CHICAGO -- On a Friday afternoon in the summer of 2019, Chicago resident and ride-share driver Teddi Burgess picked up a couple of passengers from Portillo's in River North.
As the ride got underway, one passenger in the front of Burgess' car started yelling. When Burgess asked the other in the rear seat if they could help calm the front passenger down, that person also began yelling at Burgess telling her to stop talking and "just drive."
Burgess told the pair she was going to end the trip, and the passenger in the back responded with threats of smashing out her car windows and beating her if she pulled over. She stopped the car nonetheless, grabbed her phone, jumped out of the car and called 911.
Twenty minutes later, the two had gotten out of her car and walked away, but Burgess waited for the police to arrive so she could report the incident to officers. No one showed up. She contacted Uber for some help and got an email with a generic apology asking Burgess to "rate the passenger."
"It was a horrible experience," Burgess said. "I got nothing. I never got any kind of follow-up. The police never checked on me. Uber never checked on me."
There was a surge of people choosing to drive for a living for ride-share and delivery companies just before the pandemic began, and drivers also began dealing with more crime on the roads. They have been left struggling to balance the pros of the job, such as flexible schedules, with the reality of the risks.
Burgess started driving full time, mostly for Uber but sometimes Lyft too, about five years ago after a business she owned in Rockford went under. When drivers in Rockford were no longer able to drive into Chicago for work, she picked up and moved to Lakeview in 2018.
When the pandemic started, she switched to part-time driving while also going back to school through a program Uber sponsors with Arizona State University, and she is almost done with her degree in digital photography.
Burgess is also an organizer with the Independent Drivers Guild of Illinois, which started up a little more than a year ago. The group hosted its first Wellness Fair last week at its first office space in Park Ridge, which the organization moved into in December.
The fair was put together to promote wellness and self-care practices for ride-share and delivery drivers amid the ongoing and new struggles of the job so drivers, like Burgess, can feel supported during and after tough times.
Burgess used to be a dance instructor and also teaches yoga, so she said for drivers spending the day sitting in the car, physical and mental well-being is a "big concern."
The fair last Thursday was for drivers and their families and featured chair yoga to combat fatigue while working, tips for mental wellness, lunch, healthy food and snack ideas for drivers when they're on the road and information on support groups the organization has started, including one for those who have had traumatic experiences on the job. Other support services were also showcased, including representatives from Legal Rideshare who were giving drivers information on how to get help with property damage or injury if they've been involved in an accident while working.
Burgess said the New York-based Independent Drivers Guild helped the Illinois chapter get going and continues to assist. Members from the New York group met with organizers of the local chapter to train them on offering support to drivers during everyday struggles or any traumatic situations.
Lenny Sanchez, director of the Illinois chapter of the Independent Drivers Guild, said the goal for the support groups is to "address all the things that take a toll on a driver's wellness, whether it's mental, physical or emotional." The groups offer drivers an outlet to share their thoughts and experiences as well as strategies to cope with and de-escalate certain situations.
Sanchez was a driver for five years from March 2015 until the pandemic began. Before COVID, Sanchez said there were more than 125,000 active Uber drivers in the city of Chicago alone, but that number has gone down drastically in the last couple of years.
He said drivers have a "big cloud that looms" over their heads with earnings plummeting and safety concerns rising, which has triggered drivers to organize. Sanchez said the guild has several campaigns, like the wellness programs, to help drivers as well as plans to introduce new ordinances later this year and next year.
One of the biggest problems drivers have had to deal with over the last couple of years. Sanchez said, is the increase in carjackings across the Chicago area. An informal survey by the guild talking to drivers out at O'Hare International Airport and ghost kitchens found about 300 drivers who were victims of a carjacking at gunpoint while on the job in 2021 after being "lured in" by a ride request. Sanchez estimates that happens three or four times a day now.
"It was just slapping us in the face that there's a need for drivers to know they're not alone in this, that there's a community of shared experiences and we are going to support them and get them the resources and advice they need," Sanchez said.
At least two Uber drivers have been killed while on the job in Chicago. A teenager was sentenced to 27 years in prison for killing her Uber driver, Grant Nelson, in 2017. Javier Ramos was fatally shot in 2021 when he was a victim of a carjacking by his Uber passenger.
James Santonelli, a Waukegan resident who has driven for Uber and Lyft for about seven years working in surrounding suburbs and in the city, is a member of the guild and said he stays driving despite the odds because overall, he likes what he does and "does it pretty well."
He previously worked in the restaurant management industry in various markets in Chicago and said he never had time for himself, but with ride-share, he has the ability to control his schedule.
"It gives me freedom," Santonelli said. "That's one of the benefits of doing ride-share. I can kind of dictate my own income by how much effort I put into the business."
He said organizations like the guild promoting wellness "can make a big difference."
"I don't know if you've ever spent 10 hours in a car sitting in the driver's seat, but when you get out of the car, parts of your body hurt," he said. "Things like this, teaching drivers a bit of chair yoga, some stretches that they can do in their car on a long day, just sitting at a stoplight for a few minutes, it can go a long way in keeping us relaxed and healthy."
Santonelli said he sees himself driving for quite some time still because he's had some success but doesn't overlook the downsides. He said Uber and Lyft "take advantage of drivers when it comes to pay and treatment" and with drivers also facing increases in gas prices and crime on the road, it's no surprise so many people have stopped driving for these huge companies.
"In the early years of ride-share driving, it was a lot more lucrative," he said. "Uber and Lyft actually provided us more of the fares, and it was a lot easier to make a decent living. Over the years, I've seen Uber and Lyft both find ways to actually lower the amount that we earn. ... On average Uber and Lyft take 40-60 percent of the fares from the drivers when all they do is operate an app and we incur all the costs. Our vehicles, our insurance, our gas, our safety with carjackings and other crimes being an issue."
Kim Ziyavo, another organizer with the Illinois guild, lives in Chicago and drives on occasion. She started driving around Chicago at the end of 2016 for Uber and sometimes Lyft and was pulling 40- to 50-hour work weeks for over three years, "before all of these carjackings, before I realized how risky it could be."
She said part of the guild's mission is to provide mental health services, and she hopes the guild is able to get some counselors involved, either in the office or on-call, in the near future to give drivers professional support.
"We're trying to see drivers as a whole person," she said. "They get so used to being just a number or statistic with the apps and treated as disposable, so we just want to bring people together and fight for better pay, better working conditions, safety on the job while also showing drivers how to take care of themselves mentally and physically."
Burgess said an organization like the guild helps not only current drivers but new drivers looking to get into the industry. The guild offers education, including ways to drive around the city and tips for conserving gas consumption. One of Burgess' biggest struggles prior to joining the guild, she said, was not having anyone to turn to for help.
"It's critical, to be a good driver in this city with all of the stuff that goes on around us, that we remain sharp, that we remain healthy," Burgess said. "We have to be really on point when we're doing this job. In order to do that, we need to take care of ourselves."