In July there was an article in road.cc about the problems delivery cyclists were having in Canterbury.
Just Eat and Deliveroo were both quoted in the article.
I contacted both companies about their policies towards food delivery riders and how they ensure their riders always act respectfully and responsibly.
I heard nothing from Deliveroo, but Just Eat sent a reply:
“We have high standards for those that deliver on behalf of the business and our expectations are clearly communicated to couriers as part of onboarding and guidance processes, with a clear courier agreement and code of conduct which couriers sign up to in order to deliver on our network.
“We do everything we can to ensure couriers are working safely and acting responsibly, and we provide reminders about compliance and behaviour to local courier teams whenever we are notified of any problems.
“We work cooperatively with local authorities and police authorities across the country to mitigate local issues and assist with enforcement approaches where appropriate.
“We do believe it is our role to ensure that couriers have access to relevant safety information, helping them to do their job most effectively.
“We provide couriers with information around delivering safely, which includes guidance on the responsible use of e-bikes.
“Our communications materials around safety can be found here, and this information is always available through our courier site, and we also issue regular reminders through courier marketing.
“We hold regular face-to-face courier events across the country, called StreetMeets, and we use these events as an opportunity to talk to couriers about opportunities and challenges, share safety information, provide new merchandise to help them do their jobs, service bikes where applicable, and recycle old kit.“
Rob Hill
WBC Campaigner for RCC
A lot of this is just common sense, by virtue that a lot of riders do not follow these simple guidelines or what common sense would dictate shows that a lot of riders do not have much common sense.
I understand their maybe levels of desperation when you factor in the illegal riders or issues such as human trafficking but in reality in the 21st century I do not think our society should be facing thee things, the food delivery platforms are such a great idea and way to make a little extra money it just seems a shame so many people are even trying to exploit them for their own ends at the expense of other people!