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Callum Cant

Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the New Economy 1st Edition

by Callum Cant (Author)

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What is life like for workers in the gig economy? Is it a paradise of flexibility and individual freedom? Or is it a world of exploitation and conflict? Callum Cant took a job with one of the most prominent platforms, Deliveroo, to find out.

His vivid account of the reality is grim. Workers are being tyrannised by algorithms and exploited for the profit of the few – but they are not taking it lying down. Cant reveals a transnational network of encrypted chats and informal groups which have given birth to a wave of strikes and protests. Far from being atomised individuals helpless in the face of massive tech companies, workers are tearing up the rulebook and taking back control. New developments in the workplace are combining to produce an explosive subterranean class struggle – where the stakes are high, and the risks are higher.

Riding for Deliveroo is the first portrait of a new generation of working class militants. Its mixture of compelling first-hand testimony and engaging analysis is essential for anyone wishing to understand class struggle in platform capitalism.

ISBN-10

1509535519
ISBN-13

978-1509535514
Edition

1st
Publisher

Polity
Publication date

December 4, 2019
Language

English
Dimensions

5.4 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
Print length

140 pages
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a timely and insightful discussion of the conditions faced by gig economy workers. Powerfully written and politically urgent, it should be essential reading for anybody looking to understand - and to challenge - precarity in the age of platform capitalism."
Helen Hester, University of West London

“Riding for Deliveroo is a must read for those interested in the gig economy, providing a powerful argument for how work can be transformed today.”
Jamie Woodcock, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

“Riding for Deliveroo provides a compelling and insightful account of the labour struggles at the front lines of the gig economy, deftly weaving individual stories of worker resistance into a rigorous theoretical analysis of modern-day capitalism.”
Wendy Liu

"Essential reading."
Morning Star

About the Author

Callum Cant is a former Deliveroo delivery worker and PhD candidate at the University of West London

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Polity; 1st edition (December 4, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 140 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509535519
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509535514
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,214,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,070 in Economic Policy
- #3,525 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
- #3,572 in Public Policy (Books)

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Remy

Excellent read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is a fantastic book. Definitely recommend.

D J F

A vivid first-person treatise of living in the new economy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 24, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

"Riding For Deliveroo" is a first person telling of trying to survive in the 'Gig Economy', where people get a flat rate per service performed - in this case delivering food from restaurants to hungry and often tired individuals in and around Brighton. Written by Callum Cant, the author almost immediately reveals Marxist leanings and a sympathetic approach towards militancy - not that this hugely affects a book written very much from the perspective of an individual worker and his workmates struggling to find suitable employment and subject to practices that Cant judges as exploitative. Cant writes in an engaging, conversational style, and whilst occasionally he'll drop in a bit of Marxist theory it's largely a shocking revelation of the worst face of Capitalism and the sharp practices used to control the workforce, putting all the risk in their court whilst taking all the reward.

Cant explains that for restaurants Deliveroo™ is a bolt on service, potentially expanding their catchments and order numbers significantly for a fee, whilst for customers it’s the convenience of ordering the food they want via an App, and for investors an attractive bet that will hopefully return investment – eventually. Cant delves into some of the financials of an App that is expandable and replicable into new cities worldwide with seemingly little effort, but which presently looses eye-watering sums of money - £129.1 million in 2016, £185 million in 2017 due to a rapid expansion and due to investors keeping it afloat in a scenario that seems to follow the ‘.com bubble’ all too closely for comfort, with tech start-ups being the ‘in’ thing. Cant reveals that Deliveroo UK is reliant upon around 15,000 couriers to make the system work, an ever-changing number with high turnover levels originally paid a fixed hourly fee but soon changed to a ‘per drop’ fixed rate, a source of much disquiet amongst an initially disparate workforce. None of those couriers are employees; all are treated as independent contractors and thus have no guaranteed minimum wage, no PAYE, no holidays, no sick entitlement, have to provide their own bicycle or moped and keep them operational at their own expense; and also have to pay £150 deposit, deducted from the first £300 they earn for the ‘uniform’, battery pack, phone mount, lights and helmet, and thermal backpack to keep the food being delivered warm. The App is installed on the couriers’ own phone, and they have flexibility when they work and how long they work for – although Cant states that it’s compulsory to work two weekends a month: failure to do so means the App is turned off and they are deemed to have resigned. Payments were made on a ‘Fee cycle’ basis, as if the couriers were private companies, with many no realising they had to register as self-employed with HM Customs and submit tax returns.

Cant explains that the ‘per drop’ flat rate means that couriers are forced to take risks to make money, taking inappropriate shortcuts, weaving through traffic, delivering on frosty or icy evenings in the dark where a premium may be offered to entice couriers out to make more money. Injured or damaged your bike? Tough, that’s your problem. Cant also explains that couriers wait in a central square in Brighton for orders, controlled by the App, to come in and tell them which restaurant to report to with an order code. It’s their responsibility to secure their bike or moped whilst in the restaurant, using their own time, and also to wait until that restaurant has the meals ready for transport – again in their own time. Some restaurants are prescriptive about which entrance the couriers can use and make the couriers wait unreasonable times, again eating into their own time and reducing their potential numbers of deliveries in an evening. It’s easy to see with this model how cycling couriers get such a bad press from the London-centric media, tainting the UK’s opinion of cyclists generally negatively. Cant explains “We were all under time pressure, and it was hard to forget it”, revealing that 90% of orders had to be accepted and delivered within a certain time calculated by the App – delivery requests not accepted within two minutes of transmission by swiping right on the App would count against the rider, whilst failure to meet the performance standards could mean immediate termination of the ‘Supplier agreement’ for delivery services. It’s a salutary revelation of workers being treated as disposable, with Cant also stating that Deliveroo would often employ too many couriers leading to a significant drop in earnings waiting for orders to come in.

Cant took the role partially as research for his Ph.D., and partially to make ends meet whilst a student. This is primarily an insightful first-hand view into the ever-tightening world of work, with erosion of conditions for workers in an industry portrayed as providing ultimate flexibility – the reality is far from that. Deliveroos’ advertising shows top notch meals being delivered to smiling customers. Cant states the reality is more akin to KFC™, McDonalds™ and cheap pizza being delivered to exhausted white collar workers both at home and working unpaid overtime late into the evening in offices. He describes his fellow couriers – a father working a 64 hour week to support his family, migrants who couldn’t get other work due to poor English but with the App working in many languages, students unable to cover their rent let alone pay for food, ‘misfits’ who didn’t like being told what to do by a boss or had few qualifications – and even those without work permits. The portrait is one of the desperate, not those who require flexibility due to for example looking after children, with few females in that workforce.

Cant doesn't like the term 'Gig Economy', basically an extrapolation of the piecework system. Rather he prefers 'Platform Capitalism', with the workforce not controlled by a line manager but rather by a 'Black box' App which tells the workforce which restaurant to report to and pick up a delivery, and only then revealing where that delivery is going to once the food has been collected. With a mixture of staff on mopeds and others on push bikes, each provided by the workforce, some journeys are more onerous than others due to Brighton's hilly nature, with some requiring cycling to neighbouring Hove for the same flat delivery fee, directly affecting the potential earnings capacity of a rider.

This isn’t all a story about exploitation however, as the book’s subtitle “Resistance In The New Economy” indicates. Deliveroo is one of many companies not recognising unions, only wishing to deal with the couriers on a 1-1 basis: truly ‘Divide and conquer’. Cant reveals the story of encroaching disgruntlement and the setup of informal WhatsApp™ groups and the distribution of a regular newsletter called ‘Rebel Roo’ amongst the workforce which led to strike action with support from the IWGB union – something the couriers realised they could take advantage of as their non-employee status meant they weren’t covered by the 2016 Trade Union Act. The very status of the workforce as independent contractors meant they could simply refuse to accept orders given by the App leading to food not getting delivered to customers and restaurants left with spoilt orders. Cant spends some time revealing the tactics of Deliveroo to frantically up the premium delivery rate to try to attract the strikers to break ranks, how the strikes spread across UK cities and through Europe, and how co-ordination with workers for Deliveroo rival UberEats™ as well as restaurant staff at ‘dark’ kitchens and in Wetherspoons™ achieved some of the demands of workers, at least in the short term. It’s a revealing look at how the very tightening of laws to control unions’ actions to almost punitive levels was used against firms stretching the very definition of employment to their own benefit – hoist, indeed by their own petard.

This is a revealing insight into the cutting edge of the ever-toughening world of work, with conditions eroded and the workforce being treated as completely disposable by the worst offenders. I like Cant’s easy writing style and his through explanation of the challenges facing many in today’s marketplace. It’s a timely book given that employee status is frequently in the news, from Uber™ cab drivers’ status to the growth of zero-hours contracts meaning with no guaranteed employment workers are unable to apply for loans or take on a mortgage – or even guarantee they will be in a position to put food on the table next week. It’s a sad indictment of Capitalism at its worst, and whilst I’ve personally never held views as left-wing as Cant his explanation of the issues is clearly understandable and I can empathise with the conditions being endured. I could perhaps have done with a little less Marxist theorising which pops up occasionally, but overall this is a minor issue with a vivid first-person treatise of living in the new economy.

4 people found this helpful

Margaret7

A very important book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 1, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Having had bad experiences with some of the speedy delivery folks on pushbikes when I lived in London (even on a green WALK signal) I was interested to read this book. I totally understood how under pressure they were while, at the same time, often feared for my life because it was less important to them than getting where they were going - which is a shocking state of affairs. The whole gig economy is an abusive nightmare that puts this kind of pressure on people every single day and I was fascinated to read about what it is like from someone living that life and trying to survive. This is a very readable book that is straight from the heart, passionate and articulate. The author discusses the gig economy in depth, illustrated by what he and his friends have been dealing with as they try to earn a decent living. To say that it is exploitative is an understatement. Even out in the country where I now live, you can see the negative effect this kind of practice has on the lives and the physical mental health of people trapped in the situation of having to work for these kind of employers in order to stay out of the dole queue and support themselves and their families. It was great to discover that many of these workers are joining forces and are beginning to fight back and demand a fairer and more balanced share of the income generated through these businesses. It is good to see, also, that the author is doing a PhD on the subject. The more this kind of thing and its consequences are 'out there' not just with the general public but with the alleged 'experts' - the more the workers can use that to their advantage to claw back some humanity in the workplace.

2 people found this helpful

Mother of Dragonflies

Who needs a takeaway?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 19, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Starts off with a dreary Corbynista rant about how the workers are exploited by the evil bosses and are fighting back. Whatever the merits and demerits of Deliveroo and how much they manage pay, folk are too lazy to go out to eat and too lazy to shop for a defrostable meal or shock horror, cook from scratch.
I have just vowed not to buy takeaways during 2020 after reading this whiny moaning.

5 people found this helpful

Bob Sherunkle

Industrial action in the gig economy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 14, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Today there have been gales and driving rain all over the UK. Just after I finished this book, I walked past the local Deliveroo zone where riders wait for business, and counted my blessings. Not a good night to be out on two wheels, earning your crust by delivering other people’s.

Callum Cant paints from experience a picture of working for Deliveroo in Brighton, and describes the company structure well.

However, there’s much more to the book, and to Cant’s role in the story. It’s a book of three parts: the description of Deliveroo, a Marxist analysis of its workers’ hardships and how they can be resolved, and a history of industrial action against Deliveroo and other food companies.

So where does Cant fit into all this? When he started working for Deliveroo, he worked for the Students Union at the University of Sussex (my alma mater), and by the end of the book he is studying for a PhD (the theme, by the way is “worker self-organisation in UK pubs, call centres and platforms”) and “giving seminars”. He started working for Deliveroo as “an experiment”, self-confessedly with activist intentions (and also to make a bit of extra money). Probably not your typical Deliveroo contractor, then – more what a Marxist would term one of the socialist intelligentsia fostering class revolution. Cant is in pole position for an academic career; not all Deliveroo staff have such an attractive alternative.

One of the most interesting expositions is the role of technology, depicted first as the tool enabling a company like Deliveroo to maximise its profit, then as the means by which the workers can fight back, with WhatsApp as the ideal communications method for organising a disparate workforce.

The book is a little uneven in terms of evidence. For example, Cant asserts that “the ruling class try to fuel” a popular tendency to “blame migrants for the drop in wages”. This may well be true, but he cites no evidence to back it up.

Cant mentions more than once illegal migrant workers in the sector, without conceding anything wrong in their working when not legally entitled. Readers must draw their own conclusions on this.

I would be very interested to read an objective analysis of the worker’s position in the gig economy, though a Marxist might well argue that any non-Marxist analysis is bourgeois.

One aspect which comes over well is the sheer physical effort of working for Deliveroo in Brighton on a push-bike. Knowing the topography, I fully believe this; for others, a contour map of Brighton would have been handy to drive the point home.

One person found this helpful

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