When I was a traffic warden I had quite a few deliveroo motorcyclists tell me that getting one ticket (£35) was equivalent to what they would likely earn that day. They also had to park illegally to be able to properly do their job, so they were living in constant fear that they'd get caught.
Before anyone thinks otherwise, I did not ever give them a ticket...
It just seemed an insanely vulnerable position they were in, earning so little and with such volatility in what could happen day to day.
There’s days where it can happen, but, on the whole, my knowledge of the job would lead me to believe they were exaggerating to get out of a ticket. Motorcycle/moped riders are favoured over cyclists in deliveroo’s algorithm and get preferential access to orders. Even when it’s quiet, they’ll be the ones who are busy. They have higher costs due to fuel and insurance than cyclists, so it makes sense, but I’d think it’s unlikely they were ever THAT quiet. The problem is, as you say, that they’re incentivised to park illegally, drive terribly, and generally take risks because it affects their bottom line.
And yes, the volatility point is the key one. All the risk is on the rider, and if it’s quiet there’s no safety net. When I did it, it was some extra money to cover rent in the final few days of my PhD, I could work times when I knew it was busy and not bother at other times, but even then, there was variable demand. Some people did it full time, and I have no idea how they could budget or plan, so I imagine employee status suits them a lot better. There was a day around first lockdown where I was out for about an hour and a half and had one order worth £4.30. People I spoke to had been out for the whole day and not had much more; it’s an extreme example but it is possible to have an hourly of about 43p if you’re really unlucky. Employee status will prevent that too.
There’s also a bit of nostalgia for days that aren’t going to come back anyway. A few years ago, it was not impossible that with some hard work and good fitness a cyclist could pull in around £3k a month on deliveroo. Since then, fees have been declining, the company is ‘employing’ more and more riders and there’s an ongoing race to the bottom as they work out how they can pay the least amount of money possible to get the order from A-B. Employee status is the death knell for those days and removes any chance people are going to have of making that sort of money, but it does put a bottom limit on how bad things could get, and I think that’s probably more important given how the sector is going.
Edit: Actually, I remember that in the early days Deliveroo did pay a base rate which was topped up with fees from orders and then moved everyone on to these contractor contracts so it’s not impossible they go back to that system which worked better for everyone except the company. I don’t think that’s the way the wind is blowing though.