Postcards From The Pandemic: Driving In The Gig Economy

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, 21-year-old Arthur Sarukhanyan was laid off from his construction job.

“At some point, the clients didn’t want anybody coming inside the homes, so I was kind of laid off early,” Sarukhanyan said.

His next move was to give Uber and Lyft a shot.

Arthur Sarukhanyan lives in Perry, Ohio. [Arthur Sarukhanyan]

While he is still new to the ‘gig economy’ world, Sarukhanyan said he balances working to make money with staying home to keep healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Need a Lift?

I decided, let’s try Uber and Lyft because I still need to make money. I was really, really busy in the beginning until everything started getting shut down.

There’s nobody doing anything. Downtown’s a ghost town. Nobody’s going anywhere. There’s nothing to do.

I’m only going out maybe once or twice a week and that’s about it, just because of my own safety.

After every person, I wipe down my car and when they come in, I ask them to use hand sanitizer so that their hands are clean.

Sarukhanyan asks his passengers to sit diagonally from him in the back seat of his SUV, keeping them an arm's-length away. [Arthur Sarukhanyan]

Sticking With Uber And Lyft

There’s lots of different things like Uber Eats or Instacart or stuff like that, but I don’t do that.

You can make a lot of money with it, but it’s a lot of extra work and a lot of extra interaction. I think that is not necessary for me. You have to go inside the restaurants. You have to go inside the stores and get stuff and see people and touch things.

With Uber you’re just in your own car touching your own steering wheel.

No Construction In Sight

I feel like it’s going to be a situation where construction is going to go back to where it was in 2008, where it’s nobody’s priority, and everybody’s priority is to bounce back financially, get their houses paid off, get their credit paid off … instead of building something or painting a couple bedrooms.

I feel like that’s what’s going to happen.

Before he turned to the gig economy, Sarukhanyan worked in construction. [Arthur Sarukhanyan]

Health Over Wealth

If it’s that bad that everything gets shut down then of course I’m staying home. No money can give me enough risk to hurt my personal family. I guess I’m ready to do whatever I have to do.