Delivery drivers can't refuse smoke-day routes without losing gig platform standing

DoorDash, UberEats, and Amazon Flex drivers in cities like Sacramento and Portland during fire season face a choice between accepting deliveries during AQI 200+ days or seeing their acceptance rate drop, which algorithmically deprioritizes them for future high-value orders. These drivers spend 6-10 hours per day getting in and out of vehicles, walking to doors, and waiting at restaurants — all outdoors. Unlike W-2 employees, they are classified as independent contractors and are not covered by Cal/OSHA's wildfire smoke protections. They cannot collectively bargain for smoke-day policies. A driver who skips three days of AQI 250+ weather may lose access to peak-hour scheduling blocks for weeks. The structural reason this persists is that gig platforms designed their algorithms for weather-agnostic throughput optimization, and adding AQI-based acceptance-rate forgiveness would reduce delivery capacity on the exact days when demand surges (because consumers order in more during smoke events).