Diego Franco arrived in Australia from Brazil on Christmas Day 2016. A few months into his new life in Sydney, he became a Deliveroo motorcycle driver. For three years, Franco worked predominantly for Deliveroo, a food delivery service listed on the London Stock Exchange, and supplemented this modest income with additional work for similar services Uber Eats and Door Dash. But on April 23, 2020 – barely a month into the Covid-19 pandemic – Franco’s world came crashing down.
Deliveroo regularly reviews delivery data. It compares the difference between the time its algorithms anticipate the delivery should take and the actual time taken. The gap for a particular driver is then compared with the average for others in the same zone. If a driver’s delivery times are too slow, they face investigation and, ultimately, the possibility of removal from the app.
One day Franco received an email from Deliveroo stating his deliveries were too slow and that he was in breach of his agreement with the company. The Brazilian emailed back, pleading his case and asking the company to reconsider. It refused. On April 29, 2020, Franco delivered his last meal for Deliveroo; the following day his access to the app was disabled.
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