Today, on Valentineâs Day, delivery riders working for platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats will be on strike, demanding higher wages. It will probably be the largest platform worker strike ever seen in the UK. Iâm one of the organisers.
I live in south London. I spend most of the day on the road. I ride 80 miles a day on my moped over the course of nine to 10 hours, and usually make less than the minimum wage after costs. Because Iâm self-employed, I have no guaranteed basic pay. Instead, I get variable fees for each delivery based on distance and other factors.
Adjusted for inflation, our earnings have been going down for years. A recent report looked at pay in the sector and found the vast majority of platforms couldnât provide evidence that workersâ gross pay was at least the minimum wage after costs. I try to do three orders an hour and average about £10 before costs. Sometimes I make less, more like £7. Other riders who are less experienced or donât have accounts with all the apps that I do make even less.
My costs are quite low. I own my moped outright, and I donât have to pay someone else to lend me their login (a practice known as renting an account). Even so, I have to spend about £3 on petrol, insurance, maintenance and other costs for every hour I work. So if my account says Iâm making £10 an hour, Iâm actually making £7. I have to make nearly £14 just to earn the equivalent of the minimum wage. Itâs rare that I make that much nowadays.
I work six days a week. On a normal day, I get up at 6.30am and have a coffee and a cigarette before hitting the road. I work all the peak hours: from 7am to 10am, noon to 3pm, and 5pm to 9pm. I get so exhausted that I have to go home for a nap between lunch and dinner. The apps talk about flexibility, but thereâs no flexibility at all: you have to work the peak hours, or you donât make anywhere near enough money.
Falling wages are making all our lives harder. In my local mechanicsâ garage, they have a list on the wall of all the riders who owe them money. It used to just be one or two, but now all the regulars are on it. We are all scared of getting a big repair bill. My food bill keeps going up and up. Iâm getting less healthy because Iâm totally reliant on processed frozen food.
Work makes me anxious. There are lots of things that add to the stress. The only way to make more money is to ride faster, which means taking more risks. You can get an extra few pounds an hour if youâre willing to risk your life. Iâve been in situations where Iâve skidded and only just avoided crashing.
In other jobs Iâve had, if you worked hard you would be all right. But when youâre a rider, you have to be lucky, too: lucky to avoid being hit by a car, lucky to avoid being robbed, lucky to avoid being made to wait for orders. So far, I have been lucky. But the thing with luck is that it doesnât last for ever.
I came to the UK thinking that this was one of the richest countries in the world. But things are always getting worse â I work more and more hours for less money. I have ended up asking myself if this was the right decision.
The lives of other riders are even harder than mine. Much of the workforce is undocumented. They rent accounts from other people, but they donât have the right papers to get another job. That means they canât find other work, no matter how bad the pay gets. Often they rent everything they need from one person: a mattress on the floor of an overcrowded house, a moped and a delivery account. They always have to stay alert to avoid immigration raids and police checks. They are living in poverty, but nobody seems to care.
Deliveroo has said that, âThousands of people apply to work with Deliveroo each month, rider retention rates are high and the overwhelming majority of riders tell us that they are satisfied working with us.â Uber Eats has said: âWe offer a flexible way for couriers to earn by using the app when and where they choose. We know that the vast majority of couriers are satisfied with their experience on the app.â
But we canât go on like this. Weâve had enough. Thatâs why we started organising this strike. Thousands of us across more than 90 areas went on strike on 2 February, and weâre going to do it again today. Some might point out that Deliveroo riders have a union: the GMB signed a âpartnershipâ deal with the platform in 2022, and calls itself âthe union for ridersâ. But we are fighting for ourselves. Customers who want to support us should do a one-day boycott of the apps on Valentineâs Day, and join us when we protest in the streets.