By Christopher Michael George | The GigMan’s Life
My Uber deactivation is exactly why I keep telling people who work in the gig economy: do not tie your ability to pay the bills to one platform.
I dispute the allegation behind my deactivation. I am not going to try the details of that accusation in this article. What I want to discuss is what happens to your livelihood when an app you depend on suddenly becomes an app you cannot work through.
Your bills do not get suspended along with your account. You still need groceries. You still need to keep the lights on. If you drive for a living, the car payment, insurance, and cost of keeping that vehicle running do not disappear because you are waiting for a review.
For many of us, the money we earn today is already spoken for. Losing access to work creates an immediate problem, even if we believe the complaint is false and expect to clear things up eventually.
That is why another way to earn needs to be ready before something happens.
You can have a favorite platform. You can prefer its customers, its interface, or the opportunities it gives you. But making one company your only source of gig income gives that company an enormous amount of control over whether you can keep working.
A complaint might involve a misunderstanding, a different interpretation of an interaction, or an allegation the worker disputes. Real misconduct also needs to be taken seriously. The problem for a worker is that access to income can disappear while the facts remain unresolved. You cannot build your entire business around the assumption that a platform will always get every decision right.
In my case, having Lyft available gave me another place to work after losing access to Uber. That did not resolve my dispute. It did allow me to keep earning while dealing with it.
There is a big difference between having another app on your phone and having another income option ready to use.
Signing up is only the beginning. Keep your documents current. Respond to background check requests and other account requirements. Check that you can actually go online. Learn how the platform works, how you get paid, and whether the work available in your area is worth doing after expenses.
Use your alternatives enough to understand them. Finding out that an account needs attention is much easier to deal with when your primary source of income is still available. Discovering it after a deactivation can leave you waiting on two companies while earning from neither.
My advice is to maintain as many practical options as you can reasonably manage. Rideshare, restaurant delivery, grocery shopping, and other work may give you different opportunities. That does not mean accepting conflicting jobs or promising several customers the same time. It means being able to choose where to work and switch when you need to.
We also need to pay attention to consolidation. DoorDash has announced an agreement to acquire Instacart. As of November 2, 2026, that is a proposed acquisition, not a completed takeover. Instacart says the companies will continue operating separately until closing, with no immediate changes to how shoppers accept or deliver orders.[1]
For me, that raises a larger business question: how independent are our backup options going to remain? Several app icons do not necessarily mean several independent companies. We should watch who owns these platforms and how their policies develop, without assuming that an announced deal already means shared accounts or identical deactivation decisions.
Over time, it is worth looking beyond the apps, too. The same principle applies to freelancers, contractors, and people hustling in other industries: depending entirely on one customer or one company leaves you exposed if that relationship ends.
I know that building alternatives takes time. When you are working day to day, hoping to make enough to cover the next bill, spare time and spare money are both hard to find. That is exactly why keeping an existing backup account ready matters. It is something you can work on before a crisis makes it urgent.
I will keep saying this because I am living the reason for it. Protect your ability to earn. Keep your information current, know your alternatives, and make sure you can actually use them.
One platform can be your first choice. Your survival should not depend on it being your only choice.
It’s a Gig Man’s Life indeed.
[1] Instacart, Instacart + DoorDash News: What It Means for Shoppers Today. See also DoorDash’s acquisition announcement.