Pranks, low pay among food delivery riders' challenges in pandemic

With high demand for take-out food during pandemic, food delivery riders face challenges of prank orders and measly pay.

In a report of Emil Sumangil over 24 Oras, 26-year-old Mark Florence Salisi was just like any other delivery rider -- starting their job at 7 a.m. as they patiently waited for bookings from customers. 

Salisi chose the delivery rider career because he had no boss and that he had more flexible working hours.

But riders usually earn around P800 to P1,000 if they receive 25 bookings per day. Of the said amount, they still need to use it to pay for cellphone load as well as fuel for their motorcycles.

Salisi said they also earn less than P1,000 per day due to few bookings even if they travel for more than 12 hours.

"It's already 10 p.m. there's few bookings right now. From 9 a.m. until 10 p.m., I only earned a few hundreds," Salisi said in Filipino, adding that he will take home P439 after long hours of duty.

Food delivery applications are also increasing during the lockdown which decreases fare for riders, Salisi said.

"Riders are being affected. Even if we work more than 12 hours just to earn more money," he pointed out, in Filipino.

Apart from these, riders are also waiting long hours at the restaurant, which takes one  hour to prepare the food.

"We wait for long hours at the merchant. Usually, it reaches us up to one hour. We are being defeated by the time," he said, in Filipino.

Aside from low pay, riders are forced to shell out their own money to pay for "prank orders."

"Some are ordering food worth P1,000, then after completing their order from the merchant, we go to the area and find out that it is a vacant lot," Salisi lamented.

"Sometimes, we are the ones who eat the food items from the prank callers," he also said.

According to ride hailing app Grab Philippines, they are already coordinating with their riders to address their concerns.

In a text message to GMA News Online, Grab Philippines' Media Team said the company will reimburse payment for items ordered by no-shows or prank bookings.

"For fraudulent bookings or no-shows, drivers are reimbursed max of 24 hours upon presentation of the receipt," read the message.—Consuelo Marquez/LDF, GMA News