit-centered medicine!) Being preemptive about it looks like an overreaction, sure. But if we don’t put the brakes on this virus’s spread, lots of people will die simply because there isn’t hospital capacity for them.

Yep. The best possible outcome is that "only" 20,000 people or so die and all the critics say "See? It was all a big media scare about nothing!"

 

[Dauntless]

Yep. The best possible outcome is that "only" 20,000 people or so die and all the critics say "See? It was all a big media scare about nothing!"

Oh, there's better possible outcomes than that. Doesn't involve all the fun you have with being a gadfly and finger pointing, but it's better for the rest of us. And we deserve our better a whole lot more than you deserve your little fun.

 

[serious_sam]

All assuming that even works.

Aggressive action has already been shown to work. Look at the hard data. Look at the slow rate of growth in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Particularly HK, TW, and Singapore, learned their lessons the hard way during SARS, and are reacting quickly based on that previous experience.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-poli...s-us-countries-italy-iran-singapore-hong-kong
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...e-for-its-covid-19-strategy-the-u-s-does-not
https://time.com/5802293/coronavirus-covid19-singapore-hong-kong-taiwan/

 

[john61ct]

Yes both the total caseload growth curves, **and** the mortality rates will end up varying enormously from one country to the next, even if over half the population end up having been infected.

The advance readiness, plans personnel and facilities in place, speed of the very-early-days reaction / response, implementation of SD measures, fast ramp-up of widespread testing, ability to track transmission clusters

all these will turn out to be just as important as the normal quantity & quality of the general overall public health infrastructure.

The US lack of preparedness is not (should not be) a partisan political issue, the fundamental flaw - allowing the profit motive into health care, increasing privatization and reduction of government involvement - have been going on since Reagan

and it is a society-level problem that needs an effectively functioning democracy to fix it.

In other words, we're screwed, our oligarchy's slide into third-world conditions for the non-wealthy and overall inequality will likely continue to accelerate.

And I bet the Italian experience will end up much better than ours, and no western nation will do as well as Singapore, S. Korea, Japan, Taiwan and likely even China.

 

[nicobie]

The US lack of preparedness is not (should not be) a partisan political issue, the fundamental flaw - allowing the profit motive into health care, increasing privatization and reduction of government involvement - have been going on since Reagan

and it is a society-level problem that needs an effectively functioning democracy to fix it.

In other words, we're screwed, our oligarchy's slide into third-world conditions for the non-wealthy and overall inequality will likely continue to accelerate.

Even though you are 100% correct, that's no reason to let Trump and his hand picked administration off the hook. We, the general population, need to raise holy hell about the f-ups and delays so MAYBE things might improve for the next generation.

 

[john61ct]

Singapore doing it right

https://theconversation.com/why-singapores-coronavirus-response-worked-and-what-we-can-all-learn-134024

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-asia-51866102

 

[john61ct]

Taiwan
https://www.wired.com/story/taiwan-is-beating-the-coronavirus-can-the-us-do-the-same

 

[Dauntless]

Yeah, Marty, here it is. The job that Corona VIrus is creating. https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/tech/instacart-hiring/index.html

There's also a video about Uber drivers at this time.

 

[e-beach]

Self isolation works with all communicable disease. Think of how many would be saved if we did this with the seasonal flu. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

 

[Dauntless]

There wouldn't be any life. But you could go ahead and self isolate the smokers and their second hand smoke. And the alcoholics with their fighting, troublemaking, drunk driving. Same with the junkies. . . .

Oh, the lives saved.

 

[Frogslayer]

Self isolate from the flu? All this fear mongering is working. If we fall into a depression, you city folks will be frocked and more will die from malnutrition than any virus. How can you blame Trump for this? I've come to realize this forum it's so radically left i could puke. I think it's because e bikes are most popular in cities and that is also where leftism beyond reason or value lies as well. Let me tell you guys what with the electoral college rural votes literally matter more than your city votes thank God. We're not about to let you guys with a potted plant and maybe a membership at a "community garden" tell us how to run the rest of the country where real things are grown, real objects are mined out of the earth, real fish caught in the water. You guys stay inside. It will make the outside better for the rest of us.

 

[Harold in CR]

Frogslayer hit the nail on the head. People that live in apartment houses, high rises, etc. are the easiest ones to become contaminated. They live in polluted air, no open windows in a lot of these places, elevators are a necessity and everyone pushes the buttons 24/7. Mobs of people on the sidewalks and streets, etc.

Our neighbors just downwind from us rave about the freshness of the air coming off our small tree farm, since it has grown so much in the past few years. Y'all can have that city life.

 

[e-beach]

Abstract

All-cause mortality rates in rural areas have exceeded those in urban areas of the US since the 1980s, and the gap continues to widen. Yet no definitive causes of this difference are known, and within-state differences that might be amenable to state-level policy have not been explored. An analysis of 2016 state-level data indicated that rural mortality exceeded urban mortality in all but three states, with substantial variability in both rates across states. Overall, higher rural mortality at the state level can be mainly explained by three factors: socioeconomic deprivation, physician shortages, and lack of health insurance. To a certain degree, these factors reflect a state’s health policies, such as expansion of eligibility for Medicaid, health infrastructure, and socioeconomic conditions. Our findings suggest that state and federal policy efforts to address rural-urban disparities in these areas could alleviate the higher rates of all-cause mortality faced by rural US residents.

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00722?journalCode=hlthaff

 

[markz]

I believe most people blame China for the virus itself. Rats next to bats alive and dead, no health code at all there + authoritarian gov't trying to hide stats.

Everything else from reaction to invasion of China flu can blame whomever is in power, trump, trudeau, merkel, france, spain, turkey

How can you blame Trump for this?

 

[Dauntless]

"Rural mortality?" You mean when retired people move from the city to the country they make the country dangerous and the city becomes a safer place? Who would be foolish enough-----? Ah, yes, perhaps I should ask you to EXPLAIN the study to us. In your own words. Oh, I'll read it AFTER and correct your mistakes. Perhaps I should use additional s'es in the word "Mistakes."

This sure has been a boom time for people to indulge their lack of good sense, hasn't it?''

Meanwhile, there is great concern that there would be can increase in suicides, an increase in deaths by miscellaneous misadventures, an increase in the "Deaths by Despair" that they call the accidental opioid overdoses of another epidemic we currently have that outnumbers Corona virus.

Of course none of that means anything to anyone in government who is addicted to the feelings of POWER this is giving them.