Live data from Hacker News

Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 65 posts

Re: Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation

#6

... so? I was working at Pizza Hut when I was 14, kids in the UK have paper-rounds, does it really matter if a 17-year-old is doing this? The account-lending scheme is weird though.

Yes it's weird that a 17 year old now isn't allowed to work.

Have they not been to any restaurants lately?

The major problem is the same issue with things like prostitution or drugs. If you ban it, you lose oversight and make it less safe.

I'd rather them allow kids to work, but put proper controls in place.

Re: Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation

#7
post #3

Similarly I've seen drivers that are registered as using a bicycle, but actually use a car. I imagine this is to swerve the insurance etc checks.

Yeah, it sounds like a kind of capitalist min-maxing, but the risk being on the drivers / employees. Same thing happened with Uber, where you drive your own car and pay your own maintenance / damages. Same thing happens everywhere, even local mail delivery where I live - which used to be a respectable, uniformed, full-time job - has turned into more of a gig economy, having become a part-time job where you're expected to use your own bike or van to do the deliveries.

Imagine needing to invest tens of thousands in a van just to have a chance of an underpaid and unthankful package delivery job.

Re: Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation

#8

... so? I was working at Pizza Hut when I was 14, kids in the UK have paper-rounds, does it really matter if a 17-year-old is doing this? The account-lending scheme is weird though.

Yeah it doesn't seem too bad, if you're earning 100 - 200 a day as a teenager like they say in the article, probably not paying rent to your parents, do that for a year or two, stash that in a savings account and you've got a house deposit ready for later in life

Re: Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation

#9
post #4

I don't think this is a major problem (currently). I've had > 500 deliveries via Deliveroo. And I haven't noticed one who looked underaged.

For you. Your anecdote does not represent everyone's experience. This seems to be an issue a lot of people have, "well I haven't seen it myself so I'm sure this isn't actually an issue".

Cynicism is fine, but it's better to pull up the numbers than go by personal experience and anecdotes, because that's n=1.

Re: Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation

#10

... so? I was working at Pizza Hut when I was 14, kids in the UK have paper-rounds, does it really matter if a 17-year-old is doing this? The account-lending scheme is weird though.

As a disclaimer, I'm not in the UK. I was working mowing lawns, raking leaves, cutting shrubbery and more when I was 8, and mucking out stables when I was 10... Which decidedly is probably not legal here.

However, I was interested by whether this would be legal or not.

https://www.gov.uk/child-employment/restrictions-on-child-em...

So there appears to be limits on when someone who is under 18 works, and what type of work. Additionally, it appears permits are needed for the employer, and the employee.

I picked Kirklees at random for more specific council laws: https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/employment-information/pdf/...

It appears that things not being done in this scheme:

Sign off by the parent Sign off properly by the employer (in this case, the person renting the account) A risk assessment

However, it appears "leaving school age" is 16, even though adulthood is 18? So I'm not sure any of it would apply to a 17 year old.

Post reply on HN