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The Misclassification of Rideshare Drivers
Zayd, Anna, Jacie
Video Descriptions
● Rideshare protest footage
○ Courtesy of Madjed Kamel
Zegrar
● More pulled protest footage
○ Courtesy of NBC Bay Area
● Driver gets into his car
● Uber / Lyft pick-up zone signs
● Riders putting their bags in trunks
Sound Bites + VO
“We are here because the app companies are
going out of control. We want fair pay for
drivers. We do the job. “
ON FEBRUARY 14, UBER AND LYFT
DRIVERS ORGANIZED ONE OF THEIR
LARGEST PROTESTS EVER TO FIGHT
FOR BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS.
IN 44 CITIES THROUGHOUT THE
COUNTRY, THE DRIVERS PUSHED FOR
FAIR WAGES, BETTER WORK
PROTECTIONS, TRANSPARENCY ON
HOW PAY IS CALCULATED AND
EXPLANATIONS ON VARIOUS
ACCOUNT DEACTIVATIONS.
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● Uber / Lyft pick-up zone signs
● More riders putting their bags in trunks
● Phone shot of a rider navigating the Uber
app
● Graphic for Proposition 22
● Law books blur to reveal “Independent
Rideshare Work” and “Policy Benefiting
Rideshare Giants”
● Phone shot of a rider navigating the Lyft
app
SOT Stacey Leyton
TRT 13 sec
THE STRIKES DID NOT COME OUT
OF NOWHERE BUT RATHER AS A
RESULT OF BUILT-UP FRUSTRATION.
MANY DRIVERS EXPRESSED THEIR
LOSS OF TRUST FOR THE
RIDESHARE COMPANIES AFTER
UBER AND LYFT ALLEGEDLY
TRICKED THEM INTO VOTING FOR
A BALLOT THEY DIDN'T FULLY
UNDERSTAND. PROPOSITION 22
WENT INTO EFFECT IN NOVEMBER
2020. IT DEFINED RIDESHARE AS
INDEPENDENT RIDESHARE WORK
AND ADDITIONALLY ADOPTED
POLICIES BENEFITING THE
RIDESHARE GIANTS. DURING THE
WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION DAY,
THE RIDESHARE COMPANIES
BOMBARDED THEIR DRIVERS AND
CUSTOMERS WITH MESSAGES
THROUGHOUT THEIR APPS URGING
THEM TO APPROVE OF PROP.22.
“Uber and Doordash and Lyft, they really tell
the drivers that, if you want flexibility, you
have to become an independent contractor.
And so, some drivers hear that and feel like,
well, I do want my flexibility, I do want to set
my own hours. That's not actually true.”
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● Uber / Lyft pick-up zone signs
● A Car with an Uber sign on the
dashboard
● Graphic of a map with pins to
resemble where Uber and Lyft operate. WORLDWIDE. WITH THE BOOM OF THE
● Wide shot of Uber office entrance
● Close-up of someone reading legal
material blurs to display “Assembly
Bill 5.”
SOT Stacey Leyton
TRT 17 sec
B-roll of “independent contractor” from
the library
Graphic of the definition of independent
contractor
FOR OVER A DECADE, BOTH UBER
AND LYFT HAVE TURNED INTO
TODAY’S LEADING RIDE-HAILING
APPS, AVAILABLE IN 70 COUNTRIES
RIDESHARE INDUSTRY, BEFORE PROP
22, A PROVISION TO PROTECT
CALIFORNIA DRIVERS WENT INTO
EFFECT. THIS PROVISION IS KNOWN AS
AB 5
“When AB5 passed, the companies should
have complied. They should have reclassified
their workers as employees and paid them
the minimum wage. But they didn’t. They
said, we don't think we're bound by ab5. But
what they were really doing is they were
saying, we're just going to wait it out and
we're going to pass Prop 22.”
VO: INDEPENDENT DRIVERS BELIEVE
RIDESHARE APPS DECEIVED THEM TO
THINK THAT THE LABEL INDEPENDENT
CONTRACTOR MEANS MORE FREEDOM.
ACCORDING TO THE IRS AN INDIVIDUAL
IS AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR IF THE
PAYER HAS THE RIGHT TO CONTROL OR
DIRECT ONLY THE RESULT OF THE WORK
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● Uber pickup zone sign
Voice of Al
TRT 10 sec
● Cars driving by
● Uber and Lyft signs
● B-roll of people walking by blurs to
show a bullet point graphic of:
○ Wage only accounts when
driving
○ Unpaid wait times between
rides
○ No expense reimbursement
OPPOSED TO BEING ON CAMERA; THIS IS
WHAT UBER DRIVER AL THOUGHT ABOUT
PROPOSITION 22.
“ Drivers thought, oh my god, if I vote on this one,
they are good, they are giving me a lot of money.
So they’re promoting a scam.”
VO: PROPOSITION 22 HAS MINIMUM
STANDARDS, BUT THESE STANDARDS
ARE RELAXED COMPARED TO
CALIFORNIA LAW. MINIMUM WAGE,
UNPAID WAIT TIMES, AND NO
EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT ARE
AMONG SOME OF THE LOST BENEFITS
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SOT Stacey Leyton
TRT 6 sec
● Uber drivers driving
● Customers putting luggage in cars
● Uber building sign
● No photography sign
● Wide of Uber greenlight hub
○ Lower third “Uber
Greenlight Hub.”
● B-roll of the John Wayne Airport
● B-roll of customers waiting for an
Uber
“It also does not provide any unemployment
protections. you are not protected by the
worker's comp.”
VO: WITH A MAJORITY VOTE, PROP 22
WENT INTO EFFECT LEAVING SOME
DRIVERS WITH THE REALIZATION
THAT IT HURT MORE THAN HELPED.
THEY FELT LIKE THE RIDESHARE
GIANTS WERE USING SNEAKY
TACTICS TO AVOID CLASSIFYING
THEIR WORKERS AS FULL-TIME
EMPLOYEES. SEVERAL ATTEMPTS
WERE MADE TO ASK UBER AND LYFT
ABOUT THESE ALLEGATIONS, BUT THE
COMPANIES DID NOT RESPOND.
VO:OTHER DRIVERS LIKE TYLER
JOHNSTON ARE HAPPY ABOUT THE
QUALITIES THAT COME WITH BEING
AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR. HE
TAKES MATTERS INTO HIS OWN
HANDS, PICKING UP RIDES AT
HOTSPOTS, LIKE AIRPORTS.
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SOT Tyler Johnson “Yeah, there's a lot of freedom, a lot of

TRT 6 secs flexibility. So, you know, they're going to take
a high percentage. I get that. I just work a
little extra harder.”

● Anna introducing Alex Herrera VO: FURTHERMORE, SOME DRIVERS

LIKE ALEX HERRERA INTRODUCED US
TO THEIR STRATEGIES TO AVOID THE
ENORMOUS CUT TAKEN BY THE APPS.

SOT Alex Herrera “And then I started accumulating my own

TRT 17 secs clientele who liked me and said, Hey, I'd like
to call you. And I was like, okay, well, you
know, here's my number. And a few years
later, I'm my own boss, drive my own car,
have my own clients, have my own business,
and wouldn't trade it for anything.”
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● B-roll of Guillermo Santa Cruz
getting into a car
● B-roll of Guillermo driving the car
SOT Guillermo Santa Cruz
TRT 20 secs
● B-roll of a wide shot of the highway
with cars driving by.
● B-roll of Uber and Lyft drivers
driving through a pick-up location
VO: OTHER DRIVERS LEFT THE
RIDESHARE BUSINESS ALTOGETHER.
GUILLERMO, A FORMER UBER DRIVER
SPOKE TO US ABOUT HIS TIME AS A
DRIVER FOR THE COMPANY AND ABOUT
SOME OF THE REASONS FOR LEAVING.
“The problem with Uber, you know, they don't,
they don't, they don't have a cap of drivers.
They just add more and more and more and
more. So the first year we were maybe where
I park, you know, where ten drivers in the last
year it was 40, 40 drivers. That's the reason I
quit.”
VO: ONGOING LEGAL BATTLES IN THE
COURTS HAS LATON’S LAW FIRM
WORKING HARD TO OVERTURN
PROPOSITION 22 AND TO ADDRESS
THESE ISSUES THAT DRIVERS CONTINUE
TO FACE.
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SOT Stacey Leyton “And so we challenged Proposition 22 shortly

TRT 22 secs after it went into effect. But Proposition 22
has a provision in it. Essentially what it says
is if any part of Prop. 22 is struck down such
that workers will be treated as employees for
any purpose, then all of Proposition 22 will be
invalid. All or nothing.”

VO: AS RIDESHARE DRIVERS TRY TO

● B-roll of Uber and Lyft cars pulling ADAPT TO THE AFTERMATH OF PROP.22.
out of pick-up locations. THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE FOR
INDEPENDENT DRIVERS CONTINUES.

Voice of AL
TRT 16sec
● B-roll of Uber and Lyft cars picking “This is like wicked stuff, but I know
up customers. something; Uber is like an empire, and there
● Uber sign low-angle shot is no empire through history that stays on top.
● Uber sign, wide shot What goes up must come down.”