I feel like part of why they're shady is because some of the people that partake in them are shady. It's relatively easy to get accepted to them (especially services like this).
From my experience, people signing up for these type of work range from generally ok (most Uber drivers) to absolutely desperate for money (living out of car, signs up for petsitting while owner is vacay).
It seems the lower the bar of entry in terms of capital, the shadier it is. Ie Uber at least requires you to have a car, which involves some kind of credit check which is embodied in the car procurement before it even hit Uber. Dog walking? Not so much.
>From my experience, people signing up for these type of work range from generally ok (most Uber drivers) to absolutely desperate for money
Come on down to Miami, where it’s not unusual for the actual uber driver to be different than uber drivers profile.
You can’t really get more shady than exploiting undocumented immigrants who can’t get a DL, and having them illegally without a DL by driving under someone else’s uber account for a fraction.
That's no different than traditional taxi services. Getting a taxi license is time-consuming and expensive in most places (as sometimes you have to buy from an existing license-holder)
Taxi drivers will therefore try to maximise their investment, so they have people driving their car 24/7, on shifts.
That is significantly different than having People without drivers licenses driving (a criminal offense in most jurisdictions) the taxis and fraudulently misreprenting the drivers to the public (again typically a criminal offense).
There would be nothing wrong with having two uber drivers with two legitimate uber accounts splitting the car...not allowing an unlicensed person driver for uber under someone else’s account.
> From my experience, people signing up for these type of work range from generally ok (most Uber drivers)
I agree with your general point, but the vast majority of Uber drivers I've seen are worryingly dangerous drivers (even worse than most taxis). I would not be surprised if many are driving all day, and are exhausted while being in charge of another person's life.
It seems the lower the bar of entry in terms of capital, the shadier it is. Ie Uber at least requires you to have a car, which involves some kind of credit check which is embodied in the car procurement before it even hit Uber. Dog walking? Not so much.