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Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

restofworld.org

11–20 of 246 posts

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#11

Imagine getting paid to deliver something and complaining about actually having to deliver it. I can see the problems they face, but delivering an item...most of the way...isn't the solution.

Imagine a world in which doing the job right (and taking pride in doing so, regardless of how trivial a job it is) is actually the norm. In some parts of some countries, it still is.

Perhaps the problem is America is economically biased. If your pride in your trivial job brings you respect in your community, then maybe it's worth it, even if you're struggling to make ends meet. If your pride buys you not a modicum of social standing, and barely let's you provide basic essentials for yourself, and you're treated with contempt or as an invisible person by your community, why put pride into the job?

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#12

The absolute entitlement to believe that delivery workers should be coming up to your door at the 9th floor, while complaining about "ethics". You're using a delivery service like Uber Eats, Deliveroo or Doordash that are well known to underpay, overwork and unjustly punish workers that do not maximize their deliveries per hour, and you have the gall to complain that they're not taking pride in their jobs from your i…

Some people have disabilities thou.

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#13
post #5

Imagine getting paid to deliver something and complaining about actually having to deliver it. I can see the problems they face, but delivering an item...most of the way...isn't the solution.

Sounds like the primary worry is having their bike or other gear stolen, which is reasonable I think. If you can't earn without those things, then you won't want to risk them. The solution seems to be either to get customers to come down, or to eliminate crime. I'd take a guess that having customers come down is a quicker and cheaper solution to implement.

Another solution is having a proper bicycle lock. Yes, they’re heavy but I bike around with Kryptonites largest and thickest U-lock, as well as sometimes with a 25-lb 18mm motorcycle chain for the bicycle.

I do think the food delivery model should only work for customers willing to pay delivery people $25+/hr, especially considering you’re not just paying what should be a living wage for labor but also renting the capital that the delivery person brings to the job (car, bicycle, locks, etc)

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#14

Imagine getting paid to deliver something and complaining about actually having to deliver it. I can see the problems they face, but delivering an item...most of the way...isn't the solution.

If the payment for the service doesn't cover the costs of the service (insurance for a bike and for the loss of work before a new one is found), then what is so surprising? The market is adjusting: if the cost is fixed, then the offer (quality of service) gets reduced.

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#16

The absolute entitlement to believe that delivery workers should be coming up to your door at the 9th floor, while complaining about "ethics". You're using a delivery service like Uber Eats, Deliveroo or Doordash that are well known to underpay, overwork and unjustly punish workers that do not maximize their deliveries per hour, and you have the gall to complain that they're not taking pride in their jobs from your i…

.

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the primary worry is having their bike or other gear stolen, which is reasonable I think. If you can't earn without those things, then you won't want to risk them. The solution seems to be either to get customers to come down, or to eliminate crime. I'd take a guess that having customers come down is a quicker and cheaper solution to implement.

Another solution is having a proper bicycle lock. Yes, they’re heavy but I bike around with Kryptonites largest and thickest U-lock, as well as sometimes with a 25-lb 18mm motorcycle chain for the bicycle. I do think the food delivery model should only work for customers willing to pay delivery people $25+/hr, especially considering you’re not just paying what should be a living wage for labor but also renting the ca…

No lock can withstand a determined thief.

Re: Come downstairs or we’ll eat your order, delivery workers tell customers

#19
The market decides.

Food delivery most places mean to the door of the apartment, not the apartment complex entrance.

This is terrible for food delivery agents, since it slashes the efficiency of most deliveries.

I always run downstairs, since I am humbled that anyone would cook and bring me food. But as long as this is not the norm, food delivery agents are at the bottom of the food chain. In the past, this was a job for unions.

Postal workers of Denmark had passed by law that mailboxes must be at street level. So all apartment complexes nationwide had to install extra mailboxes at the ground floor if they hadn't already. It can be quite bad for your knees to walk thousands of stairs every day.

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