Denis goes out to deliver between five and six days a week. He puts on a faded yellow backpack, mounts his bike and logs on to the Glovo app. At the end of the day, pedaling between nine and 10 hours, he takes off 50 euros on orders. Of which 15 euros, that is, the 30% You have to pay them to a third party. Because the account with which Denis distributes is not his account, but rather he rents it by the hour to another person who takes a bribe in exchange for offering this Latin American, until now without a work permit, an income channel. He keeps 30 euros a day, less than the interprofessional minimum wage (33 euros per day) for more than eight hours a day of an ordinary day and without any type of protection against unemployment or sick leave.
“I exploded, I burned“, says this young man. Until recently, specifically until he managed to regularize his work permit, that was his routine. “You ended up working more for the owner of the account than for yourself. You never knew when he was going to stay for you, but people who rent accounts have no other choice. You make a living as you can”, he explains.
The rental of accounts to distribute ‘in B’ through applications such as Glovo either Uber Eats It is not something new, although it has rebounded since the second chose to challenge the ‘rider law‘ and redistribute with freelancers. There are corners of social networks that host a bazaar of rented accounts, where a few register family members as freelancers and then lease their account and get extra income. Or ‘riders’ who do distribute them regularly but who rent their account certain days a week to get a minimum return while they rest.
“UBER account, bike mode, Barcelona, 30%. To start today,” reads a message on social networks from a ‘rider’ interested in renting an account. “I am looking for c. Glovo for rent in Madrid for a scooter, thanks,” asks another delivery man. “For rent account of Stuart and of Shargo motorcycle mode at 20%, info. to the private”, offers a landlord for his part. These are just some of the messages that circulate in Facebook groups, Instagram posts or offers from portals such as Milanuncios.
Little control from the applications
Officially, the applications claim to maintain control over the rental of accounts, through facial recognition mechanisms when the delivery person activates the application and intends to start the service. Although several distributors consulted explain that the company activates and deactivates these controls from time to time without prior notice. “At Glovo they haven’t asked me to identify myself for days,” says a ‘rider’ consulted. And, when he does, there are several tricks to feint this barrier. “The easiest thing is for the account owner to log in, scan their face and then log out of the app. Then when someone else opens it, it doesn’t ask them to identify themselves again until at least 24 hours later,” says that same dealer.
The de-escalation and the end of covid restrictions have played against the pockets of delivery men. “Since January of this year the work has been going down. The summer has been horrible and the thing in September is not picking up. Now that the cold is back, I hope things go back & rdquor ;, says Esteban (not his real name), from Glovo. This delivery man acknowledges that he rents his account to acquaintances when he is not using it in order to get an ‘extra’. “You earn very little working long hours& rdquor ;, he argues. “I understand that it is very hard, but if you have no other choice, at least it is something,” she adds.
The old accounts that have been operational since before the entry into force of the ‘Rider law’ can operate from Monday to Sunday, which gives more margin to the distributors than the new ones, which can only operate from Friday to Sunday. Which also makes them, at first, more interesting for leasing.
Rebellion benefits intermediaries
In Uber, however, the change in model to return to operating with freelancers has reopened a new source of income for the ‘rider’ group. Since last September 7 in large cities, the application has been available again for freelancers to accept orders from restaurants. And it is that although initially this platform decided to stop operating with self-employed workers and move to a model of subcontracted fleets, Glovo’s persistence -its competition- in using freelancers caused them to return to employing delivery people on their own. A turn that is under surveillance of the Work inspectionbut whose possible sanctions -if any- may take months to arrive.
The other main actor in the sector, Just Eat, continues to bet on a mixed model of subcontracted fleets and directly employed ‘riders’. A system that, a priori, would respect the presumption of employment established by the new ‘Rider law’.
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This proliferation of actors that employ self-employed delivery people is being the object of business for new intermediaries. It is the case of the platform Catcher, an order aggregator in which couriers sign up to receive all available offers. They go into the app, see what orders are available, and offer them a rate. If the client is interested, they accept said offer and the delivery person can deliver that package to Glovo, Uber or whoever offers it, thus reinforcing the income of the ‘riders’ interested in continuing as self-employed.
Denis no longer rents accounts to distribute. This young man managed to regularize his administrative situation and now has a part-time job in the mornings in a bike workshop. “It was a digital slavery. All day pending mobile to see if an order fell. No one lasts long, the only ones are those who have no other alternative & rdquor ;, she recalls. In the afternoons he continues to deliver, but now on his own account and negotiating directly with a few restaurants with which he trusts. “Now I am autonomous really & rdquor ;, he explains.