I'm an Uber driver in New York City. Gas prices have hurt our wages so badly that it's hard to pay bills.

The as-told-to essay is based on a conversation between Naomi and the president of the NYC Rideshare Club. The club is part of a coalition that supports app workers. The conversation has been edited to make it clearer.

I'm the president of the NYC Rideshare Club, and I've been driving for the ride sharing service for six years. The justice for app workers coalition includes nine groups. In New York, we staged a caravan protest over the rising gas prices.

We were not planning for gas prices to go up so much. It's not what we were expecting. Just happened.

With higher gas prices, we now have to dig deeper into our pockets

It's cutting into our personal budgets and we have to go without some things in order to be able to fill our cars and drive.

I have a vehicle. I used to be able to fill it with gas for $65 or $70, but now it's up to $150. Depending on the trips that I take, that lasts for a day or two. We want New York to know that we are important to this city and that we have rent to pay.

Many people can't pay their essential bills because of the high gas prices. There isn't a lot of money.

Our strategy has changed because of it. We used to cruise around looking for places where we were most likely to get a ride.

Someone is just staying at a single location and waiting. You need to be careful not to double park or park by the hydrant because there are traffic police out there. Everything has been disrupted by it.

We saw during the COVID-19 pandemic how essential our services were

We delivered food to people in need. We went up to a sixth-floor apartment in a marginalized area to give food to a woman who couldn't go out to eat during the Pandemic.

In New York City, we don't even get gas surcharges, which is why they're moving it to other places. We want them to include us in that and give us gas stipends, but that's just a short term solution.

capping the companies' commission is the long-term solution. These companies should not pass on unforeseen expenses to passengers. As drivers, we have been carrying all the expenses, so they should take a cut.

​​Driving rideshare is a very lonely job

It's difficult for drivers to know what's happening because it's only you and your phone. We formed this coalition because we want to have a way for companies to talk to us as a group.

We need these companies to work with us on a lot of different issues. We want to get a fair wage and cap the companies' commission at 10%. The companies sometimes take 40% from drivers. I have no idea how they calculate that. It isn't always transparent.

We want better mental-health care, better access to clean bathroom, and better deactivation of drivers, among other things. There are a few things.

Pressure is put on them to get there. They'll respond.