If you work for deliveroo etc.., how does it work?

[Redtartanshoes]

I was in maccys this morning (post Xmas party carb fest), the amount of deliwroo drivers waiting for orders was insane, especially for a small restaurant in Scottish suburbia.

Real mix of people, old/young/male/female. Many driving reasonably expensive cars.

Got me thinking, how much do they get paid/how does it work/ who pays them/is it guaranteed hourly rate/income. Do you have to pay tax? Is it actually worth it? Blah blah blah.

Anyone explain? At £1.99 for a delivery I can’t see how the numbers stack up to be honest

Anyone?

I'd be interested to know too!

I have this conversation with DS regularly, lol. Blatant placemark in the hope that somebody can put us out of our misery

Also wonder too. I know a girl I work with did domino's deliveries as extra work on lead up to her wedding but from memory she might have made £30 over 6 hours...which obviously is not good

My dh did it for a little while. They pay per drop, around the £4 mark. It used to be by the hour but they realised they could pay less if they weren't riding. The riders are 'self employed' when in reality deliveroo produce the invoices and pay them directly. Riders download an app and sign up for hours to work a week in advance. The algorithm will only allocate a certain number of rider shifts and its first come first served. As people drop out more shifts come available. There's more info out there if you search the reddit boards or check YouTube for other Riders experiences. Dh doesn't do it anymore it was just a bit of pocket money a few years ago. The insulated bag comes in handy when we go camping.

So who subsidies it then? If I pay £1.99 for my delivery… and the driver is getting £4…. Who’s paying the rest, and also how do deliveroo make anything?

I NEED MORE ANSWERS!!

There was one wee guy that was there 3 times in the time it took me to a snaffle my sausage McMuffin (((admittedly this wasn’t a long time))))

Op have you not noticed how the food item prices on deliveroo are more than they are if you buy them in the restaurant ? They are where I live anyway. I expect that explains some of it.

Every man and his dog now does some sort if food delivery on the side. Our neighbour is a college lecturer and does Dominos, just eat and something else on nights and weekends. His wife said he's hoping to retire earlier!

@catfunk I noticed this and it’s ridiculous how much more you need to pay to use these services compared to walking into the place itself

Deliveroo take a cut of the food bill, so they don't just make the delivery charge. It's quite a high %, which can be crippling for small businesses, but a lot of them feel they need to be on there otherwise they'll miss out altogether.

Deliveroo takes up to 40% of the menu price, which covers its cut plus the delivery cost
The delivery and service charges are on top of that

The restaurant gets the remaining 60%, which is why some of them hike up the prices on the app menus compared to ordering directly

Side hustles innit. People using their spare time to build a bigger nest egg to invest/retire early

Also see matched betting, online freelancing and crypto currency.

It’s entrepreneurship for the masses.

I live in an area where Deliveroo, JustEat, etc aren't available. Reading this is really interesting.

When we go somewhere we can use the services we do it just for the novelty

@catfunk the macdonalds prices were the same, although yy on other take sways good point.

I think it's a combination of:

1. The restaurant makes less profit than they would if you bought directly because Deliveroo take a cut.

2. Deliveroo subsidising the delivery cost for now to make it palatable for customers, but once they establish themselves as the only game in town, intending to hike it up and/or squeeze the riders and the restaurants once they don't have significant competition. Deliveroo don't currently make a profit - that might just be creative accounting to avoid tax but it might also be in part that they are taking a hit in paying riders more than they can afford to in the short term as part of a longer term strategy.

3. Related to (2), the real end game is to have automated delivery for some if not all of the journey, on the assumption that maintenance costs will be lower than wages.

1 is a fact. 2 and 3 are assumptions on my part.

I think Deliveroo riders should see themselves as making hay while the sun shines. No reason not to take the wages as long as they are available but don't count on it lasting long term, have an idea of what you'll move to when it dries up. (Frankly, good advice for any job).

A related question - when you add tips for the driver and restaurant, do they actually get it?

Gosh! Reading the above means I’m less likely to use Deliveroo for a small business. That really must hit them hard.

If they are “self employed” and not paying tax I can’t imagine it will take long for HRMC to catch up with them either.

Deliveroo make massive losses each year, funded by the investors who fund them.

It gets weirder and weirder…