Early on a recent Tuesday morning, hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers gathered outside Los Angeles International Airport, forming a line that wrapped around the block as dawn broke. The waiting began at 5am.

Shortly, the line of cars would make its way into a fenced parking area located a mile from the arrival terminal, officially known as the Transportation Network Company staging area. Drivers refer to it as a “pen,” waiting for passengers to disembark from their flights.

Once a lucrative spot for rides, this area now sees very few vehicles picking up fares. Veronica Hernandez, 50, parked her white Chevy Malibu at 5:26am and opened the Lyft app for her queue position: 156th. Nearly an hour and a half would pass before she got her first ride.

“Some days are great; others are not,” Hernandez said, scrolling through her app’s revenue report for the week: $205, $245, $179. “Fingers crossed for a good day.”

Like many drivers nationwide, Hernandez has experienced a noticeable decline in income in recent years, even as demand for rides appears higher than ever. Many gig workers have already ceased operations due to rising costs for gas and car insurance. These challenges, while less symbolic than LAX, reflect a tough environment for gig workers to thrive.

“This used to be a genuine way to earn a living,” Hernandez lamented. “Now, it barely keeps you afloat.”

In the early days of app-based services like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, a flood of people signed on as drivers. The allure of earning money by driving at their own convenience captivated everyone from seasoned drivers seeking extra work to individuals escaping the 9-to-5 grind.

The premise was that drivers operate as independent contractors, bearing their own expenses without health insurance or other employee benefits while enjoying flexible hours without needing to sign up for shifts.

Initially, earnings were robust, with drivers frequently taking home substantial weekly incomes as Uber and Lyft prioritized growth over profitability, incurring billion-dollar losses. After going public, the focus shifted to profitability, resulting in reduced wages.

Today, many drivers are struggling, with total earnings lagging behind inflation. Last year, Uber drivers reported an average weekly revenue of $513, marking a 3.4% decrease from the previous year, despite working an average of over six minutes per trip, according to Gridwise, an app that helps drivers track their income. In Los Angeles, Uber’s average hourly profit margin has dropped by 21% since 2021, according to the same source.

In 2019, LAX implemented a new system to alleviate heavy traffic at the arrivals terminal. Instead of curbside pickups by Uber and Lyft drivers, passengers must walk up to 20 minutes to designated pick-up points near Terminal 1. Unfortunately, this change often goes unnoticed by passengers.

That morning, the atmosphere was grim, marked by the odor of port-a-potties and vehicles parked for hours. Drivers awaited “unicorn” rides, which would pay a reasonable rate of over $1.50 per mile.

By 10am, chaos engulfed the pen. Around 300 drivers were in a virtual queue vying for approximately 200 available spots in the parking lot. Consequently, new arrivals often had to leave the lot to pick up passengers, resulting in blocked cars and the sound of shouting competing with the growl of jets flying overhead every two minutes.

Sergio Avedan, a gig driver and founder of Ride Hailing Blog The ride-sharing man, settled into the pen at 10:36am on that Tuesday. After reaching the parking lot, he checked his queue position: 256th.

When he glanced at the Uber and Lyft apps, rides appeared but were often rejected by other drivers ahead of him. The payouts were dismal: $9.87 for a 13-mile trip, $19.97 for a 25-mile trip. He turned them all down.

“We call this ‘reclining with decency’,” Avedan remarked as he reclined his seat back.

To pass the time, some drivers smoked or played cards, while others napped in their vehicles or watched YouTube videos. Many scoured for phone chargers and cleaning supplies for their cars, leading to occasional tension among different groups as competition for rides intensified, sometimes splitting along racial lines.

An alternate economy flourishes within the pen to support the drivers. Outside the parking area, a taco truck offers food, while inside, some venders sell homemade Chinese cuisine from their car trunks, exchanging bowls of wonton soup for cash.

Frustrations have led some drivers to express their anger by scribbling messages on the walls of the port-a-potties, blaming Uber and its executives for their plummeting earnings, especially after being unexpectedly locked out of their accounts.

Rif Andrius, who sat in the back of his Toyota Sienna, refreshed the Uber app while smoking. The 57-year-old Iranian driver reported earning around $3,000 weekly before Uber’s operational costs surged during the pandemic, but that figure has sharply declined. Checking his latest weekly earnings, he saw amounts of $1,670, $1,700, and $1,053.

“I’ve got to provide for my family,” said Andrius, who has a wife and daughter. “Now, I can’t manage it.”

The New York Times reached out to Uber regarding the operating conditions at LAX in 2023, to which the company acknowledged the ongoing challenges. Yet, little has changed since that inquiry.

Uber stated that multiple factors are influencing the decline in earnings. In Los Angeles, the percentage of fares retained by the company hasn’t increased, while liability insurance costs have soared, currently making up 43% of rider fares, per the company’s data.

The company also indicated that ride demand at the airport has significantly decreased amid the introduction of a new $4 surcharge for LAX drivers.

LAX’s public relations department did not respond to our requests for comments.

Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin mentioned that discussions are ongoing with LAX to create a new holding lot for ride-share drivers as part of the airport’s $5.5 billion renovation plan, which includes light rail connections between terminals aimed at alleviating traffic.

“In a year, LAX will look entirely different. I’m looking forward to providing smoother and faster experiences for drivers, riders, and the whole city,” stated Uber spokesperson Meghan Casserly.

However, many drivers felt weighed down by the current system. Even when a seemingly decent ride request came through, the frustration of waiting hours tended to sap their motivation.

“There are drivers who are entirely unaware of what they’re doing. They get passengers and say they’re going to take them somewhere, but they don’t even know the details,” lamented Pablo Gomez, an Uber driver who regularly works at LAX. “They drop passengers off and just go along with the flow without a clue as to why.”

Drivers like Avedan and Gomez are investing time to mentor their peers, sharing strategies to optimize earnings. Nevertheless, Gomez empathizes with those who continually chase elusive fares, comparing it to gambling.

“Wasting time feeds into an addict’s mentality. You’re forever chasing that ride, hoping for a big win,” he admitted.

As the pen closed at 2am, some drivers began searching for parking in surrounding neighborhoods, preparing to sleep in their cars until the lot reopened at 5am.

At 11pm Tuesday, Hernandez was perched on the hood of a car when ride requests dribbled in. She noted offers popping up on her phone tagged for two passengers ages 25 and 26. In the gaps between rides, she anxiously scanned her emails, hoping for responses regarding job applications submitted to a doctor’s office and a warehouse.

Eventually, a ride came through that would take her near her home in Montebello, a 50-minute drive east. Although the fare was only $28 for a 27-mile trip—far from the ideal “unicorn” ride she was after—she accepted it.

“It’s not the best rate,” she acknowledged. “But you need to make it worthwhile.”