PARRISH – At 6:30 each morning, Katrina Perkins’ alarm goes off.
By 7 a.m., she is searching for deliveries to make through the grocery-delivery app Instacart. By 10 a.m., she opens the DoorDash app to find work there as well. She picks up and delivers orders through Uber Eats throughout the day, too.
For 12 hours a day, seven days a week, Perkins scrolls through, refreshing the three apps on her phone, looking for orders that will be worth the time and money.
But more often than not, Perkins said, those are difficult to find.
On a recent afternoon, Perkins opened one of the apps and took a look. There was an order, but it was in Tampa, about a 40-minute drive away. As much as she needs the income, she said, with time and gas expenses taken into account: “It doesn’t do me no good. It’s there [the work] but it is not worth it.”