Man sitting on wall wearing a face mask with his arm resting on an Uber Eats delivery bag

I think it’s important to pay attention to what’s happening in the so-called “gig economy” as it’s effectively what capitalists would do to all of us if they could get away with it. In this case, The Guardian looks at couriers working for apps such as Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo.

Sure enough, the couriers have no real idea what’s going on in terms of allocation of work. So they turn to workarounds and conspiracy theories. I can’t imagine this being good for anyone’s mental health.

The couriers wonder why someone who has only just logged on gets a gig while others waiting longer are overlooked. Why, when the restaurant is busy and crying out for couriers, does the app say there are none available?

“We can never work out the algorithm,” one of the drivers says, requesting anonymity for fear of losing work. They wonder if the app ignores them if they’ve done a few jobs already that hour, and experiment with standing inside the restaurant, on the pavement or in the car park to see if subtle shifts in geolocation matter.

“It’s an absolute nightmare,” says the driver, adding that they permanently lost access to one of the platforms over a matter of a “max five minutes” wait in getting to a restaurant while he finished another job for a different app. Sometimes he gets logged out for a couple of hours because his beard has grown, confusing the facial recognition software.

“It’s not at all like being an employee,” he says. He is regularly frustrated by having to challenge what appeared to be shortfall in pay per job – sometimes just 10p, but at other times a few pounds. “There’s nobody you can talk to. Everything is automated.”

[…]

“Every worker should understand the basis on which they are paid,” [James] Farrar said [who has a lot of experience with gig economy apps]. “But you’re being gamed into deciding whether to accept a job or not. Will I get a better offer? It’s like gambling and it’s very distressing and stressful for people.

“You are completely in a vacuum about how best to do the job and because people often don’t understand how decisions are being made about their work, it encourages conspiracies.”

Source: The Guardian

Image: Sargis Chilingaryan