Uber Eats drivers are struggling in lockdown level 3

Friday, 1 May 2020

The global coronavirus pandemic has changed the way Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan.

Uber Eats drivers are struggling, after the prime minister publicly encouraged New Zealanders to deliver directly from restaurants.

The ride-sharing app resumed its food delivery app Uber Eats on Tuesday, but drivers said they had barely noticed a difference in business from level 4.

Last week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern encouraged New Zealanders to deliver takeaways from businesses directly rather than using Uber Eats because of their high commission rates.

Wellington driver Sanjesh Lallu said Ardern's comments had affected business, with fewer delivery orders coming through the app.

**READ MORE:

Uber Eats driver Sanjesh Lallu says drivers are making as little as $5 every three hours after typically earning about $20 an hour.

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* Jacinda Ardern: Order from local restaurants that don't use Uber Eats**

Lallu said although fast food giants McDonald's and Burger King used the platforms, the long drive-through queues meant drivers were making as little as $5 after an hour's wait.

Lallu said before the lockdown Uber Eats drivers typically earned about $20 an hour.

Another Uber driver, Sean Neal, said since Tuesday he had only received two passenger pick-ups and four delivery requests.

'Certainly not finding it sustainable at the moment,' Neal said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged New Zealanders to order from places doing their own delivery last week.

'Also unfortunately when the Government said don't use Uber Eats they clearly weren't thinking about the actual drivers that also need to make a living.'

Christchurch-based Uber driver Rrupin Tanejaa said he was looking forward to more work under level 3 but said he made $5 in three hours yesterday.

'Tuesday morning started off busy but by lunchtime it slowed down. It's been like that ever since,' Tanejaa said.

'It's a tough situation for us,' Tanejaa said.

Tanejaa said he was supportive of Ardern's comments and felt Uber needed to reduce its commission fee of 30 per cent to 35 per cent for restaurants but also reduce its commission rate of 28 per cent to 30 per cent for its drivers.

'The wage subsidy will only cover about a month's worth of expenses. I don't have any stable income coming in.'

Uber said it was providing financial assistance for drivers diagnosed with Covid-19, or personally placed in quarantine by a public health authority due to risk of spreading the virus.

The company also said it was reimbursing drivers taking frequent trips on the platform up to $20 for the purchase of hand sanitiser and car disinfectant.

But Lallu said this did not go far enough.

Uber Eats charges a 35 per cent commission, much higher than similar services.

'Some drivers say they were told about refunds for hand sanitiser if they bought, but I and a number of drivers I spoke to didn't receive any messages,' he said.

Lallu said over the level 4 down, he and a handful of other drivers provided free trips to elderly passengers living in rest homes for grocery shopping.

'We didn't receive a single cent of support from Uber.'

He said for passenger trips, drivers waited up to three hours before they got a single request.

Lallu expected things would get busier once the universities were open again, or when the country felt more confident to move around.

Another Wellington driver, Amanda High, said there was no point going out as she had only made $6.30 through an Uber Eats delivery on Wednesday that took 40 minutes.

Drivers also had Logmate fees deducted from their reduced pay, High said.

Drivers are required to use the Logmate app to record their work time, but many had forgotten to put their on hold during the lockdown, High said.

'It's $6.49 a month. They would I assume expect us to contact them to put it on hold. To be honest I forgot about the fee so hadn't tried. Only saw the deduction when I started working,' High said.