As last mile delivery industry flourishes, new lawsuit alleges GoShare violates fair chance hiring laws and exploits workers by illegally denying protections, wages, and benefits
SAN FRANCISCO (April 21, 2025) — City Attorney David Chiu announced today that he has filed a lawsuit against GoShare, a last-mile delivery and moving company, for illegally misclassifying its drivers and denying them guaranteed protections, wages, and benefits. Last mile delivery has grown significantly in the United States, and the lawsuit underscores how GoShare’s illegal model of treating its drivers as independent contractors has dire consequences for workers, law-abiding competing businesses, and the broader public.
“Last mile delivery is growing exponentially. We cannot allow misclassification to take root in this burgeoning industry,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “Denying workers their benefits and wages is especially egregious when so many workers are struggling in this economy to make ends meet. Yet once again, a company seems to think it can get away with wage theft simply because it provides short-term work assignments through an app. Indeed, GoShare cheats its workers in countless ways—from illegally charging for background checks and imposing monetary penalties to denying workers their rightful overtime pay and business expense reimbursements. The list goes on and on.”
“When companies seek a competitive advantage by misclassifying workers, everyone else loses: businesses that follow the law, and workers who are cheated out of what they’ve earned,” said Lorena Gonzalez, President of California Federation of Labor Unions. “Once again, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is leading the way by suing last-mile delivery company GoShare for violating workers rights and undercutting their competition. Actions like this send a strong message to delivery companies and beyond that workers must be respected, and labor laws must be followed.”
Background
GoShare is a California-based last-mile delivery company. Since its founding in 2015, GoShare has served over 100,000 businesses and individual customers, and more than 15,000 drivers have completed deliveries across 35 states and many jurisdictions, including San Francisco.
GoShare provides delivery services for large retailers and wholesale distribution centers, and moving services for individuals. GoShare focuses on last mile delivery, which is the final stage in a delivery process, from a local warehouse or a retail outlet to the customer. As more and more people buy all manner of goods online, last-mile delivery has grown significantly in recent years and become an integral part of the U.S. economy.
To become a GoShare driver, candidates must meet multiple criteria, including that they have a smartphone that can run the GoShare app, create a GoShare driver app account, watch an informational video, pass a 22-question test and a driving history check, pay for and pass a $49 background check, and have a 2003 or newer vehicle that passes a GoShare inspection.
GoShare’s customers hire the company to provide moving and delivery services. GoShare’s drivers use their own vehicles—often large trucks—to perform this work. They do not have a contractual relationship with GoShare’s customers. Rather, they get paid by GoShare directly, on a per-delivery basis.
GoShare workers must follow GoShare’s rules and policies. For example, they abide by GoShare’s sexual harassment and anti-discrimination policies, safe driving guidelines, and community guidelines. Drivers can be charged various penalties between $20 and $50 each time they cancel a delivery or fail to show up for a delivery.
GoShare treats its drivers as independent contractors, but they are GoShare employees by every legal standard under California law. Drivers are hired and fired by GoShare, they work under GoShare’s control, and they work in the usual course of GoShare’s business.
As a result of this misclassification, GoShare’s workers are not provided overtime, required meal breaks, health expenditures, sick leave, paid leave, workers’ compensation insurance, or reimbursement for expenses including those associated with use of a personal phone and vehicle.
Under various state and local laws, including “Fair Chance” laws, it is unlawful to charge a candidate for a background check and to consider an applicant’s conviction history prior to making a conditional offer of employment. GoShare engages in both of these prohibited practices. This undermines the purpose of state and local fair chance hiring laws, which are intended to give formerly incarcerated people greater opportunities to achieve employment upon reentry.
The People allege that GoShare’s misclassification of its workers violates a host of state and local labor laws and denies drivers the protections, wages, and benefits guaranteed under law. In doing so, GoShare has gained an unfair business advantage over law-abiding businesses, constituting a violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law. The lawsuit seeks to stop these practices and recover civil penalties, fees, and restitution for workers who have been harmed.
Current or former GoShare workers are encouraged to share relevant information with the City Attorney’s Office by emailing GoShareWorkers@sfcityatty.org.
The case is People of the State of California v. GoShare, et al, San Francisco Superior Court. The complaint can be found here.
The San Francisco City Attorney’s Worker Protection Team
In 2022, City Attorney David Chiu established the Office’s Worker Protection Team to expand and build upon the Office’s longstanding commitment to protecting the rights of San Francisco and California workers. The Team investigates and litigates instances of wage theft, employee misclassification, and other abusive workplace practices.
This lawsuit against GoShare builds upon the Office’s track record in combatting worker misclassification. The City Attorney’s Office filed similar misclassification lawsuits against temporary staffing companies GigSmart, WorkWhile, and Qwick. The City Attorney’s Office has secured millions of dollars in relief benefiting thousands of workers across California, and several companies were required to convert their misclassified workers to employees. The Office also continues to litigate its misclassification case against Uber and Lyft. Following investigations by the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, the City Attorney’s Office secured multi-million-dollar settlements benefiting DoorDash and Instacart workers.
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