SALT LAKE CITY — Rideshare drivers at Salt Lake City International Airport are calling for better working conditions as they face increasing challenges in the designated staging area.
Oscar Delgado, an Uber and Lyft driver, described the unfortunate reality for drivers, stating, “It's sad to say, but it's kind of we are treated like animals. Basically, we are animals inside of a cage.”
Delgado is one of hundreds of rideshare drivers who prefer picking up passengers at the airport due to better rates and a perceived safer environment.
“Sometimes your rates are better, so they're paying us better," he said. "You have less risk to kind of drive people intoxicated, like they're in the clubs or, you know, using alcohol or drugs. And so the majority of the passengers, they are coming in an airplane, they don't have no like weapons, and so for us, it's very safe to drive people like those.”
However, despite these benefits, the staging area has become congested. A couple of years ago, the airport established a ‘dedicated staging area’ for rideshare drivers. Delgado noted, “You need to be inside of that metal fence, but it's also a geofence, so if you are not inside of that geo fence, you cannot take any ride for passengers coming from the airport.”
With only about 75 parking spots available for two or three hundred drivers, Delgado described the situation as chaotic.
“What happens is a lot of drivers, they don't have a spot, and they were fighting to each other to get in a spot, any it makes the kind of the night, like every time I'm driving so like hostile and people are kind of fighting,” he explained.
In response to the issue, the airport stated they are aware of the stall availability problem and are working to open another lot on Wright Brothers Drive, but they have faced challenges with power installation.
“We have found that some operators/drivers choose to wait in the lot for higher paying trips, which does impact the availability of parking stalls in the lot," the airport added in a statement.
Delgado warned that the situation could lead to danger, saying, “One of these days is going to be an accident as a matter of time just because sometimes those drivers are blocking the road trying to be inside of the staging lot.”
