Some two-thirds of riders and drivers for food delivery and ride-hailing apps in the UK may work in fear of "unfair feedback" and experience anxiety over sudden changes to working hours, a new survey study led by the University of Cambridge suggests.*
Three-quarters of riders and drivers in the study report anxiety over potential for income to drop, with over half (51%) saying they risk health and safety while working. Some 42% of delivery and driver gig workers say they suffer physical pain resulting from work.
Riders and drivers also report spending an average of ten hours a week waiting for jobs to come through on the app – so logged on and working but not making any money.
The findings come from the first study to provide statistical data on job quality in the UK gig economy by surveying over 500 casual workers, and are published today in the journal Work, Employment and Society.
Gig economy delivery riders and ride-hailing drivers operate as self-employed contractors who sign up for work via digital platforms that algorithmically match them with customers and pay a base rate per job, with higher rates at peak times or "surges".
With plenty of flexibility, but no guaranteed income or sick pay and limited rights, some argue such work is exploitative. Companies do not publish data on employees or workloads, and the casual nature of app-based employment makes research difficult.
"All manner of gig work has exploded in recent years, from delivering food to building websites. Many of us now summon people and labour at the tap of a smartphone screen without much thought, rarely considering the process or the people behind it," said lead author Dr Alex Wood from Cambridge's Department of Sociology.
"Rating systems can lead to deactivation for workers. If your job is at the mercy of a quick click on a stranger's phone, it is likely to fuel a constant hum of uncertainty and anxiety, along with feelings of being judged, monitored and replaceable."
The researchers set out to compare gig economy experiences of "local" workers – those tied to locations e.g. food delivery riders – with those whose labour is digital, such as data entry or coding, and so can "remote" work from anywhere.
Data was collected in 2022, when just under half a million people in the UK worked in the gig economy. Researchers listed a survey on remote work platform Upwork with a £10 fee for completion, with 253 participants.
Local workers – the riders and drivers – are harder to reach, so researchers deployed paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram to target users listing gig economy companies such as Deliveroo and Uber as their employer.
As many gig workers are recent migrants to the UK, Wood used a variety of languages, including Polish, Spanish and Bengali. A further 257 riders and drivers completed the survey.
"Attempts to investigate working conditions in the UK gig economy have been hampered by the difficulty of identifying and accessing people doing the work," said Prof Brendan Burchell, study co-author and Cambridge sociologist. "Classifying someone as self-employed doesn't change the fact they can be economically dependent and exploited."
Both local and remote workers said they have tight deadlines three-quarters of the time, and scored similarly on anxieties over losing the ability to make a living on their main platform (44% of local and 38% of remote workers). While a higher proportion of riders and drivers feared unfair feedback, remote workers were not far behind.
More local workers reported anxiety over the potential for pay to fall (75% compared to 59% of remote workers), and hourly pay was 20% lower on average for riders and drivers (£8) than remote gig workers (£10). This put average pay for local gig working below the UK minimum wage in 2022.
Riders and drivers also said they spend a significant amount of unpaid time on the app waiting for work to come in – around ten hours a week on average, compared to four for remote workers.
The flexibility prized by some gig workers came through in the findings. Remote workers reported high levels of autonomy, with 86% saying they could step away during work hours for a personal issue, and 92% reporting the ability to choose their own tasks. By comparison, around two-thirds of riders and drivers said the same on both counts.
Local workers also benefit from less isolation: with under half (45%) saying they rarely or never interact with other riders or drivers, compared to 75% of remote workers.
However, job insecurity and health issues were much higher among local workers. Some 65% of riders and drivers reported anxiety over unexpected changes to working hours (compared to 40% of remote workers), and 74% reported anxiety over potential changes that reduce their say in how they do their job (also 40% for remote workers).
Health differences were even more stark. Just over half of riders and drivers said they risked physical health or safety, nearly five times higher than remote workers (51% vs 11%), and close to half of drivers reported pain from work, more than three times higher than remote workers (42% vs 13%).
"Delivery and ride-hailing platforms combine manual work with tight algorithmic management and digital surveillance, while workers have little in the way of rights or bargaining power," added Wood.
"Platform companies call themselves tech firms, but in practice they govern, control and profit from labour they claim not to own, without bearing employer responsibility."
Notes:
*68% of local platform workers reported fearing unfair feedback, and 65% of local platform workers reported anxiety over unexpected changes to working hours.
Case studies: 'I can't do this work for a long time'
In separate yet-to-be-published research, Cambridge University PhD candidate Jon White is conducting interviews with delivery drivers in Cambridge city centre to gauge 'time squeeze': how the gig economy's algorithms can change perceptions of time.
The responses White is recording reflect some of Wood's latest findings, particularly the tension between pushing to earn enough to the detriment of drivers' health, with some working on multiple apps at the same time.
One driver spoke of the need for a solid minimum pay rate: "…when it's busy on a rainy day, at that time they pay a really good fare. But sometimes when it's not busy, so that time fare is not enough for us because we go two miles, three miles and get a really low fare. So I think if they pay minimum every day, it will be really helpful for us."
Another driver described the pain in their body: "…especially in my thighs, all the time, ever since I started, I've never had a good sleep. Every day, I get home, just have to take a shower quickly after my body gets cold… and eat something then go to sleep because I can't do this work for a long time."
They say the long hours are down to low pay: "Because I have to do my... a minimum every day so, I can at least pay my bills, right? Just to survive. I still have to pay rent, food, so... If I don't do this amount, this minimum in a day, I can't go home"
Several drivers told White, from Cambridge's Department of Geography, that the work takes a physical toll after a few days: "…when I get my rest on a Sunday, usually on Monday, it is ok to work. But when it comes to Wednesday, I already feel you know, the body got really tired, a lot of pain…"
