How does the practice of self-employment exploit drivers with regards to benefits?

Food delivery apps often employ their drivers and riders as independent contractors, calling their positions “delivery partners”. This more lenient job position allows for all of the benefits that convince people to become delivery drivers in the first place – flexibility and freedom. The downside to this position is that since drivers are technically “self-employed,” they are not given benefits such as sick pay, superannuation, or holiday pay. Drivers are generally not trained nor given protection during bad weather. To maintain their modes of transportation, they need to pay out of pocket for gas or repairs, which all has to be factored into the amount that they are actually paid for working. 

A survey conducted by the Transport Workers Union in Australia showed that one in three delivery drivers had been injured on the job, with 80% of them receiving no help from the company after their injury. Additionally, more than half of them say that they didn’t have enough masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer for their jobs during the pandemic. Many food delivery drivers are also having issues with regards to sick leave if they contract COVID-19, even if they contract the virus on the job. This survey has encouraged the government of New South Wales in Australia to introduce a bill which would ensure that food delivery drivers are given a certain minimum amount of personal protective equipment to do their jobs.

A food delivery driver during the pandemic

Many food delivery drivers are immigrants, thus their status can also infringe on their ability to earn money through food delivery apps. From an article in Vice about the exploitation of food delivery drivers, we can learn about first-hand experiences with food delivery. Malik, a student from Pakistan who is a driver for UberEats, can only work 20 hours a week due to this student visa. He says he can be lucky to earn $300 in that strict time limit, which is not enough for him to live off of. Due to his visa status, he is not eligible for financial support from the government, especially not during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Though the food delivery business has only grown in the past couple of years, some companies fight back against the exploitative nature of the big giants in food delivery apps. The company Ride On, a food delivery service based in Australia, was created to challenge the big names in the industry by putting the drivers first. Ride On is owned by the drivers themselves and they pride themselves on setting up a more locally centered model of food delivery. Instead of following delivery fees set by the app, merchants will pay for a subscription to the service and then can decide themselves how much they’ll pay for deliveries, with Ride On giving them recommendations that they believe will be accepted by the drivers. 

On November 3, 2020 there was a referendum in California called proposition 22 led by Uber and Lyft. If passed, this referendum would allow delivery companies an exemption from California employment law to continue treating workers as independent contractors. Unfortunately this proposition did pass, in part due to the huge amounts of money that rideshare and delivery companies poured into the proposition. The referendum's passage deals a blow to California's powerful labor unions and laws and allows these apps to maintain their independence with regards to withholding from their drivers and delivery drivers the same employment protections, benefits, and wages as traditional workers. Thus, we can see how food delivery apps’ use of the “self-employment” job position exploits delivery drivers.