The gig economy in passenger transport. How does app-based work actually work?
- Damian Brzeski
- 1 hour ago
- 15 min read
You can choose when to turn on the app, but that doesn't mean you're truly your own boss.
In the gig economy, the platform sees more, sets the rules of the game, influences prices, and measures your decisions, while you bear a significant portion of the costs of running the course.
Flexibility is real—complete independence isn't. If you want to assess who truly benefits from this model, consider who sets the rules, who bears the risk, and who controls the data.
What is the gig economy in passenger transport?
The gig economy in passenger transport theoretically gives drivers a lot of freedom to choose their working hours, but leaves a large part of the control over the market itself to the digital platform.
The platform designs the app, establishes rules for accessing orders, participates in pricing, measures driver behavior, and collects its own fees. A significant portion of the costs of physically performing the transport remain with the driver, fleet, or other service provider.
This is where the fundamental tension of this model appears: the interests of the platform and the interests of the driver are not the same .
Drivers want the highest possible income from their work and the vehicle they use. Passengers want affordable and readily available transportation. The platform needs a sufficient number of drivers and passengers, and must also ensure the profitability of its own business.
That's why the promise of "be your own boss" is worth reading carefully. A driver can indeed have considerable freedom in deciding when to work . They have much less influence on the rules of the market in which they perform this work.
The gig economy in passenger transport is a model in which drivers complete individual assignments obtained through a digital platform , instead of working solely under the traditional full-time employment model. They can decide when to launch the app, but once logged in, they operate within a system created by someone else.
Passenger transportation clearly illustrates the specific nature of platform work. The service itself is highly physical: a driver, a vehicle, time, and energy are required. However, this work is largely organized digitally.
Definition of the gig economy
The gig economy isn't limited to passenger transportation. It also encompasses delivery, freelancing, caregiving, and online work.
The ILO indicated that the number of digital labor platforms increased from at least 142 in 2010 to over 777 in 2020. This data does not reflect the number of platforms operating today, but it does illustrate the pace at which this model is developing.
The question of how many people actually work in the gig economy is much more difficult to answer. The ILO has highlighted the significant discrepancies between global estimates. Therefore, data on the scale of platform work often appears more precise than the collection methodology allows.
Who is a platform driver in passenger transport?
Simply put, this is someone who delivers courses acquired through a digital platform. However, this definition can encompass a variety of collaboration models.
One driver may run their own business and use their own vehicle. Another driver operates through a fleet partner. Bolt's current Polish terms and conditions also provide for a model in which a "Designated Driver" operating on behalf of another service provider handles the rides.
Therefore, the terms "driver", "employee" and "entrepreneur" are not interchangeable here.
If we want to understand the real position of the driver, it is better to ask three questions: who sets the conditions, who bears the costs, and who influences the distribution of the money from the trip?
How do digital platforms organize passenger transport?
The digital platform serves far more functions than the electronic equivalent of a taxi rank. It organizes a marketplace where passengers and drivers meet. Its system can participate in assigning orders, pricing trips, billing, and monitoring activity.
If we treat the platform solely as a neutral tool, it's easy to dismiss the driver as a completely independent service provider using only the app. However, when the system organizes access to customers, prices, and orders, the platform's role becomes much broader.
From passenger to driver – what happens after booking a ride?
A passenger requests a ride in the app. The system analyzes demand and driver availability information and then connects the customer with someone who can provide the ride.
The service itself takes place behind the scenes. The driver must arrive, perform the transport, and have the vehicle at their disposal. The vehicle can belong to them or to a fleet partner. Vehicle-related costs also don't have to be borne by the platform owner.
The ILO describes many digital platforms as asset-light businesses. They can scale their operations without owning all the physical assets needed to perform the service.
In passenger transport, this has a specific dimension: the number of journeys can increase without a proportional increase in the platform's costs related to cars, their operation and drivers' work.
The algorithm as a digital coordinator
Some of the functions of a traditional dispatcher can be taken over by a digital system in platform operation.
The algorithm can match drivers with passengers, analyze availability data and help organize the platform's operations.
The driver sees primarily the result: a proposed ride, a price, or information provided by the app. The platform possesses a much broader understanding of the entire market than an individual driver. It sees demand, supply, and the behavior of many users simultaneously. The driver primarily knows their own part of the system.
The consequences of this information advantage are particularly visible in the case of algorithmic management, which we will return to later.
Four participants instead of three: passenger, driver, platform and fleet
The simplest description of the gig economy in passenger transport involves a passenger, a platform, and a driver. In Poland, a fleet partner often also appears.
This isn't an organizational detail. An additional participant impacts the flow of money, responsibilities, and costs.
What does the simplest platform model look like?
The easiest way to write it is as follows: passenger → platform → driver
The platform creates a digital marketplace and connects both parties. The driver provides the ride, and the passenger pays.
In this system, the platform and the driver don't have the same knowledge. The platform sees data from the entire system. The driver primarily sees their own trips and information available in the app.
Where does a fleet partner come in?
A more complex variant looks like this: passenger → platform → fleet partner → driver
Bolt recommends fleet partners as a solution for people who don't run their own business or need support with formalities related to cars or licenses.
For some drivers, this may facilitate entry into the market. In return, another level of economic connection emerges.
From the driver's perspective, the price paid by the passenger ceases to say much about their actual earnings. What's far more important is how much is left after accounting for the entire chain and all costs .
Work flexibility – the biggest advantage of the gig economy
Flexibility is a real advantage of the gig economy. Drivers can largely choose when they want to work, without the schedule set by a traditional supervisor.
This time autonomy, however, does not determine how much influence the driver has on the economic principles of the system.
Setting your own working hours
The driver chooses the moment they launch the app. This is a real difference compared to a traditional full-time job.
However, this isn't an occasional way to earn extra income. In one study used by the ILO, 84% of taxi platform drivers surveyed cited app-based work as their primary source of income.
These data do not apply to Poland in 2026. However, they demonstrate an important relationship: a form of work that is inherently flexible can become a primary source of income.
If the platform is the main source of income, its rules become much more important to the driver.
Does the option to refuse a course mean full independence?
Bolt's current Polish terms and conditions allow the service provider or driver to reject or refuse to enter into a transport contract.
At the same time, Bolt kept an acceptance rate , calculated based on the behavior towards received orders.
The driver may therefore have the right to refuse, and the platform can measure how often he or she exercises this right.
We have no basis to claim that every rejection results in a specific penalty. However, we do know that the driver's decisions can be recorded by the system.
Therefore, the right question is not only “can you refuse?”, but also: how does the platform use the information about which trips the driver accepts and which ones rejects?
From the price of the ride to the driver's earnings
The fare is not the driver's income. Between the amount paid by the passenger and the money ultimately left to the driver, there are additional fees and costs.
This is where it's easiest to see the difference between platform economics and driver economics.
How is the course price determined?
Bolt materials indicate that the price of a ride may include factors such as distance, time, an initial fee, and dynamic pricing.
The system can therefore respond to changes in demand and supply.
Bolt's current terms and conditions also allow for the platform to dynamically adjust its fees . The fee may depend on factors such as supply, demand, course details, and promotions.
The platform, therefore, isn't solely involved in matching passengers with drivers. It also has its own economic stake in the value generated by rides.
Revenue is not yet income
The economics of a driver's work can be simplified as follows: money generated by trips → platform fee → possible settlement with the fleet → vehicle → fuel or energy → other costs → driver's income
The details depend on the specific collaboration model. However, the principle remains simple: the turnover visible in the app does not equate to the driver's income .
Bolt's terms and conditions stipulate that the service provider is responsible for, among other things, paying designated drivers, providing necessary equipment, and covering costs incurred while performing the transport.
This creates a clear asymmetry: the platform can charge a fee to a market whose physical operating costs are largely borne outside the platform.
Who bears the economic risk?
If the driver uses their own vehicle, the risk associated with the vehicle remains theirs. If the vehicle is provided by a fleet, the cost may appear in the fleet's settlement in a different form.
The platform also bears its own costs—technology, marketing, product development, and digital infrastructure. However, it doesn't bear the cost of each subsequent physical trip in the same way as the entity providing the car and labor.
Separating control of the market from part of the costs of providing a service creates a structural conflict of interest.
The platform ensures the profitability of its system. The driver ensures the profitability of his or her own work. These don't always lead to the same results.
Does the gig economy really mean “being your own boss”?
Freedom to choose working hours is just one dimension of independence. Another is the ability to influence the economic conditions of one's work—and here, the driver's position is different.
A driver may be his own boss in terms of scheduling. However, he doesn't own the market where he acquires customers.
Where does the driver actually have freedom?
They can decide when to use the app. They can also—in accordance with the platform's rules—reject an order.
This is real autonomy.
However, this does not mean that the driver determines the rules for the application, prices or the way the digital market is organized.
Where does control begin?
The platform defines the terms of use of the system, the method of presenting orders, the principles of measuring activity, and mechanisms related to prices and access to clients.
He has his own financial interest in this.
In its 2025 annual report, Uber informed investors that its revenue depends on the models used to determine both the prices paid by passengers and the earnings of drivers. The company also indicated that some financial incentives for drivers are hurting its results.
The platform therefore needs to make the job sufficiently attractive to drivers. However, this isn't the same as maximizing their income.
Drivers need a reason to stay in the system. For the platform, their remuneration is one of the parameters needed to maintain an adequate labor supply. "Attractive enough" and "maximum high" are two different things.
Algorithmic driver management
The gig economy hasn't eliminated management. It has changed its form. Some decisions once made by humans can now be transferred to a digital system.
The algorithm can participate in assigning orders, analyzing driver behavior, organizing prices and other processes that affect work.
Ratings, Approval, and Digital Reputation
The platform can collect data on driver activity, ratings, and reactions to proposed routes. From the system's perspective, driver behavior becomes a dataset that can be analyzed.
The driver knows his or her own decisions. However, he or she does not necessarily know how exactly they will be used later.
This imbalance matters because the platform is not a disinterested observer. It is a market participant with its own economic goals.
The EU directive on platform work highlights the risk of power imbalances, opaque decision-making processes and algorithms taking over some of the functions of traditional management.
What do we know about the algorithm and what do we not know?
We know that platforms use algorithms to organize the market and some work processes. We also know that they can process data on driver behavior.
However, we don't know the full purpose of a particular system. Therefore, there's insufficient evidence to present as fact claims that in the Polish Bolt, drivers always have exactly 10 seconds to complete a standard order, that three refusals result in automatic log-out , or that a rating below 4.5 stars always results in account suspension.
We also do not have sufficient evidence that the Bolt Polska algorithm deliberately limits attractive fares once a driver reaches a certain income.
Criticism of platforms, however, doesn't need unproven stories. The sheer scale of information, costs, and economic incentives provides ample reason for caution.
What did Uber's data show?
The study by researchers from the University of Oxford covered more than 1.5 million journeys made by 258 Uber drivers in the UK between 2016 and 2024.
Following changes to the dynamic pricing system, researchers observed a simultaneous increase in the portion of the ride value retained by Uber and a decrease in drivers' real hourly earnings before operating costs.
According to the study, real hourly earnings fell from over £22 to just over £19 , while Uber's share of the ride value rose from around 25% to 29% . For some rides, the platform's share exceeded 50% .
This result cannot be directly transferred to Bolt in Poland. The study covers a different platform and a different market.
However, it shows a real mechanism: changing the algorithmic pricing system can increase the economic share of the platform without simultaneously improving the situation of the driver.
This is reason enough not to assume that the platform's algorithm was designed primarily to maximize the performer's earnings.
Gig economy and the traditional employment model
The gig economy separates elements that often occur together in a traditional enterprise.
The platform can organize access to clients and influence some market conditions, while not taking on all the costs and responsibilities typical of a classic employer.
The dispute over the status of drivers therefore has a direct impact on the costs of the entire model.
Full-time employment, self-employment and platform work
In a traditional enterprise, one organization can simultaneously acquire customers, employ employees, organize their work and bear the associated costs.
In the gig economy, some of these functions are distributed between the platform, the driver and the fleet partner.
Uber indicates in its investor documents that classifying drivers as employees could result in significant additional costs, including wages, employee benefits, taxes and contributions.
The independent contractor model therefore has tangible economic value for the platform.
This doesn't prove that every platform misclassifies its drivers. Instead, it shows that contractor status is a key element of the overall business economics.
Is a platform driver an employee?
There's no single answer that applies to all drivers. EU Directive 2024/2831 requires that the actual way the work is performed, including the use of automated systems, be taken into account , not just the contractually agreed-upon name of the relationship.
It also provides for a rebuttable presumption of employment where the facts indicate management and control in accordance with applicable law.
This doesn't automatically mean that every driver is an employee. However, the "independent contractor" label alone isn't necessarily sufficient if the way work is organized suggests significantly stronger control.
Gig economy in passenger transport and Polish law
Passenger transport via apps does not operate in Poland outside the legal system. The Road Transport Act covers intermediation performed via mobile apps and IT systems and imposes specific obligations on intermediaries.
These concern, among others, entities participating in transport and driver verification.
Transport "via app" does not work outside the system
Intermediaries must cooperate with entities with appropriate authorizations. There are also requirements related to the verification of persons performing transport.
The app has changed the way passengers are acquired and services are organised, but it has not replaced transport regulations.
How does Poland control platform drivers?
Polish regulations provide, among other things, for verification of the driver's identity and his or her driving license.
The intermediary must also check whether a specific transport is performed by the person to whom it was commissioned.
The inspection is to take place at least once every 50 transports and no less frequently than once every 7 days .
A characteristic paradox arises here: the state responds to the digital organization of the market by imposing additional digital control obligations on platforms.
2026: The gig economy enters a new phase
The year 2026 is important for platform work, as regulations are increasingly starting to address not only the formal status of the driver, but also algorithmic management.
The question "employee or entrepreneur?" is followed by another one: who controls the decision-making system and what rights do the people affected by these decisions have?
EU Directive on Platform Work
Directive 2024/2831 covers, among other things, automatic monitoring and decision-making systems.
It provides for information obligations regarding such systems and human participation in supervising decisions with particularly serious consequences.
Some rules related to algorithmic management also apply to individuals who are not formally considered employees. EU lawmakers have highlighted the risk of power imbalances and opacity in platform work.
Lack of trust in the algorithm is therefore not just a public concern among drivers. It has become the subject of specific regulations.
Why is December 2, 2026 important?
EU countries are to implement the directive by 2 December 2026. At the time of writing, the regulatory change process is not yet complete.
The status of Polish regulations implementing the Directive must therefore be re-examined before publishing material after this date.
First ILO platform economy convention
On 12 June 2026, the International Labour Conference adopted ILO Convention No. 193 concerning decent work in the platform economy.
This is the first international labor standard dedicated directly to this economic model.
The direction of change is clear: public institutions are increasingly treating platform work as a model requiring special safeguards regarding information, work status and algorithmic management.
Gig economy: freedom, dependence, or both?
The gig economy doesn't have to be a scam to be a good reason to be wary of platforms. The platform, driver, and passenger all have different economic interests, and the platform also has far more extensive knowledge of the overall market than an individual contractor.
The platform needs drivers, so the terms must be attractive enough to attract enough people to take the rides. However, this doesn't mean that the platform's goal is to maximize driver income.
If the system shows that the platform benefits from a larger number of cheaper rides rather than a smaller number of more expensive ones, there may be an economic incentive to organize the market in this direction. This is a conclusion stemming from the model's design, not evidence of any specific hidden practices by Bolt or Uber.
The platform optimizes the entire market. Drivers can only optimize their own position within it.
Therefore, it's wise not to assume that the platform's algorithm pursues the same economic goal as the human driver. Ultimately, three questions speak volumes about the gig economy:
Who sets the rules? Who bears the costs? Who knows the most about how the system works?
FAQ - gig economy in passenger transport
Frequently asked questions about drivers working through platforms, algorithmic management, costs, flexibility and employment status.
What is the gig economy in passenger transport? : It is a work model in which a driver performs individual trips obtained via a digital platform instead of working exclusively in a traditional full-time job system.
Is a Bolt or Uber driver their own boss? : Drivers can choose their own hours, but they don't set the platform's rules, how jobs are assigned, or all the economics of running the rides.
How do ridesharing platforms make money? : Platforms charge fees for rides, and their amounts and terms may depend on factors such as the platform model, demand, supply, and route details.
Is the price of the ride the driver's earnings?: No, the value of the rides must be subtracted from, among other things, the platform fee, any settlement with the fleet, and the costs of the vehicle, fuel or energy and transport.
Who bears the costs of gig economy rides? : Much of the cost of physically performing the service may be borne by the driver, service provider, or fleet partner, while the platform primarily bears the costs of its system and operations.
Can a driver decline rides? : Bolt's current terms and conditions allow drivers to decline or reject rides, but the platform can also measure driver behavior, such as through acceptance rates.
What is algorithmic driver management? : The algorithm can participate in assigning orders, analyzing activities, ratings and other data, and organizing processes that affect the driver's work.
Does the platform algorithm work in the driver's interest? : There is no basis to assume that its main goal is to maximize the driver's earnings, because the platform primarily optimizes its own business model and the functioning of the entire market.
Is a platform driver an employee or an entrepreneur? : There is no single answer for all drivers; when assessing status, what matters is the actual way in which work is organised, not just the name of the contract.
Why you should be cautious about gig economy platforms : The platform has more knowledge about demand, supply, prices, and user behavior than an individual driver, and its economic interests may not always align with those of the person performing the ride.
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