Being a Deliveroo Rider: Practices of Platform Labor in Nijmegen and Berlin

Abstract

On-demand delivery platforms have become a common feature of urban economies across the globe. Noted for their hyper-outsourced, “lean” business models and reliance on independent contractors, these companies evade traditional employer obligations while still controlling workers through complex algorithmic management techniques. Using food delivery platform Deliveroo as a case-study, this paper investigates the diverse array of practices that on-demand workers carry out in order to enact this new platform labor arrangement in different spatial contexts. One of us conducted an auto-ethnographic project, working as a Deliveroo Rider in Nijmegen and Berlin for a period of nine months. Additionally, we interviewed 13 fellow platform workers. The findings reveal the motley, contingent, and conditional ways in which on-demand labor comes together on the ground. The paper concludes with discussing the uneven distribution of these practices across locations and social groups, and the sometimes contradictory impacts they have on the structure of platform labor.

Understanding and shaping the future of work with self-determination theory

“…For example, algorithmic management inevitably transforms or reduces (sometimes even eliminates) contact with a supervisor 2 , 182 , 193 , leading to the feeling that the organization does not care about the worker and provides little social support 194 , 195 . ‘App-workers’, who obtain work through gig-work platforms such as Uber, reportedly crave more social interactions and networking opportunities 179 , 185 , 194 and often attempt to compensate for a lack of relatedness by creating support groups that connect virtually and physically 183 , 191 , 195 . Increased competitive climates due to comparative feedback or displaying team members’ individual rankings 175 , 196 can also hamper relatedness.…”

How algorithmic management influences worker motivation: A self-determination theory perspective.

“…We have emerging evidence from research on gig workers that intrinsic motivation is indeed affected by this form of work (Jabagi et al, 2019; Rockmann & Ballinger, 2017). These effects of AM are confounded, however, with other gig work characteristics, including that gig workers are often not considered as employees and must assume many responsibilities themselves (e.g., vehicle maintenance, weather risks; Timko & van Melik, 2021). In other words, it seems AM removes autonomy from gig work without also taking away responsibilities, a work condition that can be described as being high in demands but low in control (Karasek & Theorell, 1990).…”

Platform-based food delivery in Paris before and during the pandemic: profile, motivations and mobility patterns of couriers

“…Full-time couriers, with no other (paid or non-paid) activity and who therefore rely on platform work for their livelihood, make up the third category [37]. Although this issue is only beginning to be documented, the distribution of these three categories (students, people with no other activity and full-time couriers) seems to vary across cities [2,5,19,58,60] and over time [2], as does also the proportion of migrants [36,64]. Previous surveys in Paris noted a growing proportion of full-time couriers [2].…”

“…Previous surveys in Paris noted a growing proportion of full-time couriers [2]. Moreover, a recent study shows that platform-based delivery work is primarily done by international students in Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and non-EU immigrants in Berlin (Germany) [58]. These findings confirm that platform work (in general) seems to accelerate entry by migrants into precarious, low-income, work because of low entry barriers and flexible forms of employment that can be combined with studying and searching for another position or another job [33,61].…”