GigU didn’t start in a boardroom. As its founding manifesto, Driving the Gig Economy’s Dignity Revolution, lays out, the company started as a fight for dignity — and the belief that the people doing the driving deserve to see the same numbers the platforms see.
So as GigU goes free for every U.S. gig driver through the end of 2026 and arrives on iPhone, it skipped the conference hall, pulled up some chairs and let drivers talk.
A Seat at the Table, After a Long Wait for Fair Pay
On Sept. 9, California’s Public Employment Relations Board certified the California Gig Workers Union to bargain on behalf of a statewide unit of rideshare drivers for Uber and Lyft. Massachusetts got there first: On May 22, the state certified the App Drivers Union to represent roughly 70,000 drivers.
Pay floors aren’t theoretical anymore, either. New York City has required a minimum per-trip payment for Uber and Lyft drivers since 2019. Washington state went further in 2022, pairing statewide minimum pay with a formal deactivation appeals process decided by arbitrators under a just-cause standard.
That last piece matters. Ask gig drivers what keeps them up at night, and deactivation comes up fast: An algorithm cuts you off, there’s no human to call, and getting back on the road can mean appeal letters or small claims court. Whether California and Massachusetts drivers win something like Washington’s process will be decided at the bargaining table.
And certification isn’t a contract. Nobody’s paycheck changed this week. The gap is wide: Research by Columbia Business School Prof. Len Sherman, drawing on a decade of trip data, found Uber’s share of each fare grew from about 20 percent to more than half.
So, what do drivers do while you wait? They get smarter about the trips they accept, or not.
Long Beach: A Garage, a Rideshare Professor and a Bunny Named Sesame Balls
The first stop, on Sept. 15, was an intimate gathering in the Long Beach garage of Torsten Kunert, better known as the Rideshare Professor. Torsten’s shop handles vehicle certifications and repairs for Uber and Lyft drivers. He has been teaching drivers on YouTube since 2016 and is a longtime ally to drivers fighting wrongful deactivations. He’s also one of GigU’s earliest U.S. champions — among the first creators to urge GigU to bring the app here to the U.S.. He even suggested the name for one of its core tools: The Cherry Picker.
- The surprise guest of honor in Long Beach: Sesame Balls, rechristened “GigU” for the afternoon. (Courtesy of GigU)
The unexpected guest of honor had long ears. A local driver arrived with a months-old bunny named Sesame Balls, who promptly melted every heart in the garage. His owner speaks Chinese, so the conversation ran through a translator app. Nobody minded. Sesame Balls — quickly nicknamed “GigU” — charms his owner’s passengers, too, a furry break from L.A.’s infamous traffic. This job has always been about people, in every language.
Santa Monica: 25 Drivers, Iced Tea and Plenty of Gig Driver Advice and Opinions
The next day, more than 25 drivers joined GigU for lunch at historic El Cholo in Santa Monica, home to some of the best Mexican food in Los Angeles. Veterans mixed with drivers just a few months in, and it was easy to see who was coaching whom. Thiago Vieira, GigU’s head of global growth, played host while Torsten livestreamed parts of the afternoon to drivers tuning in on his channel. With nothing stronger than iced tea and soda on the tables, the room still sounded like a cocktail party.
- Driver advocates Sergio Avedian (left) and Torsten Kurnet (right) at El Cholo in Santa Monica with local gig driver. (Courtesy of GigU)
Sergio Avedian, a senior contributor at The Rideshare Guy, was fittingly the most interesting man in the room — and the most photographed. A former Wall Street trader who drives in Los Angeles, Sergio has spent years pushing drivers to think like business owners and build real financial literacy. He warns against being an “ant”: a driver who goes wherever the app sends them, covers a lot of ground and gets squashed. His first tip in that column, back in 2020, was simple: “Don’t drive blind. Get a second phone.”
The 3 Percent Strategy: Buddha’s Case for Saying No
The conversation everyone kept talking about involved two drivers at opposite ends of the learning curve. One was a recent retiree, three months in, looking for flexible income. The other was Alfredo, a veteran better known to fellow drivers as Buddha.
Buddha’s advice: Get picky. Really picky. The reflex for a new driver is to accept everything, because sitting idle feels like losing money. Buddha argues the opposite. He runs Uber and Lyft at the same time on two phones, with GigU scoring the offers on both, and takes only the best. To him, a 3 percent acceptance rate isn’t a problem. It’s the strategy.
- Alfredo, better known as Buddha (left), made the case for saying no to most ride offers at El Cholo. (Courtesy of GigU)
Buddha’s numbers make the case. So far this month, he told the table, he has completed roughly 45 trips and declined more than 1,500, while averaging better than $50 an hour in take-home pay after expenses. By his count, about nine in 10 offers come back red (no), flagged with a GigU app alert he compares to an old-school fire alarm. The keepers come back green (yes) with a cheerful GigU chirp. The low-paying trips that lose money once gas and wear are counted? He happily leaves those for someone else.
A fair warning, in the spirit of honest math: Saying no has a price. Uber and Lyft reward programs often tie perks such as airport priority and bonus opportunities to high acceptance rates, as The Rideshare Guy has noted. Buddha’s bet is that those perks are worth less than bad trips cost him. If you’re a driver, run your own numbers before you copy him, and mount both phones before you roll so the app does the reading while you drive.
Drivers who choose trips this way say they earn up to 30 percent more, according to feedback GigU collects from its users.
What the Bargaining Table Can’t Do for Gig Drivers Yet
Unions can win better rates, benefits and due process. That’s worth celebrating. But no bargaining session will tell drivers, in the few seconds they have to decide, whether the trip on their screen will pay you or cost them money. That part is still up to them. What these two rooms proved is that gig drivers don’t have to figure it out alone anymore with GigU.
GigU is free for every U.S. gig driver through the end of 2026. Drivers may download the app from the website or Google Play, and it is currently in public beta on the App Store for iPhones. Read the manifesto, and follow Torsten and Sergio for more hard-won driver wisdom.
Chris Knight is a Grit Daily Leadership Network contributor and a seasoned communications expert with 30 years of experience in mass media, PR, and marketing. He is the co-founder of MOUSA.I., a new A.I. marketing agency in San Francisco, as well as the co-founder of Divino Group.
