Postmates Unveils On-Demand Industry’s First Familycare Relief Policy; And new For Essential Delivery Workers, alongside

At a time when millions of Americans are relying on delivery services as a lifeline for food and other essential supplies, and when an unprecedented number of people are seeking flexible, safe, well-compensated work to help replace a lost job or earn some supplemental income, Postmates is committed to helping empower and protect workers, small businesses, and consumers. As part of our ongoing response to the COVID-19 public health crisis, we announced today that Postmates is taking new steps to expand the safety net we are providing to our fleet of on-demand workers during this difficult time.

• First, we unveiled the on-demand industry’s first-ever family care relief policy for our workers. We are expanding the Postmates Fleet Relief Fund we created in response to the COVID-19 crisis to now include a cash stipend for couriers in California and New York to cover costs they’re facing daily as they need to stay home to take care of children or sick loved ones.
• Second, we announced a brand new COVID Resource Portal that connects couriers with telehealth services and financial and career planning tools. Through the portal, couriers can now access three levels of health tools thanks to our new partnerships with Ro, Doctors on Demand via Stride Health, and Nurx. Free of cost, our fleet of workers will have access to COVID-19 screening services, primary and mental health services, and reproductive and family planning health services. We are also issuing hundreds of thousands of new reusable and single-use masks for couriers across the country especially as City, County and States revise their mask guidance to complement the CDC’s guidance on protective face coverings.
• Third, Postmates is partnering with Womply, a registered loan agent that can help Postmates merchants and fleet workers unlock federal funds available to them through the CARES Act. Through this partnership, we helped hundreds of small businesses prepare applications to unlock nearly $10 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, and we will continue to push Congress to appropriate additional SBA funds for small businesses, the self-employed, and sole proprietors in this next round of emergency PPP funding.
• Fourth, we are scaling an online education platform, edX, for our fleet of couriers to access high-quality certificate courses, as well as virtual career guidance. By partnering with edX, we hope to help our couriers prepare for additional career and earning opportunities they may want to pursue on the other side of this crisis.

Governors and mayors across the country have designated on-demand delivery platforms like Postmates as essential services during the COVID-19 crisis. We are proud that at a time of deepening economic stress and uncertainty that we can be a stabilizing force — especially for folks who need extra flexible income to make ends meet. In fact, in the past month alone, Postmates has seen an 84 percent national increase in new workers joining our platform. On average, these workers are earning 180 percent above the federal minimum wage at $24 in earnings per hour nationally. But for parents and caretakers, even flexible work can be difficult during a pandemic when schools and daycare centers are shuttered. We hope our industry-leading Familycare Relief Policy and the additional resources we are rolling out will provide some much-needed comfort and stability for the amazing people who power our platform.

We don’t know when the current public health crisis will ease, or what the lasting economic damage will be in the months and years to come. But what we do know is that Postmates will always be committed to taking care of our people, and right now that means providing them with the resources they need to work flexibly and support their families and loved ones. Now is not the time to score political points. It’s time to take care of each other as best we can. For us at Postmates, that means implementing policies to take care of our workers — so they can take care of their families too.