Well one can't simultaneously drive a passenger obtained via Uber, and a passenger obtained via Lyft either.

Neither can a contractor build a gazebo for one client at the same time as they're building a gazebo for a different client. But there is a difference between getting paid for hours and getting paid for tasks.

Your analogy is not very good. General contractors take bids, they don't set the price, they take the best offer for them. And as a sub contractor or GC you can have as many jobs open as you want. I see no similarities between uber driving and sub contracting, aside from both being task based. Contractors get to set their rate, is built into the bid process drivers don't.

Rideshare drivers are paid by the task, but that task is time-bound. Building a shed isn't. You can take on two shed contracts simultaneously, not so as a rideshare driver.

> Rideshare drivers are paid by the task, but that task is time-bound. Building a shed isn't.

Why not? You could take a contract to build a shed by the end of the day and then not have time to build any others that day.

You are not forced to make de shed.

if it's a shared car, you could pick up customers from multiple apps on the same trip?

no

Waiting for a ride with both apps turned on is actually pretty common.

Drivers aren't paid while they're waiting though, right? It seems to me like this is just holding two separate jobs of the same type (which I don't think is uncommon for the types of positions one might have at Target or Walmart), with the only difference being more flexibility of which hours to work.

It's not just which hours, it's also how many.

If you're a contractor hired to build a shed and it takes you 8 hours, you're there all day. But if you can build it in 2 hours, you get to go home, and you still get paid the same.

If you're a Target employee brought in to do inventory and it takes most people 8 hours but you finish in 2, you're only going home if you don't want to get paid for the other 6 hours. Otherwise you're going to be stocking shelves or sweeping floors or working a register until the clock runs out.

Driving works like the first one. If you can make a 45 minute drive take 42 minutes, you get to keep the other 3 minutes. (In theory if you can make a 45 minute drive take 15 minutes you get to keep the other 30 minutes, but good luck with that.)

Can't they? What happens if they're driving an Uber passenger and do pick up a Lyft passenger who happens to be on the same route?

In theory it's possible to, if you're doing pool rides

I’ve had drivers accept a ride on the other app while still driving me. So I’m a way they kinda can.

Worker protections exist to ensure that employers don't exploit their position of power to take advantage of their workers. Full stop. Obviously that doesn't apply to the plumber you hired to fix your toilet or the painters the company hired to paint the walls but anytime you have a continuing open ended relationship when you alone provide at least a substantial fraction of the employees total income I have to wonder how on earth the same protections don't apply.

The situations where a contractor relationship applies are plain and obvious. Any time you have to ask if someone is an employee you are probably exploiting the fine line to avoid having to follow the law. Kind of like if you have to ask if you are actually committing fraud you probably are. Depending on which side of the fine line a judge comes down on you may or may not be punished for it but you aren't a better person for it.