In light of everything happening in the world; current travel bans in place and the excessive amount of time I was spending in my bed, I decided it was time to upgrade and to put my tropical holiday cocktail funds that I wont be using anytime soon towards buying a new bed.
My mattress arrived today and in the past I have disposed of my old one though a mattress recycling centre to ensure it does not end up as landfill. However the mattress recycling centre could not pick up my old mattress for two weeks and our building manager would not be happy if I left my old mattress laying around outside for that long and it certainty could not stay in here for that long so I got a few quotes from rubbish removers. I did not like the idea of the mattress ending up in landfill so then I decided to try my luck and put an add on airtask for someone to take it to the recycling centre for me.
Within minutes I had a couple of offers from airtaskers (one mistaken that I wanted them to pick up a mattress for me and take it to my house) and one from someone willing to pick it up and take it to the mattress recycling centre for significantly less than the rubbish removal quote I had received.
All went well they arrived within a couple of hours after I accepted them (they had a 5 star rating and a 100% completion rate) and we made sure we took the mattress outside for contact less delivery and all that. I came back inside and took an afternoon nap, as you do on my new amazing bed and then I woke up and it hit me.
What if the airtasker dumps my mattress in the bush on the way home and pockets the all the money for themselves instead of taking the mattress to the recycling centre!
I started to worry that in my efforts to avoid my mattress ending up in landfill it would in fact end up as illegally dumped rubbish in our beautiful bush land.
I begun to realize why so many people have issues with companies like Airtasker. There is trust placed into strangers to do the right thing and no one to hold them accountable.
Did I ever tell you about the time the uber eats driver stole our lunch? Yup he legit picked it up, said he was on the way then poof he disappeared! Logged off the app and vanished, along with our lunch.
With growing unemployment around the world and a growing need for instant service and cheaper alternatives to the norm, the gig economy is a booming business and it is important that these companies have some accountability. I can imagine it is hard to regulate a bunch of strangers who are connecting on the internet via a third party who is profiting on connecting strangers with little to no accountability.
I think that these companies will only continue to grow and replace traditional services, and in doing so we just have to hope that these people are doing the right thing and that those found to be stealing lunches or possibly dumping mattresses are swiftly removed from the platform to make it a safer community for everyone.
Have you ever had your lunch stolen by an uber eats driver? or trusted a stranger to come in to your home? Let me know in the comments below your experience with the gig economy.
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