The working life of a delivery app rider is dictated by the tyranny of time. Time between deliveries, the time it takes to make a delivery, the time that a rider needs to rest, go to the bathroom, eat.

Ulisses Cioffi is a rider who is part of a group that organised last week’s Valentine’s Day strike. There are only a certain amount of deliveries that he can make safely in an hour, he tells me, a maximum of three. For those three, he will make just under £12 an hour. Sometimes, he says, “we cannot even make that”. Every obstacle on the way is a drag on his hourly income. Roadworks, busy restaurants that take longer to prepare deliveries, even the wait on the doorstep. “You’re not going to believe it, but there are a lot of people who order food then go for a shower.”

The big delivery apps have not only reduced the fees paid to drivers, but removed peak hour “boosts”, paid during heavy rain or at the weekends. “I know very experienced drivers who have been doing it longer than me, who are now working 10 or 11 hours a day, and making £105,” Cioffi says. When riders realised that their income was being squeezed and cut, they reached out to each other and compared notes. What emerged, Cioffi says, was a “disgusting” approach on the part of delivery apps, and the riders organised to strike.

Pay is the only thing they have any ability to influence through striking. Conditions are out of their control. Food is regularly stolen from the backs........

© The Guardian