Woman driving: One week driver in Uber
In mid-March, Uber announced it plans to create a million jobs for female drivers around the world by 2020. We decided to check whether it makes sense for women in Russia to seriously consider the profession of a driver in the service of calling private traders and whether they are waiting for them on the way all the problems of society in miniature - including sexism in the cabin and on the road.
Late on Friday night, a young couple leaves the Mandarin bar. In high spirits, they walk a few meters along the sidewalk and get into my car. I look at them in the rearview mirror. He has dark hair of medium length and a beard with a mustache. She has blond hair that falls on her shoulders. Dima and Nastya are my tenth passengers today, and they want to chat. Both work in the film industry, he is an operator, she is a producer. We are talking about New York, and we are going to the outskirts of Moscow.
"Taisiya, why do you drive a taxi?" - soon interested in Nastya. I was waiting for this question. I give my on-duty answers: “I am conducting a social experiment,” “I’m interested in startups and want to figure out how Uber works.” Sounds not convincing enough. “And I’m writing a report for Wonderzine,” I finally say, and I hear a flood of laughter and applause. “Though we don’t really see you, each of us is ready to marry you immediately,” says Nastya and adds: “Well, at least make Ryazan speaking, make up a legend. New York, studying in Sweden, working in startups - that gives it all you with your head. "
For myself, I think I also like the sense of control and confidence that driving gives. And I'm prone to adventures. I want to know firsthand whether it is dangerous for a woman to be a driver of Uber, if I often will encounter manifestations of sexism, and how much you can actually make money on it.
First, we deliver Nastya, and then - Dima. The guy and the girl left the bar and drove each to his home, although tomorrow is Saturday. Probably just friends. Taxi in the city is always a clash of stereotypes and prejudices of the driver and the client. While the yellow cars with drafts set the rhythm of the life of a big city, their drivers fix its pulse.
The first stereotype: danger. While I wait for authorization in Uber, I decide to do the traditional carrying. For an hour I meet only one client. A large man of about forty in a light suit and with a briefcase is in a hurry to get to the station. On the way, it turns out that I do not have enough change from the thousandth bill. “Come on, put money on my phone’s account? Write down the number and save it as„ 300 rubles “, - I offer, - I don’t want you to be late for the train”. "I will not deceive you," he says. The money arrived at seven in the morning the next day. I was so touched by honesty that I immediately wanted to return them to him.
I connected to Uber using an intermediary. This is the easiest and fastest way. In my case, he was the first driver he got - a touching boy who is studying to be a dentist. Although on the Internet you can easily find contacts of several companies that make money on it. For registration need a passport, the rights and documents for the car. All this in the form of photos is loaded into the system. In a month, I would need a certificate of no criminal record and a license for taxi services. No interviews with company representatives, driving tests and knowledge of the city is required.
The very next day I went to the line. I stopped responding to the voters by the road almost immediately. Why risk it? In 2008, at the height of the crisis and wage delays, I had to “bomb”. I remember how a drunken man insistently suggested that I climb up to his house in one of the high rises of a distant sleeping area. It was a bit scary. Then I had a pocket knife. However, he only added concern.
Now everything has changed. Uber customers at least have a smartphone, I know their names and phone numbers, and, most importantly, their bank card is tied to their profile. This reduces the likelihood that you will sit down a maniac or a robber. On the other hand, here's a summary of the latest news on Uber's request: in India, the driver raped a young girl passenger, a taxi driver in San Francisco broke the skull of his client with a hammer during a dispute about the route, and an elderly woman driver whipped her face branch with roses. There is something to think about.
My passengers, however, were either friendly or indifferent. Surprised a couple. Instead of kissing in the backseat, they cursed: "Why are you getting drunk again on Thursday?" or "Why are you always doing this to me like this?", "You could not call me as soon as you were released?" I turned up the volume of the radio, but it frantically hissed.
The second stereotype: sexism. I stand at the end of Tverskaya Street and wait for my very first client, trying to imagine what he will look like. For the report, I rented Hyundai Solaris, the lowest caste of cars in the world of Uber. The spectacular brunette opens the silver door, and I start to worry - my car doesn’t match her appearance. Eugenia need to Red Presnya. I know the route, but I still turn on the navigator. Most likely because of the fear of being wrong.
When Eugene was a model, she managed to visit ten castings per day at various points in an unfamiliar Milan. Without any navigators - "even the blondes coped." But today she was being driven by a driver who was winding circles with the navigator. “And it was Russian. Man,” she says.
Why don't I, as a woman, have the same requirements as a male driver? However, I never knew how to be angry at beautiful women, I cast glances at Eugene, at her attractive face and with tasteful clothes. At the time I decide to stop thinking about gender injustice.
The first two days my passengers were mostly girls. It seemed that the algorithm was trying to reduce drivers and passengers of the same sex. But no, it looks like it is just the randomness of small numbers. In total, 23 men and 18 women became my customers. I was more nervous before men. Most likely, she was afraid of the tacit condemnation of the "woman behind the wheel" series. What is curious, I was praised three times for excellent driving, all three times it was men.
Remembering the purpose of the experiment, the first time I asked: "Did the girls give you a lift before?" Sometimes I didn’t have to ask, people told me about it: “You are the first girl driver I’ve come across in a year” or “Well, when a woman will take you to a taxi!”. The girl, who was driving late at night from one bedroom area to another, was delighted and said that she wanted me to take her every day, that she felt much calmer with a woman at the wheel.
The third stereotype: national intolerance. Late evening. Illya crashed his car the day before and now tells me in too much detail about the incident, even though I had already turned off the counter near his house. In his hands, wounded by shrapnel, he held a smartphone with photos of the accident, in which five cars participated.
"In each car there were representatives of all the republics of the USSR: Georgians, Moldovans, or Chechens, or Azeris, who was the main culprit, as well as Armenians," says Ilya, and while I was thinking about why to deprive the citizens of Armenia of the suffix "-in - ", he excitedly continued: - They accused, of course, me, a simple Russian guy. And, imagine, they all turned out to be familiar with each other. The Georgian took the side of the Chechen."
All this is pronounced without excuses and a hint of awkwardness. I politely sympathize with his wounds and the loss of a car that cannot be recovered, and in between cases I consider his expressive crooked nose. I wonder if my hair would be darker, would he mention nationality? And if at the wheel of the "culprit" of the accident was a woman, then what words would he describe her? I try to understand my feelings and understand that I do not condemn Ilya. Loyalty to your customers? Recently in the USA, a university professor in the state of Georgia called his black driver “n-word”, hit him in the face and said that he needed to return to slavery as soon as possible. It angers me more.
There were more nationalistic notes in conversations than sexist ones. From "you do not think, I am not a nationalist, but these newcomers do what they want" until "I would rather overpay, but Russian will carry me." Donated to the Americans. Three friends discussed the May holidays. The couple travels to Seattle and offered their girlfriend to fly with them. The girl crossed her arms over her chest: "No. I will not go there. This is a country of dolboyascherov!"
Once a guy and a girl talked all over the trip with the emphasis of anecdotes about Odessa Jews, inserting "taki" and "sho" into each sentence. They discussed Aunt Monya from Odessa, Yasha from Israel, and what excellent meat they managed to find for dinner today for nothing. In my opinion, it was a show, although I find it difficult to understand its meaning. When we arrived, they spoke to me as usual, without intonation. The girl offered 200 rubles: "Take it, please. For having to listen to all this. Take it, take it, then you will tell everyone that the Jews have left a tip for you." Here I am telling. These were my first and only tips for the week.
Stereotype the fourth: a bad rating is a bad person. For a week of driving, I received only two fours, all the rest - fives. It would seem a good estimate, but I was very upset. What did I do wrong? Missed the turn, said too much, on the contrary, did not start a conversation? And who exactly put them?
Many passengers shared with me stories about boorish or frankly rude drivers. Every time I asked if they gave them a bad rating. No, they did not. The two girls explained it with fear that the driver would find them later, because he knew their home address, and one guy said that he often meets the same people at the wheel and would prefer to avoid embarrassment. I explained that low-rated drivers are disconnected from the system, so with low marks they can provide service to other passengers.
Customers also have a rating, but unlike drivers, they do not know him. Once I picked up a guy from the bar "Dolls and Pistols" on Novoslobodskaya, to the best of the hot spots with loud music and special offers for cheap cocktails. He had the lowest rating I've ever seen - 3.7. I was uncomfortable. I was preparing for rudeness and humiliation. But it turned out to be a very quiet and polite young man who did not tear himself away from the smartphone. I decided to ask directly.
"Do you know why you may have a low score? Maybe you somehow behaved badly?" “No, nothing like that. Never!” The guy was very upset: “Maybe I didn’t have a conversation with a driver about football? I don’t know, really. How sad it is, I won’t sleep at night now. I’ll have to earn a rating Please give me the top five. "
Stereotype the fifth: disrespect. Almost midnight in Altufevo. Three young girls and two guys are wedged into the car. The guys go to a nightclub, and the car carries the smell of alcohol. One of the girls sits on her boyfriend and paints her lips in bright scarlet color. The other two are listening to music on the phone. Levik, the guy in the front seat, is trying to start a conversation with me: "What, really things are bad, that I started working in a taxi?" I answer in monosyllables, I am tired of the noise and aggressiveness of the questions. Levik does not let up: "Is this what your dream job is?"
For the first time I thought about why I feel ashamed to drive a taxi. When they didn’t talk to me at all, or asked the same questions as Levik, I became gloomy. I was hurt when I was treated like a taxi driver. This is not a taxi, I thought to myself. The company did not give me this car, as for some reason, many people think. I do not work in a secret taxis unmarked. This is my personal space, in which I decided to let someone in, my personal time, which I decided to spend. You are my guest, as in Airbnb, only in the car. Yes, there are different owners of apartments and different guests: sometimes you spend time together, and sometimes you just silently leave the key, and you never see. But I can not imagine the dismissive attitude to the owner of the apartment and the question "What, really hard for you, just give up this apartment?".
But this is my feeling. Passengers treat Uber and other similar services as taxis. And I think most drivers treat this as a job.
For a week I had 41 trips and 70 passengers. In total, I drove almost 1000 kilometers, spent more than 30 hours behind the wheel, half of which drove customers. During this time I earned 14,433 rubles. On average, it is 465 rubles per hour without deducting the cost of gasoline and parking. If you have your own car, you can earn from 60 to 120 thousand rubles a month. Especially if, in anticipation of the next order, do not ride, but wait on the sidelines, saving gasoline.
Among the passengers I came across journalists, a photographer, two operators, the chief editor of the TV channel, the director of advertising for a large publishing house, a Google employee, startups and bartenders. I am sure that we have several mutual friends with half of them. In total, this week I had three new friends on Facebook from among my passengers. With two more, I made an appointment for a week on work issues. Twice completely by chance my acquaintances became passengers.
At the end of the week I woke up and decided: never again. I worked for a long time on myself to sleep until midnight, sleep for eight hours, practice meditation, yoga, eat healthy food. All this week I went to bed late, sometimes in the morning, I ate buns with kefir. I figured that the costs of the experiment had already been beaten off, I still didn’t have goals to make, and I decided not to go "on the line" today. I spent the whole day with friends. To move from one cafe to another, we decided to call Uber, that is, me.
