A Deliveroo driver has said riders are putting their “lives on the line” after his friend and fellow driver died recently in a hit and run in Streatham while working for the company.
Ian, 31, called for awareness in the wake of Ronaldo Medeiros De Oliveira’s death, the 44-year-old driver who was killed last week in a crash making a delivery in Streatham, south London.
According to the Evening Standard, occupants of an overturned BMW clambered out and fled on foot at Leigham Court Road, Streatham on the evening of May 11.
One local saw the motorcyclist in his 40s “lying motionless” on the ground having heard “a tremendous crash” from his flat.
Ian, who has been working for Deliveroo for five years, told the PA news agency: “There are dangers we face on a daily basis. One little injury is enough to lose out on earnings, is even enough to kill us, like my friend.
“We face abuse by the general public, by customers sometimes.
“The pay that we have to face these things clearly doesn’t reflect that. We should be paid £16 an hour, or even more, based on the amount of dangers we face, the risk we have to take.
“I could be gone tomorrow, who knows? It’s scary that we put our lives on the line just to feed our family, to pay our debts.
“The pay, the conditions, it’s just a joke really. £2.90 per delivery can’t literally get you anything. I’ve lost my friend last week in a hit and run, and he was killed while working for Deliveroo, so I feel I need to raise awareness about the dangers.
“I know drivers who are going to food banks. I’m literally struggling to make ends meet.”
Campaigners at ShareAction and IWGB (Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain) have coordinated for riders to challenge Deliveroo’s board at its annual general meeting on Wednesday. May 24.
Outside 100 Bishopsgate, London, where the company chief executive Will Shu is holding the AGM, riders held Banners reading “Shame on Shu” and chanted “Deliveroo, you’re no good, pay your riders like you should”.
Riders have said they want to raise concerns over their pay levels and worries related to their “independent worker” status.
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