to think that Deliveroo etc should be banned!

[Coastalwalks]

Hi all,

I live in London and was recently nearly knocked off my bike by a deliveroo driver on a moped (he was completely in the wrong, though will not be drawing a road diagram to illustrate lol). When I shouted at him he just made fun of my voice and it enraged me soooo much. These are my chief issues with deliveroo etc:

• There are now so many dangerous drivers either on mopeds or bikes with batteries illegally fitted to them - flagrantly going the wrong way up one-way streets, running reds etc. Very dangerous and a friend of mine recently had someone break into her secure underground parking area to steal her electric bike. There was so much damage to the property and she basically thinks that her bike was nicked to order.
• I looked into it and deliveroo actually acknowledge that deliveroo drivers 'rent out' their accounts to others, many of whom are undocumented migrants - but they put the responsibility on the original driver to check that the person renting the account has the right to work etc! Complete dereliction of duty, and basically facilitates the exploitation / trafficking of illegal immigrants who then have no legal protection, don't pay tax etc...
• On a slightly pious level I think it's terrible and lazy that so many people now think it's normal to be able to just order food in so rapidly - like it is genuinely quite aristocratic to expect to press a button and have a shawarma wrap at your door in <20 minutes. People should learn to cook or at least have to walk round the block to the chippy. It's lazy!
• Meeting the deliveroo orders in small restaurants means it takes twice as long to get your actual food, and it ruins the ambiance when there are loads of deliveroo drivers outside or at the door (though acknowledge this is not the case at Naice restaurants)
• Everyone I know who works in FS has to basically eat a deliveroo at their desk at 8pm every night - maybe without deliveroo everyone could go home a bit earlier ! ! ! !

YABU - let me have my massaman curry you calvinistic treat-hater
YANBU - deliveroo is a scourge

I think all delivery companies (food and all the parcel companies) need looking at and some kind of stronger regulations put in place regarding renting out profiles and vetting of drivers as there is some serious exploitation going on and some very bad behaviour. They should have to have numbers that are visibly displayed so you can report them for their bad behaviour both on and off road.

I personally hate the food delivery companies, mainly because of the dangerous driving behaviour because of the pressure to deliver and the way they are prioritised at restaurants ruining the experience of eating out. I've found that if they are not prioritised or have to wait they become very disruptive to other diners and start yelling orders at staff again ruining the experience of eating out. Unfortunately both of these behaviours are the responsibility of either the police (road/ driving behaviour) or restaurant management (disruptive behaviour in the restaurant) and not the responsibilities of the public.

Maybe the food delivery companies need to get rid of the pressure to deliver for the drivers. It would reduce both sets of the behaviours I dislike. It would destroy thier business as no-one wants lukewarm or cold food. I know someone who orders on such apps and she times them, the second they go over she screenshots it and is demanding refunds and replacements. I've witnessed drivers shouting and swearing at staff and demanding compensation as food is delayed.

My solution is not to support the apps - we don't use them as limited as they are in our area. I also refuse to dine at places that cook food for them in house and can't cope with the demand. I boycott one McDonald's because it does almost exclusively food app orders and you can be ages waiting for your food. IMO dark kitchens for the food delivery apps should be encouraged (especially for the chains, who don't seem to be able to keep up with delivery demand and in person customers) but robustly monitored and regulated.

@bluebunny1 so sorry about your mum, that is awful! Hope she is doing better - can only imagine how that would knock her confidence, as well as causing injury! xxx

Zero hours contracts are another one, it leads to some risky behaviour and pushes the riders to not be safe.

Agree. And all the waste created by takeaways is maddening.

Cook at home if you want to eat at home. If you want someone else to cook, go to a restaurant and eat it there.

Edited: meant to quote @Elphame.

It's exactly the same where I am. The council have spent a fortune on bike lanes, which a lot of folk won't use as they are full of modified electric bikes going the wrong way etc.

I think this article by Catriona Stewart in The Glasgow Herald sums up the issues very well. https://www.heraldscotland.com/businesshq/23898430.e-bike-riders-cycle-lanes-scary-work-hard/

This paragraph in particular resonates with me:

"I worry, though, that the conversation around these illegal bikes sidelines or even dehumanises the people riding them. Do I want the bikes off the pavements and bike lanes? I do. Do I want people arrested and deported because, ultimately, they were forced by market pressures into making bad decisions? I do not."

On a slightly pious level I think it's terrible and lazy that so many people now think it's normal to be able to just order food in so rapidly - like it is genuinely quite aristocratic to expect to press a button and have a shawarma wrap at your door in <20 minutes. People should learn to cook or at least have to walk round the block to the chippy. It's lazy

This made me laugh TBH. I can see your train of thought but I’m sure you also use things that have been invented to minimize efforts or have things faster, you can’t just ban the ones you don’t care about.

ready meals (people should learn to cook)
mobile phones (why do people need to always be reachable, just use landlines)
iron-on clothes labels (people should learn to sew)
microwave (why the hurry, use the oven)
dryer (just wait for it to line dry)
hiring a cleaner / gardener / party entertainer (how aristocratic, can’t you do it yourself?)
…

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree with all your points, but the « people should not be impatient & lazy » aspect, sorry but no.

I'm not sure about Deliveroo but with Uber eats there is so many backround checks and daily checks to make sure you are the person the account is for. It takes weeks to actually get an account because of the amount of backround checks and once you have an account there are random checks like taking a selfie on the account without being able to do anything to make sure it's you so accounts can't be rented out, also each restaurant gets a photo of the driver that's collecting the order the photo that is on the account which is matched to passport/drivers license so a random person that's rented the account can't show up for the order

@CheerUpPeterReid

TLDR but…

"I worry, though, that the conversation around these illegal bikes sidelines or even dehumanises the people riding them”

Interesting, however, I’d argue the antisocial, bad behaviour of the individual riders etc is what creates dehumanisation.

There is no cost for consideration and adherence to the law. Tired of excuses for uncivil conduct personally.

OK, so, logically, does that mean that I am guilty of making life difficult for disabled people by choosing not to use these services? Since the fewer people use them, the less viable they will be?

You seem to be merging different issues. Of course traffic laws should be respected by everyone, and enforced if they are not. They exist for safety. Deliveroo drivers who break traffic laws should be held to account like everyone else. But why would that mean banning deliveroo? Why would you want to live in a country where the government controls supply and demand to that extent? FS workers have always sat at their desks until 8pm, they just got pizza hut in before.

YANBU it’s slobby and consumerist. Just make a home cooked meal ffs

Same where I am in Cornwall. Barely even pass McD’s. Pretty much no delivery options. I love it!

Uh, I'm not actually obliged to convince you of anything despite your order, you know. And anyway, if you think Burger King and home delivery services for it are an exploitation of disabled people, then presumably you think they should restrict their services so disabled people can't use them as freely as fully able people. Perhaps you can convince me why that's a good idea?

theres no legislation for these drivers i dont mind food deliveries but surely br4eaking the law to do it isnt the way

Also, what's wrong with being lazy every now and then? I cook almost every day, and I'm at home with a DH who works from home and three home educated children, so that's three meals a day for five people which I make from scratch. Sometimes I can't be fucked to cook dinner and we'll happily be lazy and have a takeaway. I'm allowed to be lazy sometimes and I want to demonstrate to my kids that yes, you ARE allowed to be lazy occasionally and no, it isn't a moral failing. If we were having takeaway 7 nights a week it would be a different story, but we aren't.

wouldn’t the service be as slow if all the online customers were physically in the restaurant/supermarket?

I guess you could argue that at least you would be able to assess the speed of service based on how full the place was. But then people
ordering online need less time from the staff (order all at once, paid when ready vs multiple back and forth to the kitchen, questions about menu items, asking for water refill, etc)

I know this will blow your mind, but some of us actually can and do make home cooked meals but still sometimes enjoy a takeaway! I know right!!!!

I think they and all the ither foid delivery services are making a massive contribution to the obesity crisis.

@NonPlayerCharacter

I see this is a counter productive discussion but will bite.

Are you being deliberately disingenuous- charging £23 for crap because it’s too daunting to go out is the obvious point I was making.

2 of my DC have worked in fast food in recent years and they have never met such rude people as the delivery drivers. They were all rude, arrogant and throughly unpleasant. Shouting at the staff, hanging around outside smoking, stopping customers getting through the doors as there were so many of them. Neither of my DC had ever met one that was polite or friendly. They also park illegally outside the restaurants, in disabled bays, parked so badly that they took up 2 spaces etc.

Ive never ordered from any food delivery service and I never will - Id rather drive to get it myself.

I agree. Driving at night the other day in poor visibility, I encountered a Deliveroo guy on an e bike cycling on the wrong side of the road, dressed in black and with no lights. If I had hit him I would have felt guilty but it would have been entirely his fault. Wish there was some enforcement round here, or restaurants shouldn't be using a service where the riders don't use lights.

Plus I hate the waste generated by takeaways.

I don't actually disagree with any of your points, however I think - at least where I am - the antisocial behaviour of food couriers has, in effect, become normalised. Therefore trying to solve on an individual basis isn't going to work and we need some kind of intervention at a corporate level. Which isn't going to happen 😔.

Burger King charges what it charges and it's hardly the costliest food outlet. It doesn't charge more if you're disabled. If it's exploiting disabled people by making its food available for home delivery then the same criticism must be levelled at every home delivery service.

If a disabled person (or any vulnerable person) is overspending money they don't have on food services, it's not on Burger King or Domino's or whatever to start restricting their service to them. What exactly do you want them to do? Not offer home delivery at all? Then what about literally every other food outlet that delivers? What about the vulnerable people who do need it even if it costs?

Thank goodness I live in an area without Deliveroo or any other of the delivery companies. I find it very odd to see all these people zipping about with massive boxes on their backs when I go to a city.

What are people actually having delivered at 10 in the morning? Takeaways?

I'm 100% happy with my orders and deliveries from Deliveroo, so I can't fault the company in terms of service.

However, when it comes to lack of regulation of riders, generally being nearly ran over on pavements by fast moving cycles, scooters, and dangerously driven mopeds, then I agree that action needs to be taken as it's crazy and getting worse, it's like the wild west! What can be done, I dunno.