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

restofworld.org

111–120 of 246 posts

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

#111
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I bike around with Kryptonites largest and thickest U-lock Oh you might want to visit the Lock Picking Lawyer’s YouTube channel today… he’s tested all the U-locks and picks them open in 30-60 seconds. https://youtu.be/fckVKa4K4Ps?si=Rwujt_k-QF-QYs4w https://youtu.be/jZtNEC1uGg4?si=KMZJnogntWmMB_fA

I do follow LPL, love the channel. I’ve never been worried about bike thieves picking locks, I’ve never seen or heard of them doing that. I’ve only seen/heard of them them using destructive methods, typically bolt cutters.

If the average bike thief gets as good at picking locks at LPL, we’re very screwed!

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

#112
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are locks that can withstand a determined thief who has a budget lower than the value of the bike for a few minutes.

Would these locks actually cost less than the bike itself?

I usually spend more on my lock and chains than I do on my bicycle. The bicycle may only cost $100-300 but I don’t have to buy it 4+ times if it’s never stolen.

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

#114
post #42

US perspective (eg theft of bikes / crime is not AS serious a problem as Brazil, although it can be bad): I'm a bit torn here. On the one hand, I fully empathize with the delivery drivers (particularly if the rules / policy of the app is NOT doorstep delivery) and where theft is a real issue. However, as a (US) consumer, where the apps DO allow us to request doorstep delivery, I think there is no issue with consumers…

Ehhh no ethical consumption and all that but I’m gonna have to go ahead and disagree with that last sentence. If I become aware of a business treating workers poorly I’m inclined to find an alternative.

It seems like their market is a duopoly, so finding an alternative may not be possible.

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

#115
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing it with a 5-second hand off is like one of those bar graphs that cuts off the origin to make the difference in the bars look bigger. It’s more a difference between a 15 and 18 minute delivery. Not nothing, but I don’t see a huge difference between that and someone who lives 18 minutes away. I personally go down to meet them, but mostly because it’s faster for me to run down than wait for them to take my slo…

15 minutes vs. 18 minutes - that's roughly a 17% pay cut for the driver, plus assumption of liability (for theft). I'll guess that ~100% of folks here on HN would feel themselves blatantly screwed over if they were on the receiving end of that deal.

If I was a disabled person who would have immense difficulty getting to the street and back again, I sure would hope I could pay an extra 3% or have that cost built in, because going to the street would defeat the purpose of getting delivery.

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

#116
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything can be bought. The situation delivery workers are in is not one of choice, of decision over their own conditions of living and working, regarding the number of working hours, the independence, the wages, etc... To blindly expect those people to do whatever you want because you have the money makes you look closer to a Disney Villain than a human being who wants to build a society with these people.

> because you have the money I think the issue is that maybe the customer doesn’t have the money to make the laborer do what they want. At a much higher wage, the delivery person would be happy to risk their bicycle / other capital.

Maybe the money doesn't have to come from the customer but from the capital then

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

#118
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I live I saw a big shift in delivery people in the late aughts. I live in a city in the northeast (not NYC). These days even most of the apps like DoorDash are still using a restaurant's own delivery drivers. I lived in a high-rise with elevators. From about 2000 until the late aughts it was like clockwork. They'd ring my buzzer, I'd buzz them in, and they'd stop at my door. In the late aughts it started to shi…

I mean - after expenses, they're getting paid like $8 per hour. It sucks, sure. But what level of service do you expect for non-livable wages?

Sure, but that was true 20+ years ago too and they came to your door.

I don't disagree with the larger point per se, I just find it interesting that it changed.

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

#119
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Kryptonites largest and thickest U-lock gives way to a battery powered angle grinder in about 2 minutes.

True but, angle grinders make a lot if noise and very conspicuous sparks. Of course thieves will still do it if they can get away with it, but it’s not a very quick or stealthy method.

Picking the lock, in the other hand, is pretty fast and won’t attract much attention. Thief just needs to be sophisticated enough to have the correct picking tool and practice with it a bit.

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

#120
post #42

US perspective (eg theft of bikes / crime is not AS serious a problem as Brazil, although it can be bad): I'm a bit torn here. On the one hand, I fully empathize with the delivery drivers (particularly if the rules / policy of the app is NOT doorstep delivery) and where theft is a real issue. However, as a (US) consumer, where the apps DO allow us to request doorstep delivery, I think there is no issue with consumers…

Sorry, but it is insane that people that live in areas with no parking can request doorstep delivery in the United States. People that live on the 10th story of a luxury high rise in the downtown of a major city with a 5 minute security process will request doorstep delivery, forcing drivers to occupy driving lanes for minutes with their hazards thrown as they navigate the byzantine favela that the villager has requested their $8 Mcdonalds order be brought to.

And it is your responsiblity, it is clownlike to fall on your back and flail your hands in the air and shout about how there is nothing you can do about this and your hands are tied etc. Put on your flip flops, and squeak your way down to meet the man downstairs who doesn't speak english and has your McCheesy with McCrusty sauce. Delivery apps prey and set at odds with one another customers who are gouged and drivers who are miserably underpaid all for the sake of... burning VC capital. Both parties, drivers and customers, as long as they continue to participate in the carnival act, should treat one another with good faith and respect as much as is possible, instead of retreating into their castles and pointing at Arial carved into glowing stones that indicate the beginning and end of what they owe one another

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