BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN AND
GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
This is the fi fth and fi nal installment
in amNewYork Metro’s fi ve-part series
examining the proliferation of grocery
delivery services across the city, and how
they treat their fl eet of delivery workers.
Last year, as the pandemic swept
New York City for the fi rst time and
forced businesses to close temporarily
or altogether, there was one industry
that seemed to be perfectly suited to
survive: food delivery.
Demand for grocery delivery
through apps like Instacart soared,
and Bronx-based giant Fresh Direct
launched an express delivery option,
where customers could choose from a
limited number of products available
in just a few hours.
New Yorkers were also ordering
more meals through apps like Uber
Eats and DoorDash to get meals from
restaurants, which were largely pickup
and delivery only.
New quick-commerce grocery delivery
apps are at the nexus of those
two markets. Companies like JOKR,
Gorillas, and Fridge No More have expanded
rapidly in the last year as they
fi lled the demand for groceries delivered
within fi fteen minutes of placing
the order via app, with low or nonexistent
delivery fees and no order minimums.
At the center of all of those businesses,
over the user experience of placing
an order on an app or the variety of
items available, are the delivery workers.
Couriers zipping by on electric bicycles
with an insulated bag strapped
to their back have become ubiquitous
in the city in the last decade, and now
passers-by might be seeing a host of
new uniforms and branded e-bikes as
quick-commerce apps continue their
steady march forward.
Employees, not contractors
Those uniforms and e-bikes mark a
stark contrast between apps like JOKR
and Gorillas and UberEats. The majority
of delivery workers who deliver
for UberEats and DoorDash are contracted
or “gig” workers — essentially
freelancers. They pick up work when
it’s available, but aren’t employed by
the company formally — there’s no
guarantee of hours, wages, tips, no
time off or benefi ts.
At most of the new grocery delivery
apps, couriers are full or part-time
employees, with set schedules and, in
some cases, benefi ts.
“Unlike many delivery and ondemand
service companies, all our
workers are full-time and part-time
W2 workers who are provided minimum
wage on an hourly basis,” a Gorillas
spokesperson said. “On top of
that, they receive 100% of their digital
tips at the end of each month, and customers
are made aware of this at every
transaction. In addition to compensation,
they’re entitled to workplace benefi
ts, paid breaks in compliance with
local regulations, and the opportunity
to return to the warehouse to refresh
How grocery
delivery app
workers are
treated as
they bring
food to New
Yorkers
after each delivery.”
Gorillas riders are also provided
with a company e-bike and gear including
helmets, riding gloves, and a vest,
according to their website.
Couriers for JOKR are also employees
with benefi ts, co-founder Tyler
Trerotola told Brooklyn Paper, and the
company has made an effort to be “employee
fi rst.”
“We’ve made a conscious decision
that we want these employees to have
benefi ts, we want them to feel part of
the company,” he said. “The nature
of this business is very much a consumer
focused business, it’s very much
about experience. Having happy employees
— and employing them is furthering
that customer experience. And
then also, obviously, be better for that
employee.”
Dangers on the job
Demand for fair working conditions
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 8 OV. 19-25, 2021 BTR
and more protections under the
law exploded last year, driven mostly
by Los Deliveristas Unidos, a collective
of mostly-immigrant delivery workers
who banded together as they worked
long, diffi cult hours through the pandemic
without the protection or hazard
pay offered to so many essential
workers.
Even outside of working long hours
in the cold, without the guarantee of
an hourly minimum wage or tips, the
job is dangerous. Many workers are
hit and injured by cars while riding
through the streets, and their electric
bicycles — which can cost up to $2,000
– are often the target of violent thefts.
Last month, 51-year-old Sala Uddin
Bablu, who was working for Grubhub,
was murdered while sitting in a lower
Manhattan park during a shift.
Manny Ramirez, a delivery worker
and organizer with LDU, helped his fellow
workers fi x their brake pads and
make other repairs on their bicycles at
a vigil and bike tune-up on Tuesday. He
was assaulted twice this year, he said,
once violently.
He immediately called LDU’s policy
director Hildalyn Colón Hernández
and the police, he said, who came immediately
to take a report. In the past
– before the Deliveristas had gained
so much attention — it was hard to be
taken seriously.
“Calling 911 for any emergency,
they never came,” he said. “If they did
come, they refused to write a report.”
Protections for workers
The biggest accomplishment,
though, has been the passage of a package
of bills promising more protections
in the city council, including requiring
companies to provide their delivery
workers with the insulated bags they
need for delivery, mandating that res-