…The big delivery apps have not only reduced the fees paid to drivers, but removed peak hour “boosts”, paid during heavy rain or at the weekends. “I know very experienced drivers who have been doing it longer than me, who are now working 10 or 11 hours a day, and making £105,” Cioffi says. When riders realised that their income was being squeezed and cut, they reached out to each other and compared notes. What emerged, Cioffi says, was a “disgusting” approach on the part of delivery apps, and the riders organised to strike…

“Be your own boss” is how these gig economy roles are advertised. But treating such jobs as if they benefit from the freedom and autonomy of freelance work is a category error. Their circumstances and pay make a mockery of all the touted virtues of self-employment, flexible working hours and being “your own boss”…

The cut from restaurants is one part of the income stream, but the riders and drivers bear the cost of everything else by not only being paid a small amount, but by being treated as machines who must foot the bill even for their own servicing…