‘Highest pay (Best in Singapore).’ I hardly doubt so.
Deliveroo delivery personnel are becoming our favourite people in the world as we eagerly await their arrivals with our breakfast, lunch or dinner.
What we don’t know are the woes the majority of these food delivery riders experience on a daily basis.
These woes are veiled by a thin layer of disguise; the access to high-quality equipment, the freedom to choose when to work, and most lucratively, the questionable ‘Best in Singapore’ salary dispatchers are entitled to.
Don’t get me wrong; there is also a flipside to all things unpleasant in life. Success stories of dispatch riders earning up to SGD $3000-$4000 a month amazed me at first glance, but what exactly is the back-end slogging they went through to achieve the acclaimed prize, we don’t know for sure.
Not Just In Singapore
Earlier this year saw the uproar of Deliveroo dispatchers from Brighton, England. This stemmed from the fact that they were earning less than the National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour, a result from the lack of deliveries. When interviewed, Deliveroo claimed that they weren’t obliged to pay this wage as the riders ‘work for themselves’.
The company insisted that these dispatch riders were self-employed and they wanted to be, as they value the freedom to work when and wherever they wanted.
The Local Scene
First things first, the dispatch riders can be categorized into 2 groups: the pioneer batch and the non-pioneer batch.
Pioneer batch of dispatchers was offered a payment scheme where they would be paid for every drop off done on top of the existing $8.50 hourly rate. However, this scheme doesn’t apply to the newer dispatch riders who had recently come on board. Instead, the non-pioneer batch is classed as ‘Fee per Delivery’ riders. Being paid solely through the drop-offs they make, they are not entitled to the steady hourly rate compared to the former riders.
To compensate for the difference in payment, the per drop-off rate is increased for non-pioneers, in the hopes that it would balance out the two payment schemes.
The Thing Is, There Aren’t Enough Deliveries For Everyone
One of the attractiveness of working with Deliveroo is the ever-glorified ability to ‘work whenever you want to, and wherever you want’. That considered, I guess you can’t really foresee when there would be an influx of dispatch riders available to work, whether it’s peak period or not. Sometimes it’s really just pure coincidence that there would be 15 riders available all at the same time and at other times none at all at the company’s disposal.
As you can expect, when there aren’t many people ordering food, paired with a saturation of dispatch riders, each dispatch rider logically gets a lower job count.
But when the job count gets ridiculously low for an extended period of time, you can expect the employees to kick up a fuss – especially the non-pioneers who rely on the number of deliveries for their income.
As can be seen above, from the ‘My deliveries’ chart for one Saturday shared by a Deliveroo dispatch rider, only 6 delivery orders were placed. Although we do not know for sure how many hours the dispatch rider worked, 6 delivery orders a day does sound infrequent.
Let’s assume that he’d worked from the time of his first delivery to his last (1 pm – 8 pm) with the reference of the infographic above. A friend who delivers for Deliveroo has disclosed that the peak hours are, ‘11 am-2 pm and 5 pm-9 pm’. Peak hours on weekends pay $7.50 and $9 respectively during those periods, for every delivery done. Do the math and you’ll get a grand sum of just $7 an hour despite the hours of work. It’s crystal clear now why non-pioneer riders are upset due to the lack of delivery orders available and how the pioneers are at an advantage, especially with a basic hourly rate of $8.50.
The Even Nastier Side Of Things
Pioneer dispatch riders have reported that despite their on-time deliveries, Deliveroo is claiming otherwise. A said number of pioneers have received warning emails from the company of their ‘bad delivery ethics’, and they have also received offers from the company to switch to the ‘Pay per Delivery’ scheme if the dispatch riders are unable to cope.
Perhaps this could be seen as a desperate attempt at cost cutting?
Another pioneer dispatch rider has posted this on Facebook, indicating his perfect records – unlike what is claimed in the email that says that he’s failed to make multiple deliveries.
The email also warns the dispatch riders on his/her bad dispatch ‘behaviour’, and if not stand corrected, will be forced to take up the less attractive ‘Pay per Delivery’ payment scheme.
Of course, right before the email ends, why not another friendly reminder to urge them to convert into the ‘more profitable’ scheme for both parties.
Not all heroes wear capes but these dispatch riders are definitely heroes who rescue you from hunger pangs. No matter the adversities (and weather), they promise to deliver (no pun intended) and so far I haven’t been disappointed.
Despite all these unseen circumstances, they go about their delivery duties with a bright smile on their face when they arrive with your bags of goodies. The least we can do is to have them keep the $1 change they fumble to find, and a few kind words to spur them on.
