Dear InstaCart,

We are your drivers, and we are tired. We are tired of being taken advantage of, we are tired of being abused, we are tired of not being respected.

Most of us signed up under the impression that this gig job was simply delivering groceries. Go to the store, buy groceries for another family, and deliver them. That's what we signed up for. We're all capable of doing that. It's the same thing we do for our own families. It's the same thing we do for ourselves.

The problem is that businesses have found that your delivery rates are cheaper than commercial delivery services. They're exploiting that. They're expecting us to load up our little compact cars and soccer mom minivans with exorbitant amounts of heavy items for their businesses. We are paid between $0.25 and $0.40 for each unique item. That means we're paid the same whether we carry one case of water, or 50 cases of water. We are requesting that you consider a separate delivery service for these types of orders. Instacart XL. Instacart Corporate. Instacart Fleet. Assign these types of jobs to people that have delivery vans, dollies, back braces, tie-downs, and TRAINING so that they can perform the job safely.

We request that you put a cap on the number of units a customer can order. Other grocery delivery services and pick up services usually have a cap of between 12 to 15 of the same item. With instacart, a customer can order 999 of one item.

Most of us are really do enjoy many aspects of this job. We enjoy being daymakers. We enjoy helping the elderly, the disabled, people that are home sick and don't want to go to the store, moms with new babies, busy dads that are trying to get everything done for the whole family, people that are trying to have a birthday party at home and don't have time to go to the grocery store with the other 999 things that they're trying to do. I don't care whether I'm delivering groceries for a family of 10 or munchies for a stoner. That's what I signed up for when I signed up for this gig. Delivering groceries. Not corporate amounts of heavy cases of water, 50-lb bags of rice, flour, water softener pellets, cases upon cases upon cases of Gatorade, soda, 50 bags of 20 lb ice... to churches, daycares, event centers, convention halls, restaurants, high rise offices, etc.

Expecting your Shoppers to make these large deliveries in their personal vehicles is not only damaging to their bodies, but to their vehicles, and presents a danger to other people on the road. I've seen the way other Shoppers load their vehicles so that they can't see the mirrors, they can't see out their back window, the weight is not distributed evenly over the axes of the vehicle, and this is a huge safety hazard. These overloaded personal vehicles are a danger on the road.

Thank you for reading. I can't wait for this company to understand that listening to the masses of Shoppers that are crying out for this help will benefit you so much. We want your company to succeed, so listen to us. #InstacartXL make it a thing.