Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

British delivery platform Deliveroo has been criticized by the industry for preventing takeout riders from checking the distribution fees of different competitors' delivery platforms, harming the right of takeout riders to increase their income, Beijing time reported on the morning of March 21.

Rodeo is such a platform for takeout riders to learn about and compare the delivery fees offered by different food and beverage delivery companies (including Just Eat and Uber takeout). The platform notified about 10, 000 users on Sunday local time that Deliveroo prevented takeout riders from accessing the company's platform data. Its notification email was obtained by the media.

It is reported that catering takeout riders on the market generally work for several takeout companies at the same time, and they can switch back and forth between Deliveroo and competitors to get delivery orders. With the consent of takeout riders, the Rodeo platform allows takeout riders to view their real-time income on a piece of software, especially which catering platform has the most attractive delivery fee for an order.

In recent weeks, Deliveroo has made a security upgrade to the software used by takeout riders, with the exception of Rodeo, payroll information integration tool Argyle and other third-party companies are prohibited from accessing Deliveroo's rider's income information.

Shaf Hussain, a takeout rider who serves multiple food delivery platforms at the same time, said Deliveroo's move would hurt the rights and interests of takeout riders. Hussein said that Deliveroo's work data collected by takeout riders should be owned by the takeout riders themselves, but for now, Deliveroo does not want the data to flow into outsiders.

Alex Marshall (Alex Marshall), president of IWGB, a trade union that represents gig economic workers, said that next month, the IWGB union will file a judicial challenge against Deliveroo in court, demanding collective bargaining rights to take-out riders' wages.

Marshall said Deliveroo banned third-party platforms from accessing distribution fee information, which is tantamount to preventing takeout riders from using information tools that help them make decisions.

In May, Deliveroo reportedly signed an agreement with GMB, another trade union that represents takeout riders, to characterize its takeout riders as independent outsourcing workers. Alfie Pierce-Hingis, co-founder of Rodeo, said the move to ban access to takeout rider data showed that Deliveroo's attitude towards takeout rider independence was contradictory.

Mr Hingis says that in Deliveroo's view, it is advantageous for takeout riders to be independent when providing them with delivery services, and once delivery riders demand control of their own data and share it with other third-party service providers, there is resistance to the realization of independence.

The dispute follows Deliveroo's recent 2022 earnings report, which showed that business growth was weak last year, with total transaction value on takeout platforms growing by just 9 per cent, compared with 70 per cent in 2021.

As a food delivery platform, Deliveroo is facing some business pressure, such as consumers in Europe and the United States have cut back on some non-essential expenses, including meals delivered to their doorstep, as inflation remains stubbornly high, and high inflation has prompted takeout riders to ask them to raise delivery fees.

In January, Rodeo released the distribution fees for European and American food delivery platforms last year, of which the distribution fee for each order of Deliveroo last year was 0.3 per cent lower than that of 2021. The delivery fee for Uber takeout has dropped by 1.13%. The delivery fee for just Eat has dropped sharply by 6.1%.

In response to industry criticism, Deliveroo said it supports Rodeo's services for takeout riders, especially to help them understand work data, but Rodeo and external partner Argyle access the Deliveroo takeout rider client without authorization.

The company said that Deliveroo has shared its concerns with Rodeo before, but Rodeo continues to seek unauthorized data access, and Deliveroo has blocked access after a security upgrade, but takeout riders still have free access to their work data through the client, a policy that has not changed.

Hingis, chairman of the above-mentioned union, said that Deliveroo's takeout rider work data belongs to takeout riders, and the data are obtained from the takeout rider's account, which itself is licensed by the takeout rider.

Argyle, a third-party related company other than Rodeo, did not comment.

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