Food delivery offering a flexible way to pay the bills for Siouxlanders

SIOUX CITY – Gig economy has been growing in recent years with services such as Uber, Lyft, GrubHub and DoorDash becoming relied on by consumers, but why do people work for these services?

The gig economy is a market of platforms that rely on independent contractors who work temporarily or part-time.

Those who work for these types of services have many different reasons for driving. Whether they want a little extra cash or need another job to supplement their first one, gig services are a flexible way to work.

Jessye Barker started working gig jobs in 2017 when Uber came to Sioux City.

She was experiencing health issues and needed a job that was more flexible around those issues.

“I needed the flexibility gig work allows me to have,” she said.

She worked Uber and other part-time jobs, but around four years ago she needed more time to raise her family and deal with other issues. She started focusing exclusively on gig economy jobs such as Uber and UberEats.

In early 2020, she was still driving for Uber and giving rides to and from Seaboard Triumph Foods. When it was announced there were COVID infections at the facility, she said she was done.

“I’m just going to deliver food,” she said to herself at the time.

She worked for almost all of the available services in the area, sometimes working multiple at a time, known as multi-apping. At the peak of the pandemic, Barker was able to take home $350 a day on one app.

“I was doing between six and nine different platforms, but I was making some pretty good money,” she said.

The flexibility of the work gives Barker freedom. If she has an event with her kids or is sick, she can take time off and not worry about being fired.

“Working when I want to and not working when I don’t want to,” she said.

She said some of the challenges are relying on her vehicle, working around various weather conditions, and not knowing how much money she’s going to make.

If she has two hours when there are no deliveries to pick up, she won’t get paid.

She said she is happy as long as her bills are paid, but some people would not be able to exclusively do gig work with their bills or income desires.

“It just depends on what you want your standard of living to be,” she said.

A locally based firm

She learned about The Market Delivers a year and a half ago. It is a local delivery service for local restaurants.

The Market Delivers differs from some of the national delivery services. Stacy Kazos, the founder, interviews all drivers to make sure they have the same goals and standards, whereas anyone can work for the other apps and apply online.

Kazos’ husband is an emergency room doctor and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved into the emergency room for five months. She said they decided she would stay home during that time to avoid exposure.

“For an entire year I had delivery services,” she said. “I didn’t get in my car, I didn’t leave my house.”

She would order from the grocery store or a restaurant and think it was the business’ delivery service, but a random unaffiliated person would deliver it. She started looking into how these delivery services worked.

After doing research, she felt there was a better way for third-party delivery services to represent the businesses and started The Market Delivers.

Kazos wants The Market Delivers to be the restaurant’s “white-label” delivery service.

Because it is locally owned and operated, Kazos can build relationships with the restaurants and her drivers, creating a unique service.

Supporting each other

Kazos said the drivers -- or partners, as she calls them -- understand this is more of a professional job, and something to be proud of.

Unique to this service: drivers receive full support from the dispatch team  located in Sioux City. There is a level of accountability within the Market for the drivers.

“I’m looking at dispatch, if you’re not picking this up, I know where you’re at, I know where you should be and you’re going to hear from me because I’m going to hear from the restaurant,” Kazos said.

Drivers are in a thread together and can alert each other to accidents or other issues. If a driver breaks down, Kazos knows exactly where they are and can send a different driver to take the delivery.

The Market Delivers is the only gig work Barker does now.

“I’ve been able to put my other platforms off to the side, I haven’t even done another one in months, and I was [previously] doing them every day,” she said.

Barker likes that she knows who she is working for, and has a more personal connection with Kazos. She said she can also bring any concerns or questions forward.

“I really like working for Market,” she said.

She said people who order through Market Delivers tip better. She said she has a better rate per mile than she did using the other services.

Barker said her favorite part about working in food delivery is bringing smiles to people’s faces. She said she is there to deliver something that will make that individual happy.

She has also been able to expand her palate and has learned about restaurants in the area that she wouldn’t have otherwise. She said she has tried almost all of the restaurants The Market Delivers works with.