Earla Phillips launches SubStack
“Some posts will focus on labour and policy…others may simply be observations from the road”
Uber driver and labour organizer Earla Phillips has launched her own Substack.
“A lot of people still see rideshare as ‘just a side gig,'” Phillips writes in her inaugural Stack on May 7th, 2026.
“And while that may be true for some drivers, for many others this became full-time work tied to long hours, rising expenses, unstable earnings, and increasing dependence on apps controlled almost entirely by algorithms.”
Phillips is familiar to drivers, politicians and members of the media as one of the longest-working and most consistently engaged professionals in the Vehicle for Hire industry.
“What started as a simple way to earn an income slowly became something much bigger. Over the last decade, I’ve watched rideshare reshape transportation, public expectations, labour, and the lives of tens of thousands of drivers,” she explains.
“I’ve watched it evolve in real time from inside the driver’s seat…I’ve seen the optimism of the early days, the explosive growth, the pandemic years where drivers were suddenly called ‘essential’ and ‘heroes,’ the rollout of algorithmic and AI-guided pricing, inconsistent and targeted fares, falling earnings, growing driver oversupply, protests, policy battles, and the widening gap between corporate messaging and what drivers actually experience on the ground.”
