• Halloween is the busiest day for Uber and Lyft drivers.
• Lyft's CEO called it "our biggest day" in 2025.
• It can be a lucrative day for gig workers — if they can stand rowdy passengers.

The busiest day of the year for Uber and Lyft drivers is almost here.

While you might guess that New Year's Eve or St. Patrick's Day would draw the most rider demand as people go out partying, Halloween actually wins the prize for ride-hailing drivers in the US, according to ride volume data and comments from executives.

The culmination of spooky season is likely to be big again this year, with Halloween falling on a Saturday, giving people more time to party — and creating more demand for rides.

Last year, the most ride-hailing trips occurred on October 31, according to Gridwise, a data analytics company. Ride volumes were 23% higher than median rideshare volume for the year, adjusted for day of the week and quarterly seasonal variation, Gridwise said.

The next-busiest days were November 1 and July 3, the day before Independence Day. Ride-hailing volumes were about 20% above the median on each day, Gridwise said. The day after Halloween may be big because rides run late into the night.

Halloween kicks off the busiest season of the year for Uber and Lyft. Besides getting a ride home from Halloween parties, riders also request trips to the airport for flights home around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Earlier this month, Uber offered some drivers hundreds of dollars in bonuses for driving more — a potential sign that the company needs more drivers working as ride demand ramps up.

For Lyft, Halloween 2025 was "our biggest day" and "our biggest week, and not by a little bit," CEO David Risher said a few days after Halloween 2025 on an earnings call last November.

A company spokesperson declined to say how many trips Lyft drivers completed on Halloween but said that it amounted to "millions of rides."

Uber, meanwhile, "hit a new record over Halloween weekend" in 2025, with about 130 million ride-hailing and delivery trips worth $2 billion, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on an earnings call last November.

While lucrative, working on Halloween also comes with risks for drivers.

Raymundo Rodriguez, who drives for Uber on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, said he started driving for the app around Halloween two years ago.

There were plenty of riders, he said, but some trips involved dealing with rowdy or drunk passengers. Costumes can also pose risks: One rider dressed as a stripper left glitter on the black leather seats of his car after she got out — a mess that Rodriguez said he had to clean up himself.

This year, Rodriguez said, he's planning to skip driving for the app and take his kids trick-or-treating.

"I don't want nobody throwing up in my car," he said.

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• DoorDash says its planned acquisition of Instacart will create new opportunities for delivery workers.
• The $17 billion deal would preserve both apps, DoorDash said.
• DoorDash also plans to start listing restaurants on the Instacart app.

Gig workers could see changes to how they make deliveries if DoorDash's $17 billion deal for Instacart goes through.

The companies announced the acquisition on Thursday after several years of considering a deal. It would give DoorDash, long one of the dominant names in restaurant delivery, a much stronger position in grocery delivery.

The acquisition would also bring together millions of gig workers who make deliveries for both companies.

Here's what we know so far about how the deal would affect delivery workers:

DoorDash plans to keep the Instacart app

If the deal wins federal approval, DoorDash doesn't plan to fold Instacart's brand into its own.

That means that the apps will continue to function on a stand-alone basis, DoorDash executives said on a call on Thursday to discuss the deal.

"I think Instacart has built a great brand, and it is a very unique brand where their audience is very loyal to that brand," DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on the call.

Gig workers will be able to take both restaurant and grocery orders

DoorDash plans to cross-list merchants on the two different apps, CFO Ravi Inukonda said.

Restaurants represent one obvious opportunity, he said. "We are going to be able to list our restaurant platform on Instacart, which is going to drive top-line growth," Inukonda said.

Access to more kinds of orders means that gig workers will have "more choice over when and how they earn, whether that's grocery orders on a quiet day, restaurant orders at peak times, or both," the company said in its deal announcement.

DoorDash says the deal could mean 'greater earning opportunities'

Many of Instacart's grocery partners are looking to compete with bigger companies, Xu said on the call. Amazon and Walmart are both expanding their delivery networks, especially for same-day delivery and fresh food, and many smaller chains will turn to the combined company to offer delivery.

That could mean "faster delivery times, more affordable prices for everyone, greater earning opportunities for shoppers," Xu said, referring to gig workers who shop and deliver orders.

Whether those opportunities result in more pay for workers remains to be seen.

Instacart workers make about $13 an hour, while those working for DoorDash average about $11 an hour, according to gig worker pay data from analytics company Gridwise published in March. Both rates were lower than rival delivery services, such as Amazon Flex and Uber Eats.

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• New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized DoorDash's $17 billion plan to acquire Instacart.
• Mamdani said the deal could lead to higher prices and worse working conditions.
• The companies say the deal will lead to lower prices and give gig workers more chances to earn money.

Zohran Mamdani is skeptical of DoorDash's $17 billion deal for Instacart.

The New York City mayor denounced the proposed acquisition in a post on X on Thursday, hours after the company announced it.

"Corporate consolidation means higher prices, harsher exploitation, and greater economic inequality for New Yorkers," he wrote.

"We've stood up to these giants before," he added. "That doesn't stop now."

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on Thursday that the deal would lead to lower prices and faster delivery times for customers, as well as "more earnings" for the gig workers who make deliveries on the apps.

Mamdani also referenced the City's settlement with DoorDash last month, in which the delivery service agreed to pay $131.5 million to end an investigation into how it paid delivery workers in the city.

The settlement includes returning some of the money to workers. Mamdani and the City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection have taken aim at delivery companies multiple times over the past year, including by enforcing a law requiring the companies to offer customers the option to tip at checkout.

Samuel A.A. Levine, the Department's commissioner, said that the deal "continues a troubling trend of mega-corporations consolidating while working to divide workers and consumers."

"Whether or not this merger proceeds, we will fully enforce delivery workers' rights," Levine added.

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• DoorDash has agreed to acquire Instacart.
• The $17 billion deal is expected to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028.
• It will give DoorDash a leg up over Uber and Amazon in the world of grocery delivery.

Two of the biggest names in food delivery are coming together.

DoorDash plans to acquire Instacart in a deal worth about $17 billion, the companies said Thursday. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028.

The acquisition would combine DoorDash's historical dominance in restaurant delivery with Instacart's roster of grocery partnerships, creating one company to deliver much of customers' weekly dining needs.

"Together, we can accelerate innovation across the grocery industry and make online grocery more seamless and affordable for the millions of households we serve," said Chris Rogers, the CEO of Instacart.

This isn't the first time that DoorDash and Instacart have considered a deal, Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's founder, said in a statement Thursday.

"Tony and I have explored bringing Instacart and DoorDash together on and off over the years," he said.

"We kept coming back to it because the industrial logic has always been clear," Mehta added, referring to the opportunity to sell customers more of the 21 meals they eat each week.

DoorDash has been growing its grocery business since the pandemic, which pushed many shoppers out of stores and toward delivery services as they stayed home more. Since then, the company has partnered with dozens of grocers, creating a selection that rivals Amazon's with less infrastructure, CEO Tony Xu said earlier this year.

Instacart, meanwhile, has focused on grocery delivery since its inception in 2012. The startup delivered orders from Whole Foods before Amazon bought the chain in 2017. It now works with thousands of retailers in North America and sells retail technology, from digital price tags to smart shopping carts.

In a joint announcement, the companies said the deal would mean Instacart customers could shop at more than 50,000 additional stores, and that DashPass and Instacart+ members would pay one membership fee instead of two.

The deal, which will be at least 75% cash, values Instacart at $65.00 per share, representing a 26% premium over its closing price on October 22.

Taking on Amazon and Uber

The combined company will be a more formidable presence in the competitive grocery delivery industry.

Amazon has spent years trying to increase sales in its grocery business, including a rollout of same-day perishable food deliveries to more parts of the US over the past year. And Walmart is also building its own delivery infrastructure, including its own network of gig-worker couriers and expanding into restaurant delivery.

Combining DoorDash and Instacart would give other grocers a better shot at taking on companies like Amazon and Walmart, DoorDash said.

"A lot of what we talk about with grocers is: How can we together help them compete against the largest companies in the world?" DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said on a call Thursday.

Uber has also grown its restaurant and grocery delivery business through Uber Eats. The company has recently moved deeper into premium ride-hailing options, such as black car services, as well as travel through a hotel-booking partnership with Expedia.

Both DoorDash and Instacart have relied on gig workers to pick orders and make deliveries. As independent contractors, most don't receive many of the same benefits as full-time workers, such as health insurance or contributions to retirement accounts.

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• Being a mom can be challenging and expensive.
• Some have turned to apps like Uber and Lyft to make extra money — or as their main source of income.
• Fill out our survey if you're a mom who does gig work.

Uber and Lyft often talk about the flexibility of working as a driver on their apps.

That aspect of the gig has attracted moms, among other people who often want to earn money outside a 9-to-5 schedule. The job can be appealing to mothers who need to juggle school drop-offs, childcare, and other obligations of parenting.

Others, including single moms, say they feel stuck in ride-hailing work and end up having to drive for Uber or Lyft at set times anyway, depending on when the most passengers need rides.

With costs like childcare and college rising, Uber and Lyft offer some moms a way to make extra money — if they can earn enough on the apps and keep costs like gas and car maintenance under control.

Business Insider wants to speak with moms who drive for Uber, Lyft, or other ride-hailing apps. We want to hear about how you combine the gig with taking care of your kids, including both what's working and what isn't. Please fill out the survey below.

• Uber is giving its corporate employees access to OpenAI's enterprise work tool.
• ChatGPT Work can "prepare meeting briefs," among other tasks, OpenAI said.
• Uber is rolling out the tool after laying off thousands of workers last month.

Uber is giving all of its corporate employees access to OpenAI's enterprise tool weeks after laying off thousands.

About 30,000 employees at the ride-hailing service's offices will have access to ChatGPT Work, the two companies said on Thursday.

The tool will connect with other programs that Uber employees use, such as Slack and Gmail, to "research information, prepare meeting briefs, create presentations, analyze data and complete workflows across applications," a statement said.

"As AI transforms how we work, we want to give everyone the tools to innovate, solve problems and help shape Uber's future," Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said. Uber initially tested the tool among a group of 1,000 employees.

The rollout comes the month after Uber laid off about 10% of its corporate workforce, or about 3,300 people. The company made the job cuts to reduce management layers and reduce the number of small teams, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the time. It didn't cite AI in its announcement.

Some laid-off employees told Business Insider that AI was doing significant parts of their jobs, from answering their questions in Slack to crafting replies to messages from riders and drivers.

Uber cited AI as a reason for an earlier round of layoffs in July, which targeted Uber's customer service employees.

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