Uber Eats drivers around the country have put the brakes on food deliveries on Saturday, accusing the takeaway service of low pay and poor working conditions.
Drivers claim that Uber Eats, which is a subsidiary of the e-hailing service Uber, has cunningly cut their trip rates, while providing no support.
The strike action has affected customers who have been venting their frustrations on social media.
If you’ve been trying to place an order for your favourite takeout, you would have been met with the message “no couriers nearby” on your Uber Eats app.
That’s because thousands of drivers for the delivery service have gone offline.
They claim they are earning as little as R4 per kilometer for each delivery after the global delivery service recently introduced a more affordable delivery charge structure in South Africa.
Duane Bernard, who represents some of the striking drivers, said that restaurants had been given a break by the initiation fees, while customers were awarded regular discounts.
But as he explained, this meant that drivers were left with nothing.
“Uber Eats charges restaurants 5% of a meal’s price. They’ve now changed that, giving restaurants a flat rate of R9 per order and so to take the hit on that, they’ve now dropped the drivers’ fees again.”
Bernard said that the strike action would continue to disrupt Uber Eats deliveries in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Cape Town until their demands were met.
“The whole of Gauteng definitely, no food delivered on Uber Eats. There is going to strike plan for the whole country until we get our grievances met. These guys boast profits of billions a year and this is how they get their billions a year by exploiting driver-partners.”
Meanwhile, Uber Eats said that it was aware of the issues raised by drivers but insisted it had implemented various measures to help its partners during the COVID-19 crisis.
The company said that the fees were designed to help drivers by boosting user demand so that more people ordered more often through the Uber Eats app.