The gig economy’s tyranny of targets

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Editor's note: 11.15 a.m. The sun is exceptionally unforgiving on this muggy August morning in Delhi after a couple of days of rain. Pankaj, who asked to be identified only by his first name, is driving around in his Toyota, yawning. The car’s air conditioning is off and windows rolled down. He splashes water on his face to fight sleep. It’s been a 14-hour shift, the last 30 minutes without a passenger. Pankaj needs one more ride to complete his weekly target and get a cash incentive, which he missed last week. He had driven around Delhi in loops; around the railway stations, the airport, even Noida—one of the multiple contiguous cities that make up the National Capital Region—in the middle of the night without any luck. "I had only heard stories from other drivers of wasting a whole night in search of that elusive one ride to complete the target," he says. "Then last week, it happened with me. It was extremely frustrating." This week, he is determined to earn the incentive. He has around an hour before the deadline. Target-based …