In May 2020, the Silicon Valley delivery startup Deliv laid off 669 employees, primarily affecting 591 drivers from its subsidiary Deliv California, as the company announced it would wind down operations over the next 90 days. This represented a significant portion of its workforce, which had grown to serve 1,400 cities. The layoffs followed the company's shift to an employee-based model in California in response to the state's AB 5 gig economy law, which reclassified independent contractors as employees. Despite earlier confidence that this change wouldn't harm its business, Deliv cited a "confluence of events" leading to its decline, ending its innovative same-day delivery service that partnered with brick-and-mortar retailers.
