Bill McNeely, Ride Share Driver, Arizona

Bill McNeely, Ride Share Driver, Arizona

Bill McNeely is 47 years old, and in his third career.

He’s served in three branches of the military and led logistics projects for defense contractors. His teams built operating bases for the Department of Justice to investigate Saddam Hussein, trained Afghan narcotic commandos to beat back the heroin trade, and fed troops in Iraq.

But when Bill came home, nobody would hire him.

“My last job overseas was as a Senior Logistic Advisor to the Iraq army. If it dealt with a vehicle, fuel, or food, you had to deal with me. When I got stateside, I couldn’t even get a job at Target making $12 an hour,” Bill remembers.

He struggled for years, and lost everything—even his marriage. Bill became homeless for a little over a year, until a friend lent him $1,000 to lease a car and become a 1099 driver for delivery and ride share apps.

“That’s how I started making a living again and rebuilding my life,” Bill says. “It was a long road, with ups and downs, but I would not be here without the gig economy.” Having a job gave him structure, a sense of purpose, a pathway to independence, and hope.  

“That’s what people don’t understand. When you hit bottom, it is extremely hard to get out of that,” he explains. “Without those opportunities available to me, I would have eventually been living under a bridge or dead. It happens to a lot of other veterans who have PTSD.”

Bill used his earnings as a 1099 driver to launch his own delivery service called Wharphy. Since he doesn’t yet have the credit score to open up loans or credit cards, he still drives on apps to make ends meet in leaner months. 

“If there’s a shortage that month, or someone pays their invoice late, I get on those apps and find a way to make up the difference for the company. Otherwise I lose my drivers,” he says.

Bill has come so far. But a new Department of Labor rule, set to take effect in March, threatens to take it all away from him. The rule makes it harder to hire independent contractors, forcing entrepreneurs like Bill to either bring his workers on full-time, or let them go.

“I can’t afford to pay my drivers a full-time salary and all the taxes that go with it. I’d have to let people go,” Bill says. “And if I couldn’t drive as a 1099 worker on the apps myself, falling short a few months in a row at Wharphy would be the end of it.”

Besides, working full-time is not what his drivers want. They prefer flexibility. “All of my drivers are independent contractors for a reason,” Bill explains. Among his drivers are a stay-at-home dad who needs to do school pick-ups and drop-offs, a single mother living at a hotel with her kids while she restarts her life, and a retiree who drives to keep himself busy and make extra income.

Bill’s company allows drivers to earn a living around the real-world constraints of their lives—at least until the DOL takes those opportunities away. “Everybody’s life looks different,” Bill warns. “We need some flexibility for common sense here.”