https://seattle.eater.com/2024/2/21/24079162/tony-delivers-seattle-delivery-app-fees-downtown

Tony Illes was working as an Uber Eats delivery person when an ordinance passed last year by the Seattle City Council came into effect in mid-January. The new rule required app companies to pay workers like Illes a minimum wage based on the miles they travel and the minutes they spend on the job. The apps say that this amounts to around $26 an hour, and both Uber Eats and DoorDash responded by adding $5 fees to every order (even when the customer is outside Seattle city limits) while calling for the law to be repealed. According to a recent DoorDash blog post, the ordinance has resulted in an “unprecedented drop in order volume,” a drop that Illes felt personally. He told Geekwire that “demand is dead” and told local TV station KIRO 7, “I didn’t get an order for like six hours and I was done.”

So Illes had an idea: Who needs these apps, anyway? He printed up signs with QR codes directing people to a bare-bones website with his phone number, promising that he would deliver food by bike in Uptown, South Lake Union, Belltown, and a chunk of the downtown core for $5 a pop from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily. All you had to do was order the food and send him the screenshot. He called himself “Tony Delivers.”

  • bstix@feddit.dkEnglish
    101·
    9 months ago

    Paid holiday, paid sickness, pension, occupational accident insurance.

    Things that employees at UberEats, DoorDash and Tony Delivers don’t get, but that Tony should be getting.

    • Bob@feddit.nlEnglish
      23·
      9 months ago

      If you’re self-employed, you have to factor that into your tariff yourself. Let’s hope Tony’s savvy enough and can get by with such a low price.

      • TranstronautEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        If he’s young enough, he might be getting his safety net from parents or something. I could see this being viable part-time work for, e.g., college students.