A Driver’s Life: Waiting, Waiting, Waiting for UberEats
Want to Deliver Meals? Better Keep Your Stats Up to Satisfy the Apps
Edited by Winnie O'Kelley
To get an early entry to Disney World or Universal Studios, visitors need to reserve in advance. Odd as it may seem, food delivery workers – not just diners securing a table – now have to do something similar.
In New York, UberEats has begun assigning hours to senior couriers who reserve time slots in advance. The choices are based on their delivery track records, which can mean “priority”, “early” or “general” access.
This system belies the appeal of flexibility that accompanied the rise of the gig economy. Workers can no longer easily pick up a little business when they have free time, one of the biggest selling points for parents tending to children and those working part time in other jobs.
“This is the lie,” said Do Lee, an assistant professor in the Department of Urban Studies at Queens College, who has done research on the immigrant food delivery cyclists in New York City. ”It seems that you can work whenever you want, and have some flexibility, but you have to sign up for shifts.”
Uber Eats introduced its extension called Planner for delivery people at the end of the year after New York City passed an increase in minimum wage for such workers. The minimum rose generally to $18 an hour from $7, a policy opposed by the big apps, which warned they would have to make changes like cutting drivers. UberEats' response to schedule workers and limit their time makes it on par with Doordash and Grubhub, which have offered a scheduling system for years.
“Because of the new rules, we have to limit the number of couriers who can be online each hour of the day,” explains a blog from UberEats. “So, unfortunately, couriers will no longer be able to go online to deliver anytime they choose.”
The three major delivery apps account for 99% of the market in New York, as statistics in 2021 show. Most delivery workers choose from or switch between the three platforms. They can no longer easily turn to Uber Eats if Doordash or Grubhub limits them and they are stuck waiting when they would like to be working.
Assessing the impact of the new higher wage law is anything but clear cut. Delivery people say they have to watch their numbers obsessively as scheduled time becomes more important, apps are adding fees that drive up prices to customers and higher prices appear to be cutting into their tips.
Darwin Jara has been working as a food delivery worker for five years. She switches frequently between all three apps on her phone while waiting for an order.
It’s 11 a.m. on a Thursday, the beginning of the lunch crunch. Darwin sits on her scooter outside a Sweetgreen in Brooklyn, wearing her helmet. She plugs in her phone and bows her head to block the sun from the screen. A bright orange spot flickers on the map, indicating the most recent order in the middle of Manhattan. “It’s too far away,” she shrugs.
Most of the time, food delivery is about waiting. Nearly a dozen scooters are parked in the block where Darwin rests, awaiting the apps. Zoom out to all of New York City, 65,000 delivery workers face similar conditions.
The couriers often congregate in fast food restaurants. There are warm seats, few dine-in customers, and most importantly, charging outlets. The McDonald's at 72d Street and Broadway has a large open space in front. At 7 p.m. on a Friday, 20 bikes or e-bikes were parked outside, with others scattered around.
Delivery men waited at tables near the window and by the door, each with a mobile phone in hand. Sam, who immigrated from Burkina Faso in West Africa, stared at his device hoping for a chance to make some money.. Food delivery is his first job in America, and he wants to make enough to start his previous plumbing business.
In the first two months, Sam completed 406 deliveries, scoring 4.9 in customer satisfaction, 100% acceptance rate, and 96% in punctuality. Only if he continues to have a good record will he be allowed to schedule his work, and choose the desired time one or two days in advance.
Doordash is the only app that Sam chooses, for fear of being assigned orders in the opposite direction that he can’t handle. He wants to keep his numbers up.
In an hour, not a single order arrives.
The researcher in Queens says options are few for the workers. “The informal economy was already brutal even before apps,” Lee said. “The app players take advantage of the ways in which they can formalize the labor, and extract labor whether it's by reducing offline costs or paying them little wages.”
Some others point out that the city will ultimately have fewer, higher-paid people doing food deliveries.
The minimum wage law that raised the base hourly pay of food delivery workers from $7 to $18 allows app companies alternatively to pay only for trip time. For the latter option, the pay would add up to 55 cents per minute, around $33 per hour.
Before the wage increase, delivery workers earned $11 with tips and as little as $4 without tips hourly, according to a city report.
The new law is the result of a 3-year campaign by Los Deliveristas Unidos, a collective of food delivery workers in New York City. In April 2023, it lost its leaders due to concerns that a wage increase may backfire and lead to fewer delivery workers.
