Deliveroo and Just Eat and the like make UK cities creepy and miserable

[Pavementworrier]

Guys in balaclavas with no traceable identity (and often no right to work in the UK) racing around on electric bikes in the dark bringing shit cold food to fat lazy punters while cafes, bars and restaurants erode and hospitals fill up with diabetic foot merchants.

I wouldn't ban them but I'd make them treat every single takeaway bandit as a full employee with id checks, criminal responsibility, tax and employment rights.

And people who use them kind of make me sick.

I did lobby the previous one! On this and pretty much everything that worried me. He was excellent.

I have mostly given up on politics now so I've never written to the one in the area I've moved to (plus I was very ill for a long time after moving here).

it all just feels very hopeless now.

editing to add - it's much less of a problem in the area I live in now.

My daughter got an uber supermarket delivery a few days ago and the driver was a lecturer at the uni she attends!

I hate when people use a minority as a justification for a large issue, like OP doesn't need to pre-think of the minority of disabled people who can even afford all of the extra charges on deliveroo before she says it disgusts her. It's so annoying. It makes posting anything tedious unless you think of everything you can exclude from an issue before posting.

Was in Dublin the other day and nearly got knocked down by about five delivery cyclists- we were laughing by the end of the day saying just eat must have taken a hit out on me! They do need the face coverings I’d say, so cold out there but yes they do seem a bit grim.

I don’t like your thoughts on the people who use them though, people have their reasons (I don’t use them personally)

You hate it when people point out the truth?
Ok then

Delivery costs £1.50-£2 here in Brum.

It is snobbery. And classism. Racism.

One of my SpRs worked for Deliveroo in med school. Probably wore a balaclava because it's cold here in Ireland. .the horror !

Wonder if you'd let me operate on you ( I'm a trauma surgeon / ED consultant) knowing I worked in McDonald's for 4 months 🤣🤣

The classim on this site can be disgusting.

No, I actually know disabled people who rely on food delivery to eat a decent meal every so often. It does not have to be unhealthy stuff. Pretty much any and all eateries have an option to have stuff delivered now.
And why should they not have a meal ready prepared and cooked instead of a microwave dinner. People would moan and say that is unhealthy too.

@Bones101 all the shit posters come out at this time of night, don't they? You don't know what jobs I've done or what class I am.

you're obviously bored so you keep stirring the pot.

YABU because they don't just deliver takeaways. I use them for grocery top-ups.

She's a medic, I doubt she's bored!

You fail to make your point properly so you resort to a personal attack.

They do do proper employee ID checks. The problem arises because it’s nigh on impossible to stop people subcontracting the work. It’s not as though each town has an office where a manager could look at the drivers and say ‘hang on a minute, you’re not Gary!’ Even if they employed people to do spot checks, accompanied by employee records and photographs, they’ll find one person and every other dodgy driver will simply scarper. Are you expecting restaurants to check their IDs?

OP, I can only assume you’re hungry, tired and are missing being on holiday. Have a bit of toast and get some rest.

So you have never ordered a takeaway ? No wonder you’ve got a face on.

Quite an opener — framing Deliveroo riders as balaclava-wearing agents of societal collapse is certainly… a perspective. In reality, it’s far less dramatic. Most riders are just trying to cover rent in a country where wages haven’t kept up with costs, and gig work is the last option that doesn’t involve battling a zero-hours contract in a stockroom the size of a cupboard. If the streets feel ‘creepy,’ that likely says more about the UK’s gutted high streets, nightlife, and public spaces than about someone on an e-bike delivering a korma. Sure, platforms should absolutely be required to treat riders as employees with proper checks, taxes, insurance, and rights — but that’s a regulation issue, not a ‘lazy punters summoning doom on an app’ one. People order food because they’re tired, overworked, stressed, caregiving, disabled, ill, or simply prefer convenience — not because they’re plotting the downfall of civilisation. If we’re naming what’s actually made UK cities feel bleak, start with austerity, boarded-up shops, soaring rents, and councils too broke to fix a pothole — not Ahmed pedalling around with a backpack of lukewarm Nando’s.

So you can agree that @Bones101 was making an attack on me? If you think what I've said was an attack, then surely the same applies to what was said about me?

I have made my point. But like the OP point, we disagree

Some people really love having these services around and aren't worried about the employee model. So obviously I have to accept that.

but thank you @Pavementworrier at least I know I'm not alone in my feelings.

There might be more of us than you think though... I recently had a woman in a bar saying this to me about the services, but she was very apologetic because we had just met and she was having a rant about it 😂

I occasionally go into the city, the bikes are a menace. Ffs one was riding through the arndale centre one time. Its dangerous. I know they are convenient but they take no care of others around them, never seem to use lights, don't stop for traffic lights or crossings and go the wrong way up one way roads.

They need to be licensed and get points and lose their license for dangerous riding. Uber eats at home is delivered by car, I'm not against the service I'm against being hit by a bike because they treat other people as a nuisance.

No I do not agree she was attacking you. That's clearly not what I wrote 🙄

you don't think @Bones101 making an assumption that I'm a classist snob is a personal attack?

They strolled to the nearest chip shop or collected a kebab on the way home from the pub. And they were less obese as a result.

I thought that @Bones101 was making a deduction.

Careful love your prejudice is showing.

Reported

No they don't. Recent checks on takeaway riders found a lot of asylum seekers, illegal working and criminality.

Didn’t order deliveroo.

What about Tesco Whoosh deliveries? I think they should be stopped actually because it saves me a 5 minute drive to Tesco after work (I WFH) which is making me fat and lazy and probably borderline for Type 2 diabetes.

I did order Avocados the other day though which were cold. The delivery guy was too and had on a balaclava!

Don’t do takeaways myself.

@WearyAuldWumman I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you’re finding it easier to go outside now 💐