Foodora couriers are required to sign up for shifts that typically last between two and a half and eight hours in Norway and two and five hours in Denmark. They must be physically present at a specific location five minutes before their shift starts. Employed couriers are assigned orders while freelance couriers generally have to actively accept delivery requests. Orders are offered or assigned to couriers based on location and order size. Couriers, who can decline orders, must accept them within 60 seconds. If not, the order will be offered to another courier. During deliveries, a dispatch centre follows the courier’s route from the restaurant to the customer on a digital map. If couriers need help during deliveries, they can contact the dispatch centre through the app.
The employed couriers in Norway are paid per hour and earn an additional commission per delivery, figures which are set in the collective agreement, while freelancers/self-employed are paid only per delivery – a price they cannot negotiate. According to the Foodora Denmark website, prices for each delivery are calculated based on factors such as distance, number of orders and time of the day and week.
During the pandemic, Foodora Norway also introduced a productivity measure system, which is an example of how the company uses algorithmic systems to manage its couriers. The system was introduced for all couriers, employees and freelancers/self-employed (Jesnes, 2024). Through this system, which also exists at Foodora Denmark, Foodora assesses various aspects of couriers’ performance, including adherence to scheduled shifts, app logins, order acceptance rates, active app usage during shifts, acceptance of orders during high-demand hours and more. Based on their scores, the couriers are compared with each other and ranked into batches (one to ten), with priority shift selection given to those in batch number one. Couriers in lower batches must choose less attractive shifts with lower demand and therefore earn a lower income in the following weeks. Couriers receive requests for deliveries, which they can decline, but declining orders may result in being assigned to a lower batch.
5.4.2 Just Eat
The second case, Just Eat, was founded by Danish entrepreneurs in 2000. The company remained Danish-owned until 2020, when it merged with the Dutch company TakeAway.com. Just Eat entered the Norwegian market in 2021 but exited in 2022 after failing to gain a significant market share. The couriers working for Just Eat used to be employed on zero-hour contracts and had no guarantee of either a minimum or maximum number of weekly hours. In 2018, Just Eat became part of the employer organization Dansk Erhverv and entered a collective agreement for its office clerks with the union HK. In 2019, Just Eat was approached by the union 3F which wanted to negotiate a collective agreement for couriers. With Dansk Erhverv’s help, the first collective agreement for food delivery couriers in Denmark was signed in 2021 (Madudbringningsoverenskomsten, 2021–2023). It was renegotiated in 2023 and will run until 2025. All 850 Just Eat couriers are therefore now employed under this collective agreement (Ilsøe and Madsen 2022: 70).
The collective agreement allows for part-time and full-time employment, but the former is most common. Couriers sign up for specific shifts with a minimum duration of four hours and they get paid per hour. When they start their shift, they need to log on to the app, but this is only possible when they are close to the city centre. They get a wage supplement when they work during unsocial hours. Just Eat uses different bonus systems and competitions to incentivize couriers to work faster. According to the collective agreement, they must receive their shifts four weeks ahead. It is possible to get extra shifts of at least two hours, but these are voluntary (Madudbringningsoverenskomsten, 2023–2025). The couriers are assigned orders and do not have the opportunity to decline them.
Couriers type in their availability for shifts, and the shifts are assigned automatically. If they are sick, they can switch shifts through different channels. The couriers know little about how orders are assigned but suspect that proximity to pick-up location and type of vehicle used play a role. Upon assignment, couriers receive a pick-up location and time. After pick-up, they register in the app and receive detailed information about the delivery. The app uses GPS for route calculation monitored by the live-support team.
5.4.3 Wolt
Wolt is a Finnish company present in both Norway (from 2017) and Denmark (from 2018). In 2022, Wolt was acquired by the American company DoorDash. In contrast to Foodora and Just Eat, Wolt relies exclusively on independent contractors and freelancers in both Norway and Denmark. In Wolt’s terminology, couriers are called “partners”. They choose when and where they log on and off the app and are paid only per delivery. When receiving a delivery request, Wolt couriers have a certain amount of time to accept or reject the order. Our interviewees reported having 60 seconds, although according to the Wolt transparency report from 2023, 30 seconds is set as the default; however, it is possible for the couriers to change this (Wolt 2023: 17). The requests contain detailed information about pickup location, delivery destination, delivery distance and the proposed fee. It is possible to “bundle” orders, which means that the courier can pick up and deliver more than one order at a time and thus earn more. While delivering, the courier is monitored by a dispatch centre that can follow their route. The dispatch centre can also be contacted if the courier needs assistance during deliveries.
Since 2022 Wolt has published so-called algorithmic transparency reports describing how their algorithmic management system works (Wolt, 2022, 2023). The company uses, among other things, an algorithm to connect couriers with customers to “offer the most suitable courier partner a delivery task between the merchant and the customer” (Wolt, 2023: 16). In this calculation, Wolt uses information on the location of couriers, their availability (online or not) and type of vehicle to estimate how large an order can be placed and how fast it can be delivered (Wolt, 2023: 16).
Wolt also uses algorithms to calculate the price for each delivery. In the transparency report, Wolt explains that they “offer a delivery fee for each delivery task that is worthwhile accepting by pricing them based on the individual factors that could potentially impact the delivery” (Wolt, 2023: 19). In this calculation, Wolt uses estimated route distance (not a straight line), the courier’s distance to the pick-up location, customer and merchant location, weather conditions, type of order and other factors, for instance difficult of terrain (Wolt, 2023: 19). The fee that the courier gets includes a pick-up fee and a fee for the distance travelled from the pick-up location to the customer or customers (Wolt, 2023: 19). Wolt argues that no delivery is the same and therefore the fee will vary.
To sum up, we have selected three platform companies with different employment arrangements: Wolt, with the freelancer model; Just Eat, with the employee model where employees work under a collective agreement; and Foodora, with a combination of both forms of employment (in Norway). In our analysis, we will also highlight findings concerning working environment challenges that are related to different employment arrangements.
5.5 Analysis
Our analysis concerns work environment challenges for couriers in app-based food delivery, with a special focus on how algorithmic management techniques affect couriers’ health and safety. As mentioned in the theory section, our empirical analysis is structured around the findings of Ropponen et al. (2019), who have already identified several health and safety challenges in digitalized work arrangements. However, we nuance and expand their framework based on findings from our empirical analysis. The following characteristics structure our empirical analysis:
job and income insecurity,
time (waiting time and time pressure),
the physical work environment,
harassment and unfair treatment,
isolation and competition.
5.5.1 Job and income insecurity
Ropponen et al. (2019) identified job insecurity as an important aspect of job demand affecting the health and safety of platform workers. It is relatively easy to become a courier – download the courier app, provide identification, undergo an online training programme – but it is demanding to earn and maintain an income, which is why this type of work is considered insecure. Ropponen et al. (2019) only consider job insecurity, but we argue that income insecurity is also an issue, and that job insecurity and income insecurity are two sides of the same coin.
In our interviews, both job and income insecurity were central themes in the experiences of couriers. However, the extent of insecurity varied between the couriers and the platform companies due to distinct work arrangements (see
Table 5.2 and case description above). Hence, while all platform workers experience job and income insecurity, it is more severe for some than for others, which we elaborate on below.
First, the employed couriers at Foodora in Norway and Just Eat in Denmark, who work under a collective agreement and get an hourly wage, have greater job security than freelance and self-employed couriers at Wolt and Foodora, who are compensated solely per delivery. However, the employed couriers often work part-time which can cause income insecurity if they are not able to secure enough weekly hours, and we did learn from the interviews that part-time employment is more common among these couriers as there are not enough available shifts to make a living as a full-time courier. Some couriers work other jobs in addition to their job as a food delivery courier. We have also come across couriers who work for several platforms at the same time to maximize their income.
Employed Foodora couriers in Norway, have a minimum guarantee of ten hours per week in their contracts, with the option of taking on more shifts when available. Part-time couriers fall under the protection of the Working Environment Act (Arbeidsmiljøloven), which includes a provision that allows workers to demand that the hours stated in their contract align with their actual working hours over a longer period of time. Many couriers have used this provision to obtain more than ten hours in their contracts and hence more job and income security (Jesnes et al., 2021).
In contrast, freelancers/independent contractors working for Foodora experience reduced job security since they do not have an employment relationship and they are also not protected by the Working Environment Act. However, in comparison to Wolt couriers, Foodora freelancers/independent contractors are still offered shifts, which gives a certain job security. These shifts are scheduled during peak demand hours, ensuring a guaranteed workload when couriers have a shift. During periods of reduced demand, such as the summer season, the number of available shifts may decrease, impacting the couriers’ ability to choose shifts, and hence decreasing job security. This model still provides a degree of predictability that is not present at Wolt (Jesnes and Oppegaard, 2023).
There is no job security at Wolt as couriers are only compensated on a per-delivery basis. A Danish Wolt courier explained what it was like to be a courier at Wolt as follows: “We decide ourselves how much we work. It’s just an app on the phone and if you turn it on, you’re at work, and if you turn it off, you’re not at work anymore”. A self-employed courier based in Norway explained job and income insecurity as follows: “Well, there is no holiday pay, for example. So, what you are earning is what you are getting and there is no extra. And if anything happens to you it is your own responsibility. That’s the risk you have in this”.
When we asked Wolt couriers about their perception of income insecurity, we heard two different perspectives. Some described working long hours with little income. Others also described working long hours and completing many deliveries – often between 50 and 60 – per day but expressed satisfaction with their earnings and did not experience income insecurity. Hence, not all freelancers/independent contractors are concerned with insecurity related to income. Nonetheless, and as we will explore in detail in the next section, we learned in the interviews that earning this much often requires working at a very fast pace, which can increase the risk of accidents and affect health and safety in a negative way.
5.5.2 Waiting time and time pressure
Ropponen et al. (2019) identified time pressure as an important characteristic of platform work. For couriers, time pressure is connected to making deliveries fast. Through the interviews, we also identified time pressure as a characteristic of platform work, but we also found waiting time to be both a job demand and a resource for couriers. We start with waiting time and then turn to time pressure.
Most of the couriers we interviewed described waiting for orders. Waiting time can occur if the demand for takeaway is low or if too many couriers are online at the same time, which makes competition between couriers fierce. Waiting time can also occur if the restaurant is slow in making the food or if the customer is not present at the delivery location. The interviews revealed different perspectives on waiting time. Some of the couriers found waiting time challenging, stressful and demotivating, while others did not.
First, we did not find any employed couriers paid per hour that considered waiting time a job pressure since they get paid while waiting anyway. When asked about how they experience waiting time, some of the couriers said that they find it relaxing, including a Just Eat courier in Denmark, who described it in the following way: “Relaxing. If we don’t have orders, we can come and sit in here [the interview took place at a Burger King]. This table is actually for us”. One could argue that this waiting time could decrease motivation since the job is perceived as boring, but none of the interviewees at Just Eat mentioned being bored or losing motivation when they spend time waiting for orders. They all accepted that waiting time is a part of the job.
On the other hand, several other couriers from both countries who worked as freelancers experienced the waiting time as more stressful and they linked it to income insecurity: they were frustrated that they had to wait because then they did not earn money. It is not entirely clear in our data, but it seems that there is a connection between whether or not a person experiences waiting time as exhausting and employment arrangement, with our data showing that more freelancers than employees experience waiting time as a job demand even though this was not the case for all the freelancers we interviewed. This point about the relation between the experience of waiting time and work arrangement is elaborated in this citation from a Danish courier at Just Eat in which he imagines what it is like to work at Wolt. He also reflects on time pressure: