Uber, Postemate Driver as Self-Employment

Hi all,

I have accepted a job with a government contractor that requires a Secret Clearance after being laid off in July due to COVID-19 cuts at my previous company. I am on the employment portion and have listed all my formal places of employment. I decided to do some side gigs as an uber eats, postmates, and doordash driver as I saw there was a need for them and to make some extra cash. I did that for about 2 weeks then have not done it for over a month now. I have read other posts saying I should list them, which I will, but what do I put as my address, name of employment? Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated as this is my first time filling out eQIP.

You put the dates you worked for each employment, even if they overlapped. Put the address for the company headquarters and your address for your physical job location. You can put the name of a supervisor or HR contact in the supervisor section if you have one. If not, put down the name of someone who is aware you worked for the company, such as friend and put a comment in that the person is a friend because you had no coworkers/supervisors.

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I believe for Uber and Lyft - the company doesn’t provide records. For some investigations a pay stub or something of the like might be asked for.

Make sure you have paid or will pay taxes on those earnings

Contrary reply that may not be correct: Don’t list the dates for “each employment.” They are not separate employments. Don’t put “the address for company headquarters,” because you never worked for those companies. Don’t list “a supervisor or HR contact” because you had no supervisors. You had no HR contacts. You were self-employed that whole time.

The process really doesn’t anticipate the gig economy or widespread self employment; the authors of the SF-86 never conceived of the idea that a subject could be self employed using a smart phone (what is that?) doing Uber Eats on Friday, Postmates on Saturday and Doordash on Sunday. The default assumption on the SF-86 is that everyone works a single 9-5 job as an actual employee for an actual company with an HR rep, a supervisor, a corporate office, etc.

Just list that you were self employed as a delivery driver. List it because it is true.

I feel bad for the investigators who - before covid - had to go to the Uber corporate HQ in downtown SF once a week in another fruitless search for a nonexistent employment record.

The SF-86 asks for the company location as well as your physical work location (if different, which in this case, it is, the job location would be the person’s home). If you don’t list the company headquarters or a supervisory/HR contact, the Investigator is left to still attempt those contacts without the information. Even if you are self-employed or a contractor, records and verifiers will still be attempted. Not listing this information makes your Investigation take longer to complete.

And yeah, spinning wheels with companies that don’t cooperate sucks but it still needs to be attempted.

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Yes, but:

These are companies the subject never worked for. Why list a corporate headquarters for a company for which the subject never worked? And why would he list a supervisory or HR contact for, say Uber Eats? The subject never worked for Uber Eats. He never had a supervisor for Uber Eats. He was never hired by Uber Eats.

The subject may feel like he is working for Uber Eats, but the fact is that he is a vendor and Uber Eats is a customer. If I own a corner store, a customer may give me money in return for goods or services. That doesn’t mean I list the customer on my SF-86 as my supervisor. That doesn’t mean I list my customer’s house as a “corporate headquarters.” I am working for myself, am self-employed, and list my own business (or home, if that is where I keep records) as the corporate address. I might list a regular customer as a verified or person knowledgeable about my self employment, but the customer is not my supervisor or HR contact.

Driving for Uber Eats is self-employment.
Driving for Postmates is self-employment.
Driving for Doordash is self-employment.

By all means, note in “additional comments” that your self-employment as a driver includes vendor-customer relationships with Uber Eats, Postmates and Soordash. But you are not employed by these companies. You are self-employed. The goal here is to list all your employments fully accurately. By accurately identifying yourself as a self-employed delivery driver you are truthfully describing your employment history.

To identify Uber Eats as your employer would be false. The entire business model of the gig economy, including contract investigators, relies on this distinction. The big BI company I contract with may treat me as an employee, but I am most certainly NOT an employee. The company has spent many millions of dollars in class-action court litigation to make this distinction clear! I am a self-employed investigator.

Yes, any of these gig jobs are viewed as self-employment. List a self-employment verifier that is not yourself.

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Thank you all for the feedback. I submitted my application back to the company for their review. It has successfully passed their criteria in order to submit to the government.

Even as a contractor, they may be a record of some sort, even if not a traditional employment file. You can note you are self employed but the investigative coverage will be the same. So by not listing the contract employer or a valid verifier, you are only prolonging the investigation.

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Not to belabor the point, but if I drive for Uber Eats or DoorDash or the like, those companies are not “contract employers.” They are not (for me, the driver) employers of any kind. They are business partners. Misidentifying them on the questionnaire is what in fact prolongs the investigation.

Nope, not providing a way to verify the employment activity is what prolongs the Investigation, it doesn’t matter if you label yourself self-employed, contract, business partner, etc. If the information is not listed to make the attempt to verify, it will in fact, prolong the investigation.

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Uber, Lyft, Scentsy, Pampered Chef - these are all self-employments which these companies will quickly remind us.

I suggest listing the employment as self employment then list in the comments the various money sources. Of course, the best self-employment is a DBA or incorporated business registered with a business license AND you have a POC at the gigs/income sources, even better - a partner.

In the old OPM process, we had to cover your self-employment period with no personal gaps of six months. I would spend more time trying to cover the Scentsy/Pampered Chef two (or more) part-time side jobs (often delaying the Subject’s case by weeks) that I would the cleared employment.

Help yourself out by listing any record and knowledgeable personal sources for your gig job. Provide what you can because even if these companies don’t cooperate (and many do not) the activity still requires coverage.

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You need to list it as self employment and specify you do not have a business license so no search will be done for one

@amart8751 How did you list it when you submitted the application? I’m on the same boat

Uber is self-employment.