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

There's one bloke round here on a moped, goes from the road to the path in the blink of an eye. I saw him riding through the park the other day, right past the play area, which isn't fenced off, because not even cyclists are allowed in there, so it should be safe for kids. Arsehole. I told him off when I saw him do the road to path thing and I was close enough to give him a piece of my mind! Park incident was after I saw him parked outside Dominos (on the path.) Dominos have their own delivery service anyway, so why people are paying extra for another person to do it is beyond me! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I've had enough of inconsiderate bastard motorists anyway. The amount of times I've walked past a car or van parked fully on the path is unreal. If I have paper and pen on me a leave a note under their windscreen wipers. Oh, and there's the fool who parks right outside their house in the bus stop, despite there being proper parking spaces nearby. Cyclists are dreadful round here, dark clothes and no lights when it's nighttime, idiots on electric scooters can do one too.

I agree with a lot of the OP’s points, and with the poster who said the whole industry is a form of modern slavery in plain sight. These workers are putting themselves in danger for very little reward and have nowhere to rest/ use the toilet between trips. So it’s having an impact on town centres as well

There’s also the point that social interaction - even a smile or a hello - is very important to human wellbeing- and so much is lost if we all stay in our houses getting food delivered

As long as I’m well enough to make food or go out and get it myself I wouldn’t use these apps, on moral grounds

You were unreasonable the second you stated you live in London and want to complain about the roads.

I read somewhere, I think in a book called Climate City, that within cities, it is actually more resource effective to have food cooked at designated places and delivered than each household or person cranking up their ovens and devices for their own individual meals. Also with increased ESG pressures on the food brands that typically receive orders - Mc Donalds, Pret a Manger, Starbucks, high street chains and privately owned restaurant groups - the brands are at least working towards waste/plastic/resource efficiency targets and regulated/punished commercially when they don't meet them.

And that the situation and efficiency and effectiveness is the exact opposite in rural areas.

@KingsleyBorder If someone is stuck at home with no family to help, and needs to order delivery has to pay costs. Costs they wouldn’t have to pay if they had the choice to visit a supermarket or collect their food from the restaurant.

I suppose this would be covered by things like PIP?

I agree, I hate them. I’ve nearly been run over on the pavement so many times by electric scooters or bikes delivering food. The riders don’t care.

If there's anything I feel that we can learn from the French, it's having civilised meals at work, away from one's desk.

But it's not the same restrictions that apply to any shopping is it? Online takeaway apps remove aspects of distance or limitations of choice. I can't click a few buttons and have a full weekly food shop at my door in twenty minutes. Nor can I do that with furniture or clothes.

As to whether you can find the money for it, you obviously haven't heard of people getting into high interest debt because they're using klarna to pay for deliveroo.

It's addictive. A few clicks and half an hour later dinner is there, without having to lift a finger.

But it has serious consequences which I don't think society should be ignoring.

As to the "someone" who should decide, it would obviously be an elected government, which is what we have at the moment and which already restricts who can buy what and puts levies on things it wishes to discourage because it realises that they're bad for the population. Sugar taxes. Age restrictions. Alcohol duty. Tax on cigarettes.

The problem is lax rules and enforcement. Companies like Deliveroo exploit a complicit government that turns a blind eye to all the negative impacts .

I agree with you OP that the onus should be on Deliveroo/Uber/just eat to do their due diligence regarding their delivery people on their immigration status, their vehicles and any other issues like criminal records.

I don’t agree with you about your views on people ordering takeaways though as that really is none of your fucking business.

When I'm stuck in work, without companies like Deliveroo, I often wouldn't get to eat.

One of my neighbours (neither disabled nor with a particularly busy life, I know them) gets their lunch delivered on deliveroo x4 per week from pret or similar. It's bonkers.

I think it's fine to be judgemental about things which are dangerous, unhealthy, bad for the environment and unnecessary.

Deliveroo and Just Eat are a scourge of the area of London where I live.

You must live in a pretty naice part of London if that's its "scourge".

Obviously. But what I am saying is this:

Burger King food that costs £23 delivered does not cost £5 if you go into Burger King and buy it there. THE DELIVERY CHARGE IS NOT £18 ON A £5 MEAL.

That is literally the only point I am making.

There’s also the point that social interaction - even a smile or a hello - is very important to human wellbeing- and so much is lost if we all stay in our houses getting food delivered

As long as I’m well enough to make food or go out and get it myself I wouldn’t use these apps, on moral grounds.

Are you saying that you would not smile at or say hello to the person who delivers your food to your house @Member968405? Why on earth not?

It’s pretty much the same level of social interaction as saying “cod and chips please” to the guy at the chippy counter.

Why can't she judge it? It's her right!
Don't tell someone else what they can and can't do!

Half of these Deliveroo/Just Eat drivers are a road menace. The cars have dodgy papers, and so do many of the owners! Multiple laws are being broken!

How can you be OK with that?

I think this poster was referring to the judgement of people who get takeaways.

@CunkEverywhereOnEverything why are you swearing? Is your deliveroo late? There is a causal relationship between people ordering via the apps (creating demand) and the companies facilitating poor labour practices (meeting the demand). You can't just say 'oooh, the government should regulate.' It won't. Are you familiar with the meme 'crime is legal'? People should not order on these apps. It facilitates all of this. And it is lazy! x

I don't necessarily disagree with anything you've said, but no one has an issue with grippy socks.

Well when a person has a bone, they can drop it as easily as the dog...

But you were the one who started taking offence at the question. To which you've still given no answer. It's not hard. If BK is exploiting a vulnerable person by offering a service that they might spend £23 a week from, like anyone else - what is the solution? We had several people saying these services are great for people who can't get out.

Well, I could have done a full weekly shop with Ocado to be delivered the next morning when I looked yesterday, so not much different. I’m not sure if you can ever get that service the same day as I usually go myself.

People getting into debt isn’t restricted to delivery goods, is it? People do it with shops too. Are you suggesting we need some other authority to say ‘No, sorry Flickersy, you’ve spent more than your budget in shoes, so no knew knickers for you today’.

I don’t trust our current government as far as I could comfortably spit a rat, so I don’t want the, having even more power over what I. Allowed to do in a personal capacity, no.

I think these issues should be dealt with by addressing the whole structure of society that leaves people time (and increasingly cash-) poor. Not by banning more stuff.

Can anybody who knows about mopeds explain the law around driving one with L -plates?

Why can riders just whack on L plates and drive around indefinitely without sitting a test?

I also see a few of them going about the place with stickers on their boxes that say things like “Urgent-organs for donation” or “Blood transfusion delivery”, presumably to hoodwink other drivers into thinking they need priority, the cheeky fuckers.

OP not necessarily saying delivery drivers are thieves. E bikes are stolen to order as expanding delivery apps increase the number of gig workers. Subsequently the market for a cheap e-bike expands. Not just Joe Public’s bike being stolen though. Deliveroo workers’s bikes are also being stolen.
It’s pure supply and demand economics.

You call that rural 😉? None of the supermarkets will deliver to me and there's not a single takeaway that will deliver either. Forty minute round trip to the nearest food place.

It was one little swear word, chill out. And I stand by it being none of your business whether other people order takeaways. Or groceries. Be a lifesaver for some people who are, say, too ill to leave the house but need a few things from their Sainsburys local or whatever.

The riders/drivers reckless behaviour on the road should absolutely be dealt with by those who are meant to enforce the law, ie the police.