London Deliveroo Drivers Upset Over New Pricing Model

London-based drivers for Deliveroo, the on-demand restaurant food delivery startup, are up in arms over a new pricing model the company is trying to roll out, according to TechCrunch.

Under the new pricing model, which Deliveroo is testing in several zones in London, drivers would be switched to a fixed fee of £3.75 per delivery, instead of the £7 per hour plus £1 per delivery they can earn under the existing pay structure.

Some Deliveroo drivers have even begun boycotting the company and have organized a crowdfunded “strike fund” through Crowdpac to help them recoup the delivery money they are losing during time spent protesting.

The protestors are asking Deliveroo customers to boycott the service, cook their own dinners instead and donate the money they would have spent on Deliveroo to the protest fund. The “strike fund” has received almost £8,000 from some 600 donors since it was started, according to TechCrunch.

Deliveroo protestors have argued that the new pricing model would result in delivery drivers earning less — sometimes as little as £0–£3.75 an hour if things are slow and they have little or nothing to deliver — and would make working conditions unsafe because drivers would also be encouraged to take more risks to make more deliveries quicker.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Dan Warne, Deliveroo’s U.K. managing director, said that the new pricing model meant drivers could actually earn more, on average, than under the old.

“We frame this new structure believing that drivers will make significantly more, on average, per hour than the minimum wage,” Warne told TechCrunch.

Deliveroo also said in a blog post about the new pricing model that it was intended to increase flexibility for the company’s delivery drivers.

Deliveroo treats the drivers who deliver food to customers, which the company terms “riders,” as independent contractors and does not offer them health benefits or paid sick days.

Warne told TechCrunch that 80 percent of Deliveroo’s U.K. riders have other jobs and would benefit from the added flexibility.