Food Delivery Apps: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

John Oliver discusses food delivery apps, how they are both helping and harming restaurants and workers, and why starting an orphanage definitely should not be your side hustle.
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[@danmorris8714]

Maybe we should focus on the fact that US tipping culture has incentivised places to pay a lower wage for the food service workers.

[@mmlo233]

I completely agree. This needs to be discussed. Telling consumers to remember to tip just supports the status quo.

[@user-cp9yo4jk9b]

the solution to this is not to stiff your waitress or refuse to pay your delivery driver, it's to email or call your elected officials for minimum wage enforcement for tipped employees

[@blaster915]

Be like Japan, where tipping is rude because it implies you didn't do your job and folks have to pay you more to do what you were supposed to do in the first place!! 😂

[@DanielRodriguez-gs2xj]

​@user-cp9yo4jk9b true but on the other hand the forced tipping through shaming has to stop as well. Sometimes some can't afford to tip or just don't want too and that's totally fine if they dont.

[@arnezbridges93]

Nope, employers just use this as an excuse. They should just pay the full wage. You know the reason they aren't paid minimum wage in the first place? Racism. Originally blacks were the service workers and this was a way not to pay them and force them back into slavery. Yes we had to pay another law to eliminate debtors prison. Again.

[@johnaaron37]

I'm so sick of hearing someone referring to a person's 2-5th jobs as "side hustles". If you need multiple "side hustles" to live they are JOBS.

[@Leith_Crowther]

Disregard the insults of children. There’s no dishonor on being called a fool by a fool.

[@echoawoo7195]

​@Natty1620 let's hear about *your* real problems.

[@megathorn4307]

@@natty-1620 get bent

[@johnaaron37]

@@natty-1620 well, I'm not an unpleasant douchebag. So I got that going for me.

[@deadinside8781]

@@natty-1620 I take it back. You have *lots* of problems.

[@ikbenmathijs9424]

In the netherlands, deliveroo workers sued deliveroo for requiring them to become independent contractors, which takes them away from a lot of worker's rights we have here. The judge decided that deliveroo is not allowed to do this, and then they just quit doing business in the entire country lmao

[@temiomogunloye5819]

Americans would attempt something like that and the courts would rule in favor of the corporations 😅

[@The_Real_Grand_Nagus]

Just goes to show that the business model doesn't work. I think John Oliver has that part exactly right, and I wish he would have spent time on that aspect. In an effort to create a monopoly, they are creating massive inefficiencies and shouldn't exist.

[@eleven.eleven.]

​@@temiomogunloye5819 this is so freaking true. Corporations have more rights than the people needed to run them, why aren't we protesting yet? It's like we all have a wet blanket over our heads while some wealthy white man whispers, "shhh."

[@MachoWcDuck]

​@@AndreJHoward I agree with the "small" part, but the Netherlands is far from homogenous.

[@ThePantoffel]

​@@AndreJHowardsomething like this happened in many countries, like Poland now introducing that Uber drivers need a polish drivers license so they can't use cheap foreign labor anymore.

[@JesseLeeHumphry]

"I'm like Miss Piggy the way I'm hittin' that green" is absolutely fucking unhinged

[@frankisnot1148]

.....this joke hasn't fully sunk in until i read that comment and now i'm just like what the fUCK-

[@damianp7313]

Same​@@frankisnot1148

[@viviorko]

I thought it was a joke about Piggy using physical abuse to get what she wants from her life long partner. If she was a male character, the character would have been eliminated by the 80s.

[@JesseLeeHumphry]

@@viviorko oh go cry about it

[@viviorko]

@@JesseLeeHumphry , it’s not worth crying about. This is a KZbin comment section.

[@krikkrakvollenbak5892]

As a european hearing People say "make sure you tip" is so weird. no, make sure workers are paid a living Wage. The employer needs to pay his employees not the customer.

[@esprit101]

I think that ship has sailed in the US 😂

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

There you go assuming America is a civilized country.

[@mrrich9614]

The problem is that in place like the Seattle where they created a minimum wage for delivery drivers, they added so many fees that no one is using it anymore. So no one is tipping and no one is ordering. And the drivers sit around all day, making less than they did before.

[@missshroom5512]

Our waiters and waitresses here have been paid like this for decades

[@saxor96]

​@@mrrich9614Well that means the business itself is unsustainable. You either cut the profit margins for the delivery company, or force the business to go under.

[@me0101001000]

"Choose your hours" As a PhD student, that's such a huge trap. It's a morbid joke in grad school that "You have the freedom to work any 80 hours you want each week."

[@kelleyforeman]

That just triggered my PTSD!

[@me0101001000]

@@kelleyforeman I don't blame you. What do/did you study? I'm in materials science.

[@kelleyforeman]

@@me0101001000molecular genetics. I finished in 2010, but it still gives me nightmares. Wishing you the very best! Hang on--it does get better!

[@k80_]

Same with retail/ food service/ other shift work jobs boasting “flexible schedules.” They mean flexible for them, not you. Since you have to maintain “open availability” and show up whenever they schedule you, but you don’t get to choose when you are scheduled.

[@tt-ki2dw]

Very well stated.

[@Sarah-l8r2w]

I work at Circle K. Tons of Uber and Lyft drivers come in for gas. So many of them have zero idea that they should be saving their gas reciepts for when they file taxes, because many of them seem pretty unaware that they even need to file taxes, much less that they can deduct expenses related to their car. These apps should be required to educate their drivers on these things. I know its just one in a huge list of disgusting abuses by these companies, but it just really upsets me.

[@leelindsay5618]

They can just be inputting the cost or using a card strictly for gas when driving for work. Saving the paper receipts isn't necessary.

[@SPQR_14]

It's better and easier to just take the mileage deduction. So it seems like you are pretty unaware.

[@apmcx]

Tons of Uber and Lyft drivers know how taxes work and won't total more than the standard deduction in all expenses so don't bother keeping them. If your deductions total $5k, and the standard deduction is $12k, you wasted your time in paperwork.

[@mkhartnett]

@@apmcx What "Standard deduction?" There is no "standard deduction" for a business. Do you mean milage?

[@sakarakit5835]

financial Darwinism

[@candiceedgar337]

“Millennials getting some sort of subsidy in life, after all this is a group who will never be able to afford a house, is drowning in student debt, and can’t even enjoy Harry Potter any more”…John Oliver always sums it up in the most important, and the truest statements possible.

[@LarsaXL]

I am a millennial and can confirm all of this. Makes me feel even worse for the following generations, at least we got to enjoy our 20:s.

[@AWalkInHistory]

Harry Potter will always be the best. J.K. Rowling is also very brave, but that is irrelevant to the work.

[@Doctor_Joey]

Despite the $40 cost for delivering a $12 meal before tip, somehow the apps manage to not turn a profit. Instead of paying lobbyists, perhaps they should keep that money.

[@wesley00042]

The CEO of Uber made $24.3 million in 2022, a 20% increase from the previous year. Maybe they should start there.

[@deliverykp1]

The other commenter is correct. The company isn't making a profit, but you can better believe all executive level employees are making a killing.

[@ChrisM-zm4li]

Well, the "apps" may supposedly not turn a profit, but the sleazeball who simply made the lame app is a billionaire. So HE is stealing all the profits and future of the company, because they don't care even a bit about their effects on our country.

[@rovvy221]

They are keeping the money in their pockets, just in the companies. Highest valued stock usually have zero dividend to avoid Fed tax.

[@MICHAEL-vy3ch]

I would just point out that the streaming service Disney+ has never turned a profit, but Disney isn't hurting for money because of it.

[@KaiserSpherical]

Big Food Apps: "We are barely making a profit!" Also Big Food Apps: "Here is $184 million so that we don't have to give our employees health insurance."

[@jadersanctem]

+

[@bobbudowniczygames]

Managers be like: ''We are family'' now go work for cheap dirt and maybe u get sum tips that waiter didnt steal. But siriously all of them apps make restaurant get only payed for food cost but people still want to be apart of it cause ists on social media and restaurants always want more sales.

[@88sbyers]

“We are barely making a profit” Yet, the CEO of Uber saw a 24 million dollar increase this year, according to Market Watch.

[@theBestElliephant]

​@@88sbyers I mean but have you seen the prices of private islands and yachts these days? What's a poor CEO to do, work for their money?

[@jewelsd6864]

The detail about the $184 million answered a question I had. I was thinking very generous salaries for the top people at corporate were the only way those apps could barely be making a profit but blowing possible profits on trying to prevent a change that would have benefited workers is enough of an explanation for how those businesses aren’t technically making much profit. I’m curious how much it would have actually cost the companies if it had passed. Did they spend $184 million to save $500 million? Or would it have only cost them around $25 million spread out over several years and they gambled away $184 million with the hope that’d block it?

[@oldgabe5461]

I worked at a local pizza place right before the pandemic as a paid delivery driver. At one point someone walked in asking to pick up a DoorDash order, the owner explained they had not signed up for DoorDash and told them to leave. The owner then went on the app and saw that they were indeed listed but also that the app contained the trademarked logo and images of the menu that the owners held the copyright for. They steal whatever they can and keep getting away with it.

[@cailinanne]

A) love that owner B) I hope he filed a lawsuit against them, but understand why he wouldn’t (can get expensive).

[@NotACat2237]

I could never understand why you use a 3rd party app for the places that already had delivery. We didn't need a big complicated app for food delivery. We need a simple app that streamlines the process of ordering the food. They made it way more complicated than it needed to be and are surprised they are not making money off it.

[@sirdeadlock]

​@@NotACat2237 Pizza places have strict delivery ranges. You can be a few blocks away from the place and they'll only offer pick-up service because you're out of their coverage area.

[@TheDroppedAnchor]

@@Gustav_Kuriga is clearly incompetent at basic reading skills. Or a shill for grubbyhubby

[@aRandomGuy86]

​@@Gustav_Kuriga the Owner, is literally, the Owner. If someone else copied their menu and logo and placed them on the app without permission, the Owner wouldn't know until notified.

[@Moobeus]

As a former Uber driver, I can say it is one of the most stressful and high intensity jobs imaginable. Not only does 70% of your income come from tips, so if people don’t you literally make almost nothing, In order to even have a CHANCE of making minimum wage you cannot stop even for a second during your work day, no lunch, no drinks, no phone calls nothing as you get no stipend for being clocked in whatsoever, you only get money for making deliveries themselves. You need to be 100% focused driving and delivery orders as fast as you can. Not to mention gas will literally eat over half of your money just by itself. You are so painfully aware that every wasted second is lost money it becomes depressing. Traffic jams, long elevators, people slow to answer doors, all cost you and you are, like I said, *painfully* aware of that fact. Every single one is infuriating as you are literally watching your money tick away with time. And we havent even gotten to the worst part. When you are offered a job you have TEN SECONDS to decide whether to accept it, and sometimes, you will literally end up with a job that costs more in gas to deliver than you actually make from the delivery itself and that’s assuming you get a GOOD TIP. If you get a bad tip you’ll literally lose money. Most people don’t order large amounts of food so the tips are tiny even if they are large % wise. You can literally get assigned a job where it will take 40 minutes to pick up and deliver the food and you’ll make 5$ TOTAL. 40 minutes for 5$ and remember it probably cost more than 5$ in gas. You have no idea how much you will make for a drive in advance as the only number the app gives you is the “potential earnings” which includes what Uber pays you PLUS what they think you *should* get in tips. But it’s literally always MUCH less than what Uber says you will because people don’t tip. If I drove for an hour and received no tips and only made what Uber gave me as a delivery fee I would make literally 10$ TOTAL before gas if I’m LUCKY. And remember, at least half of that is going to gas. It needs serious regulation as right it’s practically equivalent to a sweat shop.

[@carmenlanders6663]

I am glad you stopped driving full time for Uber. It's not money anyone can live on as a full time job

[@Moobeus]

@@carmenlanders6663 luckily I was just working it during the summer as I was taking university classes part time so I couldn’t do a 9-5 but I would never even do it as a side gig again.

[@Lisa-ik3wt]

Traffic is murderously frustrating. I drive half the time I am clocked in also. Good luck 👍

[@ImTheApexBoy]

This comment needs more attention

[@Moobeus]

The other thing is people always go “well you can work when you want”. Nobody Uber driving is doing it in their spare time or for a little extra cash when they want, the only people willing to put themselves through it are people with NO other option, just like a sweatshop.

[@KPHVAC]

I was an Uber driver for 2 years in Los Angeles and did thousands of rides. I moved to a small town and got a job at a local pizza place doing deliveries and made way more money for less hours of work. I also drove about 20,000 miles less doing pizza delivery. These gig apps don't care about their workers.

[@GrandmaBev64]

A multimillion-dollar corporation can't afford to pay a living wage, but its CEO gets $26 million in bonus every year.

[@SayAhh]

​@@GrandmaBev64They were willing and able to afford over 5 times the amount of his annual salary to defeat Prop 22. Think about that. They do not want to pay nor treat drivers as employees EVER if they can avoid it and might even pull out and stop doing business in any and every state. I have personally only ever used uber 3 times, and twice was internationally in lieu of a taxicab.

[@allandill2033]

I delivered pizzas too. Your employer is still using you unless they also provide a car with insurance or compensate you for using your personal car. It's the way restaurants have always been using drivers. Just like they refuse to provide paid vacations, or sick days. And forbid that someone hits your car. The owner will become very dodgy about your case number and won't give you any compensation for the days you have to take off.

[@KPHVAC]

@@allandill2033 I got paid $11.50 an hour plus $5 for ever delivery plus I kept all my tips. It was a pretty good setup for a basic job. Good locally owned pizza place. It paid better than Uber with very little down time.

[@labj143]

@@allandill2033 The problem is that, delivery companies are not the only ones that make you do this. Office workers and teachers pay often out of pocket for office supplies and computer equipment(and laptop repair costs can quickly go over $1000 for professional use). Physical labor workers need to pay for expensive work safe clothes and equipment(and then for the inevitable replacements after they wear down). Paying out of pocket for personal property that you use for work is pretty much common place. Is it okay? Personally, no.

[@everentropy]

"We have replaced the tyranny of the boss with the tyranny of the algorithm" is an amazing summation of the issue from Prayag

[@kiloftd]

"my boss is an app and I owe it money"

[@TotoLakay]

False, we have automated duress. Duress is a form of control they teach at Harvard business, it is a twist upon sharecropping, nothing else. Gov't do it, religion do it. Anyone who wants to make money or have someone take care of them at no cost to them, uses duress. Because it is effective and they use every religious doctrine to do it: If an employee complains? make them "count their blessings( a migrant would be so lucky to have this job)" to make a kid behave "(orphans would be so lucky to have a home)" etc..." It is insidious. And they do it, because they know the government is going to let them get away with it or will try their damnedest to give them a slap on the wrist. Yet, I don't know if tyranny of the workers would be a good thing and it will be better because EVERYONE can be a worker.

[@BerndSeichter]

A Boss owns the alghorithm. The Boss IS very much the Problem, dear.

[@CaptainFirefred]

It's even worse, they gave every dip shit customer the tyranny tools of bosses.

[@bonniejosavland3227]

@@TotoLakay*will be a worker! Republicans want everyone to work but not get paid!

[@joshuasalem5022]

One thing this segment left out was the phenomenon of “ghost kitchens”. These exist as a single storefront in the real world, but operate as potentially dozens of fake restaurants on a food delivery app, all of which have the same address and often the same food items too. The effect of this is a single ghost kitchen taking up huge amounts of space on these apps and artificially outcompeting locally owned restaurants.

[@Cordelia0704p]

And a lot of times their food is awful

[@rachmunshine9474]

They are sometimes in private houses too which likely have no food safety certification.

[@jjeaze]

I think he made a whole episode on ghost kitchens

[@richardspillers6282]

Reminds me of a place that got me recently. I drive trucks for a living and I'm rarely parked near anything good. I was at this rest area and just across the highway was a pizza place. I ordered a supreme calzone. I went over what I wanted twice with the lady taking my order. I ended up spending about $40. A Russian dude delivers my food. It's a ham and mostly cheese calzone. No sauce. I called the place back and couldn't get anyone that spoke English. I noticed the sandwich shop was the same exact place. ​@@Cordelia0704p

[@Stvsiarose]

@@jjeazehe briefly mentioned it in the chucky cheese episode

[@dreadvenom1]

I’m glad that I actually work for a restaurant as a delivery driver. My customers know me, my boss knows me, everything works out. Been doing this job twelve years.

[@Emberbro]

“Can’t spell Millennial without three massive L’s” Yeah. I felt that.

[@j.bat.8235]

#mood

[@almightymachine9930]

OHHHHHHHHH!

[@mbur5099]

Real talk

[@yurmomsaccount]

FACTS ✋️

[@Towkeeyoh]

Brutal

[@woogymodel]

"Mafia margins" - best phrase ever to describe this highway robbery.

[@OlutunfeseDayo]

It definitely is highway robbery

[@wck]

It's pretty hilarious that he says us the customers are the winners in this situation, after describing that the menus on these apps are listed at a 30% markup higher than the food is in-store. That's before any of the fees. How are we winning in this situation?

[@burkesongs]

@@wck Well, yeah, we're the ones getting the 'best' part of a crappy business model, I suppose.

[@One.Zero.One101]

I'm constantly surprised about what shady business tactics are allowed in the USA. Listing a restaurant even when they said no? And then getting the order posing as an undercover customer, and then passing it off as a legit partnership with the restaurant? Yeah that would get you in deep trouble in my country. It's like the Wild Wild West in the USA, anything goes.

[@mindstalk]

@@wck "How are we winning in this situation?" Convenient food delivery! Which customers value enough to keep paying for, apparently. They're the least coerced participants in all this.

[@Ultrevolous]

Numbers being yelled at you with Human Squidward is my favorite show. I simply cannot get enough of it.

[@dennisjohnson2217]

He is way more of a gonzo than a squidward

[@Biblioholic1993]

He's definitely not Handsome Squidward as he might claim XD

[@one-onessadhalf3393]

@Biblioholic1993 He said human Squidward, not handsome Squidward

[@tekbarrier]

Everybody knows Stephen Miller is human Squidward. They even made that joke a while back.

[@vandal280]

I love it, but I also dread it every time it pops up on my KZbin feed. This week on Everything Is Broken...

[@BFG-rr9cv]

Reminder that a lot of restaurants still have a delivery guy and sell you stuff cheaper if you just call them and order without the leech app. At least in my city, I totally get around using those apps

[@samanthamorton427]

Really feels like the answer is to not use these sites… I can’t believe these companies aren’t profiting at this point. We paid $30 in fees last night on a $60 order before tip… if they’re squeezing fees from consumers and half of the profits from restaurants how on earth are they not profitable. If this much isn’t enough they shouldn’t exist.

[@dennycrane4261]

Then dont use them and get off your couch and go and support directly your restaurant, as easy as that

[@Wealldeservebetter2]

Yes, living wages need to replace tipping culture. There are actually very few workers who depend on tips that actually achieve an annual salary above the poverty rate when expenses like health care, retirement savings, both halves of SSN are removed. End tipping culture all together

[@SpecOps140]

​@@dennycrane4261or.. learn to fucking cook

[@potatertot360]

@@cat-le1hf ​ @dennycrane4261 disabled people exist and should get to have nice things once in a while

[@adamkral8110]

The companies are “not profitable“ because they reinvest it into growing the company. Amazon did the same thing for many years.

[@bubediscuss]

Ah yes, delivery apps, where a $17 dish somehow rounds to $46.53 at the checkout window every single time

[@VentureOut___]

And the driver only gets $5

[@DanielRodriguez-uo2qc]

IF that…

[@AnotherInternetRando]

And yet, inexplicably, everyone involved is somehow losing money in the process. Go capitalism!

[@EZDZ24]

@@AnotherInternetRandoI was just going to say that….. and that these apps painted themselves in a corner from the start because most of them during the “consumer adoption phase” all the way to the boom through the pandemic, only suggested/defaulted tipping 5% while suggesting through messaging to the consumer that the company took care of the driver. Since the end of the pandemic the companies have cut base pay 2/3’s, increased mileage on the drives, and implemented a forced “camping out” at the stores to receive any offers. The system that the industry built is a model in human exploitation and broken capitalism.

[@Noah_527]

And then folks continue to gripe and complain about how they can’t get ahead in life meanwhile their eating out budget is larger than their monthly car payment. Is it really that inconvenient to get off your ass and get in the car and drive 10 min to pick up the food yourself? How did we become so lazy as a society?

[@Scauthra]

I work for a food delivery app and it would be nice if the app itself paid us more. Tips are great but the person buying the food should not be the main bread winner of my job. But I am always incredibly thankful when I get big tips. And one thing left out is that there are a lot of really bad drivers out there that do steal food, eat the food or are creepy during the delivery. Those people really ruin things for the rest of us because then you do get clients that dont tip because of the prior delivery person doing something bad.

[@QMS9224]

Dude fr the food theft is getting out of control. Also restaurants just handing food out to strangers baffles me, they are supposed to ask to confirm the order but if it's some minimum wage mcdonalds worker they dont gaf. Basically the consumer, the delivery person, and the company all lose. There are no winners lol

[@JiYongDijkhuis]

People hardly use cash anymore. Is it true that the food delivery app takes a cut, when you get the tip in the app?

[@Scauthra]

@@QMS9224 Where I live most places do confirm orders. But of coruse it was this past winter where they started doing that because of walk ins and outs.

[@Scauthra]

@@JiYongDijkhuis I am not sure. There is a lot of speculation that the apps do take some of your tip. For Doordash they give you $2 base pay and then whatever is your tip. Customers are locked into their tip as far as I am aware. On Ubereats you can get a customer dangle a $10 tip and then take it away after you deliver it. Regardles if you did it on time, no issues and following all instructions. There are drivers that are bad, and customers that are just vile.

[@KeithKyzivat]

Actually, John Oliver is right here - the consumer does win here, because the actual cost of all of the infrastructure, and of getting in a car, getting the food, coming back, and the cost of the food itself really costs more than is being charged, even at those high costs. Consider a hypothetical of hiring a person personally to go pick up all of your to-go orders - how expensive would that be for someone? Definitely more expensive than you pay when ordering through one of these apps. Now, does it make things right? Of course not. These apps really should be providing their workers with basic things like health insurance and a living wage, so, really we all should reduce the use of these apps, IMHO.

[@barcelonachair6487]

He truly deserves to win the Primetime Emmy's annually. He is a master at what he does; entertaining, educating and enlightening.

[@bobdole8830]

I wouldn't go that far. He is informing but with a HEAVY bias towards his own political agenda. That's not educating.

[@tracy419]

​@@bobdole8830what did you disagree with?

[@kimweaver1252]

We'll call it "The Ollie".

[@KamilDrakari]

These companies work really hard to maintain the illusion that delivery workers are success stories following the "work hard to get ahead in life" model by spending a little extra time on the side to boost their income, as opposed to being desperate and exploited and probably making less than minimum wage after accounting for buying and maintaining their equipment.

[@tt-ki2dw]

Nails it.

[@jackalsnacks]

Marketing firms always spin anything as a positive. You are a fool if you think you're going to retire off of this kind of service.

[@maeschder]

​@@jackalsnacksits not that people believe it, but it gives them social cache and plausible deniability against accusation of exploitation. Also, economies adjust to labor conditions. Making labor laws laxer literally only ruins everything for 99% of people

[@BM-ub9gh]

Where would delivery worker ‘advance’ I wonder? :) Whoever starts working at that job hoping to reach better position within the company (or any other company!) must be a complete idiot to believe that poopoo.

[@Trey5S5S]

Been a delivery driver for years now, and I couldn't have said it better myself

[@anthonynorton666]

Tipping is a ridiculous model for paying workers. No worker should depend on a different individual's decision making every moment they're working on what their compensation should or will just plain be.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

I really can't believe it's legal. It's also a system that is easy for bad managers to exploit because they just give you the worst sections of the restaurant so you don't make any money and they can get rid of you that way.

[@daintycaked]

restaurant lobbies keep workers at sub min wage. I'm not sure how we can change it but it has to be done.

[@serenevoice4765]

Employees should be paid a living wage and then customers can tip on top of it for excellent service.

[@adde9506]

Tipped workers are still required to make minimum wage, if the tips don't bridge the gap, their employer has to pay them the rest. Whether they do in reality? Mostly not, but that may be partially that workers don't know to ask for it.

[@antondovydaitis2261]

Wage theft is a plurality of all theft of all kinds.

[@NoGoodIDNames]

When I worked at a restaurant, we hated the food apps because the delivery guys got in trouble if an order was late, but we'd get in trouble if the order was wrong. So if we were in the weeds and running late on orders they'd just grab a random order off the shelf and knowingly deliver the wrong one.

[@kev7161]

Many restaurants are changing the way they do things now, often holding the order behind the counter and confirming the name of the customer with the driver. Also, making the driver confirm on the app that he/she has gotten the order, hopefully reducing theft.

[@Erebos_23]

IDK what restaurant you worked at but as a Delivery driver for Uber & Doordash I've yet to seea place where at min 1 employee wasn't there to make sure We picked the correct order & or matched it with their own eyeballs on the app.

[@taylorbug9]

​@pugdad7296 this was a problem even before door dash and Uber eats. Used to happen all the time at the Taco Bell I worked at. Old people just grab whatever bag even if it wasn't their name that was called.

[@informalnarwhals]

​@@taylorbug9 right like some people will just walk up to and hover over someone else's food inspecting it. one impatient lady [even after i called the other person's name] went ''this is isn't right'' and i couldn't help but ''that's because it isn't yours'' lol

[@christabelle__]

Yep, and if they deliver the wrong one knowingly, then both the restaurant and the driver get a bad rating...no one wins.

[@christopherstein2024]

1:33 This guy is a hero and a man of the people

[@andrewstraub131]

In the late 90s I was a sushi delivery guy in the Carroll gardens in Brooklyn . I made approximately $500 a night on a good night and the restaurant paid me something like $100 a week . I did well because I spoke the language and knew the neighborhood as I had grown up there . The owner of the restaurant was responsible for my safety and I was responsible for getting their food to the customers intact and on time there were responsibilities that interlocked the food delivery Aps have bypassed the responsibilities section and just moved on to taking everyone’s money

[@alexpatel6378]

You should have been paid maximum 50 dollars a night for such menial labor

[@DJChrisSee]

My wife is from the Slope. That ain't a fun neighborhood to drive / bike around... and forget about parking. I'm glad you found a good way to make that money there.

[@mindstalk]

@@alexpatel6378 What a silly thing to say.

[@SisterUnity]

I really miss the days when drivers worked for the restaurants directly.

[@ts109]

@@alexpatel6378 And you should FO

[@jamesparochetti5279]

Got my first delivery job at Domino's in 2003. When Katrina hit in 2004 and gas prices soared, Domino's starting charging $0.99 or $1.99 as a delivery fee. It was a "temporary" fee while they adjusted to the price increase of gas. Temporary....

[@dukes1993724]

They always say the fee is “temporary”

[@TheOneTrueChris]

Unfortunately, once customers demonstrate that they will pay that additional fee, or higher price, etc., the company has no incentive to ever reduce it.

[@jg7041]

My favorite pizza shop close to me now charges a 4.99 delivery fee plus a $1.50 “web charge” placing the order through their own foodtec website. It’s borderline rape, I still tip the guy 20%, just order much less often.

[@chadchadchadchadchad]

Temporary fees to check a bag on flights also comes to mind

[@skeetrix5577]

I drive for Uber eats in St Louis and have never had a acceptance rate above 10%. think about that. I have to decline over 90% of the orders that get sent to me if I hope to make any money at all, because the orders I get are absolutely crazy. just insane. 10 miles for 4 DOLLARS. yes, it happens ALL DAY LONG. And the usual base pay is just 2 bucks which means you want someone to drive to you in traffic to spend 3 bucks on gas to make a lousy 4 bucks. If you're that person, you suck and I hate you and apparently it's a lot of you.

[@slicktheslickster]

I am always amazed at John Oliver's ability to sustain a high level of sustained incredulity throughout his broadcast. THAT is a gift.

[@matthewbittenbender9191]

Or a curse.

[@parthrege1339]

his writers are so talented

[@matthewbittenbender9191]

@@parthrege1339 you can't write that level of incredulty.

[@jimmycristopherromero]

but he said he was high, and he sounded the same as he always does. I mean, he was pretty clear, but I can let it slide. I'm downing a grapefruit gummy for you, John

[@lanthanumlanthanium6373]

He's sold his soul to tiny hats.

[@shawnalajame7888]

“Spaced out like a 9th grader’s essay trying to meet the page limit…”. 😂😂😂😂😂

[@krogan52]

I am a Doordash driver and they recently cut the pay in my area from a minimum of $5 a delivery to just $2. It went from being just enough to make a living to now I am questioning whether or not I can continue. It often costs me more for gas and time than I get from the delivery, leaving me to rely on tips. Which on many orders I do not get, I have driven orders over 20 miles from the restaurant (which I must commute miles to get to) for fewer than $8 (and then I have to drive back, totaling almost 50 miles and over an hour of time). And on DD, if you don't constantly accept orders you become less likely to get more orders so you have to take the low paying ones hoping to get more better offers. It is also true that ratings are a hugely stressful part of the job.

[@IndigoBellyDance]

U can not take a bad order , u choose to take order or not

[@randomviewer3494]

@@IndigoBellyDancecan you even read? read the whole message again.

[@4partmedia]

Exactly why I use UEats. Door Dash like to rake it's users over the coals, constantly nagging about Why Do You Want To Cancel bullshit and Acceptance Rates crap. UEats, I cancel or deny an order- not a peep from the app. Wait a lil bit- BAM.... $20 1.5mile order.

[@sek3ymisek3ymi]

@@IndigoBellyDance if your acceptance rate drops, so do the calls . You have to keep it above 90 percent on most apps

[@MaxineCatalano]

I could not survive without food delivery. I am 80 yrs old on the 3rd floor of an historic building in my Village, the deliveries are perfectly chosen, packed and delivered. How would I survive so shame on any company that denies these heroes of a penny.

[@awibs57]

Can confirm: I managed a dive bar in Manhattan that was constantly being listed on food delivery apps as a "restaurant" with a fake menu of items we didn't have. It was a cash-mostly, bud-light-and-fireball type joint that maybe could bust out wings or fries some of the time, if items were in stock. I would get angry people calling or even walking in about orders I'd never heard of, on apps we didn't use, for items we didn't sell, and all I could offer them in apology was a beer or a shot. It was the kind of joint that didn't even answer the phone when it was busy or loud. Corner dive, blatantly not a restaurant, and yet...

[@stella24oz]

Why not put signs all over with the logos of these apps with the red circle and a slash, that's what I would do at least.

[@BartHumphries]

So all people need to do to get free drinks is to walk into tiny bars and claim an order was put in with GrubHub? Asking for a friend...

[@samaraisnt]

sounds like a scam, but not sure what the scam is…i know there’s “ghost kitchens” where one kitchen runs 10 different “restaurants” and my local one was run by a convicted child rapist, so that’s super fun.

[@snorttroll4379]

How rapey was he?

[@j4k3z]

@@samaraisnt the scam is Door Dash looking like they have way more 'restaurants' and food items available than they do + the increased orders $$. What do they have to lose in it? Best chance the 'restaurant' says ah what the hell and makes the food, worst case is... they lose nothing..

[@samfilmkid]

That Orphanage Side Hustle tangent had me ROLLING

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

It was definitely the WEIRDEST, most RND thing for a clone attempting to pass itself off as a human could state.

[@sarahadkins5044]

Exactly! I can’t stop watching it. It’s so fucking bizarre.

[@lindafischlein728]

Orphanages don't even exist in the US...Just really, really weird.

[@kingkelz215]

"Innovative. Profitable. Orphanages."

[@koalapillars]

"eDopt" 😂

[@plutopepsi578]

I’ve actually never used a delivery app bc I refuse to pay the fees but this really reaffirms it. During the pandemic we got a LOT of takeout if the hopes that our favorite restaurants would stay open but we always picked it up.

[@CassieLopez]

"... as spaced out as a 9th-grader's essay trying to meet the page limit." This might be my favorite simile ever!!

[@genevalawrence801]

As a former high school English teacher, I deeply appreciated this! 😂

[@jimgsewell]

@@genevalawrence801 Enjoy your reminiscing about the past. Now we have ChatGPT, coming up with enough words will no longer be a thing. The writer will use AI in order to expand their text to impressive lengths. While the reader will use AI to condense the text into an easy to understand summary with bullet points. The times they are a changing.

[@guyfretwell5169]

Yes!!! That was incredible

[@Ondowuzz]

Not Hermione, no.

[@fishercourt]

@@jimgsewellThanks for trying and failing to bring negative vibes. No one cares about your lame comment.

[@pepsiplunge87]

I owned a bagel store during the pandemic and a couple years after, sold it last year. About a month after I bought the store I ended our relationship with grubhub and Uber eats for the exact reasons John describes in this. People complained, but it wasn't worth. Thank you John Oliver for this.

[@dannydaw59]

How much did they charge? 30%?

[@pepsiplunge87]

@dannydaw59 yes. When I canceled the agreement with Uber eats they offered a "lower" 27% to try to keep the business. I laughed.

[@nicklazzaro5055]

Smart former owner. I used to drive for a pizza place at night a few nights a week. I worked for all types of businesses as a driver, server, bartender, management.... anything in the food service industry i did it... i told our owner he needed to get out from those apps because not only is he barely turning a profit but its a headache that has poor communication logistics from literally 4 different ends (customer, app, driver, restaurant). Not only that but come the peak hours the apps are printing orders and causing your REAL customers to have to wait longer because youre making orders for people that youre turning a profit of MAYBE 2 dollars for. People think the other 70% youre making is all profit but theres food costs, overhead, employee wages, etc. That 30% is basically the profit to start and theyre handing it to an app for orders they dont need and are only slowing down the current PROFITABLE business.

[@pepsiplunge87]

@@nicklazzaro5055 Exactly. All of it.

[@nicklazzaro5055]

@@pepsiplunge87 sorry for the book.

[@officialcramos]

Safety is huge. It taught me poor driving habits to make the unreasonable delivery times to not get negative ratings and it could have cost me my life in a huge crash

[@EdensEarth]

Noo fries and burgers that can be reheated in the microwave are never worth your life!!! Thats exactly why Dominos got rid of their "30 mins or free" philosophy- too many ppl getting actually injured just so they wouldnt have to pay out of pocket ☹

[@skeetrix5577]

I drive for Uber eats in St Louis and have never had a acceptance rate above 10%. think about that. I have to decline over 90% of the orders that get sent to me if I hope to make any money at all, because the orders I get are absolutely crazy. just insane. 10 miles for 4 DOLLARS. yes, it happens ALL DAY LONG. And the usual base pay is just 2 bucks which means you want someone to drive to you in traffic to spend 3 bucks on gas to make a lousy 4 bucks. If you're that person, you suck and I hate you and apparently it's a lot of you.

[@officialcramos]

@@skeetrix5577 I think you replied to the wrong person but yeah 1000%. My acceptance was near 100% for doordash because the moment I declined a single one they would instantly send me next to no orders and drop my base pay it was very manipulative

[@ScottHess]

About a year ago, I was near a wrap reastaurant I liked in the past, so I stopped by. They were clearly closed, and for awhile, you could see that the fixtures had been stripped out, etc. Guy walks up and asks if I knew the place, if they had moved or something. Turns out he was a DoorDash driver. They hadn't moved, they just closed. I thought it was awesome that the company had literally failed to call in an order and not bothered to tell the driver.

[@BenjaminDelvin]

as a driver, that happens all the time

[@ScottHess]

@@BenjaminDelvin That sucks. I guess it proves how much they are on your side :-(.

[@LuthienNightwolf]

My husband spent a few months as a delivery driver for DoorDash and lemme tell you I’m SO GLAD he’s not doing it anymore. The drivers get really screwed on pay, often offered only 2-3$ per delivery and only more if the customer tips. Most deliveries weren’t even worth the gas it took to make them. I avoid using these apps now, it ends up being twice as expensive and knowing the driver and restaurant aren’t even getting most of that money just completely turns me off from using the service.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

So true. You can get past the 2-3 dollar orders if you keep consistently denying them, but the minute you accept one or two lower pay ones ones for short distances, the algorithm starts screwing you over again. You get $3 for 21 mile away orders, the app gives you stacked orders where you can't see the mileage to manipulate you into taking orders that are OBVIOUSLY going to cost you money. It's not worth it. I don't order out anymore. I just pick up my damn food or make food at home (mostly the latter now).

[@LuthienNightwolf]

@@Liz-wz8dh I recall the algorithm punishes drivers for having a low acceptance rate as well. So it’ll keep throwing shitty orders at you and if you deny too many it’ll just quit giving you any more, or straight up end your session. It was ridiculous and I’m glad he stopped, wasn’t worth the headache.

[@RoseFire6]

Same. I am not sure I agree with the claim that the customer is winning. Just because a company has managed to spend all their money on lobbying to prevent workers' rights and buying out other companies doesn't mean they aren't making a profit.

[@lauralake7430]

As a customer i honestly had no idea

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I have never used food delivery that was not an employee of the restaurant. I'd rather drag my butt out in driving rain with a broken leg than supports those delivery scab companies. - I only once got caught by a second-party online ordering site for a local pizza place. The site LOOKED like it was genuine, but when the store's employee delivered the food, it was wrong. I called the place to ask why my online order was so messed up and found out they didn't HAVE an online ordering function.

[@captainvimes6079]

Imagine if your job paid you $30/hr for three years and then suddenly paid you $8/hr. That's the gig economy right now.

[@ianbattles7290]

Instacart literally slashed their batch payments from $7 to $4

[@MurderMostFowl]

There is no gig economy, leave and get a stable job. You’ll thank me later. The only reason that these jobs are lucrative is because people are willing to do them and they haven’t realized it isn’t worth their time.

[@ChefLuisFayad]

Real talk. During COVID when a lot of restaurants closed or just completely stopped hiring I did grubhub and doordash to make ends meet and I was able to make enough money to get by working around 40 hours a week. I averaged $25+ an hour for the bulk of the pandemic and got out once restaurants started opening back up but the drop in pay for drivers was already dropping to drivers

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Nailed it.

[@camerongiles7141]

​@@MurderMostFowlsome people use them as second jobs, or are in school and have to work around a school schedule to work, or have kids and used them to get extra cash when kids went to bed. People are struggling and always looking for any ways to make extra cash, which is why they have been able to get taken advantage of. Company owners know that people are poor, struggling and desperate, and so they use that to pay them as little as possible. It honestly seemed like a great thing when it first started happening, it's just been ruined by greed like just about everything in our society.

[@MossyMozart]

I am grateful for "Last Week Tonight" for bringing this sad situation to the attention of the public.

[@Temulon]

Lol, do you really believe, deep down, that this will change anything? Seriously, do you? There are only two reasons that people will understand for changing their behavior, losing a lot of money or being threatened with violence.

[@keim1oesch]

Hope people stop using the apps.

[@jenoluis]

I started doordash in December for extra cash to make ends meet between pay checks... I have a degree in Finance... Therefore, immediately knew this was not a sustainable or stable model for a person to live off. Too many risk and no guarantees... After DoorDash cut delivery to pay $2 per delivery, I reviewed DoorDash Financial statements from 2023. The company made cut to delivery pay while spending $800 million in stock buybacks.... Unreal...

[@LadyBirch]

@@keim1oeschWhy? I do DoorDash as a senior citizen as a way to supplement my Social Security income so I can pay for my Medicare premium, which has gone up 100% three times. There are also five other senior citizens in my area that do the same thing for the same reason so screw you!

[@Liz-wz8dh]

@@keim1oesch Me too. But right now they're still growing in popularity. People continuing to be lazy is always a good bet. All I can hope is that with all the games the apps play with drivers paychecks, they won't be able to find enough people or that the drivers treat the customers so badly that people start picking up their own food. I've definitely seen some of that backlash in my area while working at restaurants. Customers got tired of dealing with their food not showing up or showing up in pieces so they started picking up their own food.

[@pumpkinhead9114]

If no one else says it, I will. I'm thankful to you, Phil. Your show has become a regular part of my life and I'm greatful for it. So thank you. Best wishes to you and yours.

[@emrose1717]

As a gig worker, thank you for covering this... so much needs to change.

[@slsslc8207]

Like your job?

[@nikolaipersad4098]

THIS!!!

[@samuraichicken9248]

You could always, I dunno.... Change jobs? Stop supporting an industry you loathe.

[@Chickenguesswhat]

@@samuraichicken9248that rhetoric is so moronic. “Get another job” till you start crying that those very jobs don’t exist or aid you anymore. Instead of attacking the workers go after the employers 😂😂

[@apokatastasian2831]

​@@Chickenguesswhatit's true though...if noone would do these crappy app jobs, they'd have gone away in short order... like being a tester monkey for pfizer...only took a few of us to refuse and they had to quit pretending it was a good idea. going after the smart hardworking people that are going to build and try different business models until they get rich is dumb. instead why not only choose to help the ones who have good ideas. if you do work for them you are saying your life itself is worth paying to advance their idea...if you work to make a crappy business model succesful...thats on you. talk about moronic...

[@johnellis424]

"The tyranny of the algorithm" is spot on. I work as an Uber driver and am highly rated - a super-high rating over thousands of trips. But at the odd times a passenger gives me a bad review, Uber never checks on me to hear my side. Instead, I get a message threatening to block me from the ap. Drivers are not seen nor supported by Uber.

[@4partmedia]

🤔🤦 You msg Support, and msg them your side and tell them the customer was wrong. It's all in writing and they won't affect your account standing. The end.

[@kev7161]

Same with Door Dash. They have this pointless rating system where the customer can rate their delivery service from one star (poor) up to five stars (great). I don't often get a one star rating, but when I do, I have no idea why. Often it will be something beyond my control such as the food was made incorrectly or an item is missing in the sealed bag. But whatever the reason is, I never find out so it's hard for me to correct "my" error next time!

[@drakosflame]

Interesting! For the info I have available to me in the app, it states that a random poor rating actually doesn't get included in your calculation if it's way outside your average rating. I'm not sure how long it stays until it gets removed, or even if Uber's representation there is truthful.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

Yeah. That's because Uber doesn't give a shit about its drivers. The CEO basically admitted that. Everything they do is to benefit Uber and usually screws the drivers. It's yet another reason I pick up my own food now because after having driven for Uber for a short while, I see that all they do is manipulate drivers and give them lowball offers to force them to make decisions that aren't in their interest.

[@timf7679]

And yet somehow people keep claiming that orders being messed with or that the guy was creepy is ruining their orders. But it sounds like if someone was making a habit of doing this, the algorithm would curtail their ability to deliver. So which is it, are drivers at the mercy of the algorithm or are drivers constantly messing up orders? (Its the customers lying btw, their is no algorithm to stop them from being a douche bag and people suck.)

[@writemeyers]

One of the most important segments ever in this show 👏🏽 PLEASE do a follow up on 1) how all corporations are using this model to elude labor law 2) how corporations are using tipping culture as wages

[@shotelco]

Rank (laissez faire) Capitalism is a slow grind to the abyss of humanities worse nature. Its hard to see the incremental collapse of a horrid Empire, when one is born and raised inside its feral Culture. I think your questions _Assume_ facts not centered in any reality; there is no "fairness" in a culture centered around the following core values and beliefs: wealth constitutes worth, violence constitutes strength, and Conquest constitutes superiority. The "corporations" you speak about are the ones both writing the laws, and convincing the low intelligence population to adopt their laws. We get exactly what we deserve.

[@zacharywhite211]

I say let the business model break. I don't think they should have gig workers be employees. But I also don't believe in paying 65% above the price of the goods just to have have them delivered. Let alone pay a fucking tip after all the added fees. I also dgaf about those who feel "oppressed" by this companies because well.... they could fucking leave. At any time. Stop delivering. Get a different job. There is historically low unemployment right now. But I suspect that they keep doing it because they like working whenever the hell they want, for as long as they want, without a supervision. So that's that.

[@shotelco]

@@zacharywhite211 "There is historically low unemployment ..." this statement is flat out false. "The BLS uses the standard international definition of employment. Under this definition, *gig workers count as employed if they work at least **_ONE HOUR_** a week for pay* (there's a bit of complexity around working for a family business) or are temporarily absent from such a job. So gig workers count as employed." The employment "numbers" count gig workers that may only work a few hours a Month.

[@zacharywhite211]

@@shotelco Sure that's partly true. The BLS classifies them as contingent workers and as the last count they were about 4% of workers in the U.S which was just over 6 million people. As an illustration, there are, as of the last day of February, 8.8 million job openings in the U.S. www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm If somebody wants to no longer be delivery food for these shitty companies, they can definitely get out. Most can anyway. Some have other issues. But lack of jobs isn't an issue. Lack of the desire to do a job that has expectations of hours, supervision, etc... I can see that. But I am certain that wherever the hell you leave, there are multiple stores with "Hiring" signs. Especially, most ironically, restaurants.

[@dayegilharno4988]

Yup. Just another example of corporations "disrupting" markets to create quasi-monopoles with massively underpaid workers as placeholders until self-driving cars or delivery bots or whatever make them obsolete...

[@te001e]

another thing to mention, is working for food delivery long term, your car will absolutely break down faster. and you now just have to pay for the repairs

[@cjwhitmore1881]

When I moved states to be closer to my wife's family, there was a time that a Food & Grocery Delivery app was my only source of income. I'd often work 13 hour days, 65 to 72 hours a week, earning an average of about $10.50 an hour, not counting gas and vehicle expenses. The Independent-Contractor issue is a big one that needs reforming for people who find themselves doing this work full-time. I ended up in the hospital after injuring my back on the job, and had no way to access unemployment or workman's comp as I was 'self-employed' despite signing an exclusivity contract to not work for another food delivery app and signing up for a tier that would guarantee me better payout stability ($9 an hour guarantee) in return for working at least 35 hours a week. If you're signing exclusivity paperwork, you're not really an 'independent' contractor, and there should be workplace protections.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Unfortunately, the wealthy, influential, and powerful control it all. Obviously, they're going to favor themselves and leave the peasants and plebs (workers and customers) in the cold. That's just how it be. Profits over people, might is right, health is wealth.

[@DeRocco21]

then its not the job for you

[@CreativityNull]

​@@DeRocco21 🤦‍♀️Who is it a job for at those hours with the exclusivity? Practically no one, but they're so easy to get into when work requirements for many other jobs are unreasonable for much of the US population. They make it easy to get in but provide no benefits and pay like garbage. This is the definition of exploitation. They bring you in when you're vulnerable and treat you like crap while you give them what they want.

[@angieallen4884]

During the pandemic, I suggested we have some food delivered and my husband decided to go out and get it instead. He felt it a great reason to get out of the house and got the money where it needed to be. We concentrated on local eateries that we had always frequented and felt we were helping to preserve the local economy. This episode only verified we chose correctly.

[@Spanluver]

Good on your husband for being a man and not falling for the scam-demic. ..wait did I say that part out loud? You were afraid of the boogie man and your husband set you straight. That’s why a lot of women need a man to take charge and not be passive. Let them breathe

[@Martell-XO]

I was an idiot at first. I never listed a tip because I wanted to give cash directly to the delivery guy. You might have guessed how well that went. They just toke it as I was another scumbag looking to shaft them.

[@jblps]

@@Martell-XO They thought you were their boss?

[@cbpd89]

I simply cannot justify the added expenses of all the delivery fees. I can walk, bike, or drive to get the food myself and now I know the restaurant gets more money if I don't, I will stick with it!

[@oliverfulayter5515]

I've always stayed in the Notes section to the driver "CASH TIP" just so they know. ​@@Martell-XO

[@floydmaseda]

Instead of telling people who order food "You need to tip more", we should tell companies "You need to pay your workers more".

[@Liz-wz8dh]

Exactly. Or pay at all. Waitstaff in my state only get like $2.13 an hour. The management at the restaurants manipulates the staff by scheduling their buddies on the profitable shifts and putting the less well liked workers on the slow shifts so they eventually quit when they can't make a living. This is a well known problem with the restaurant industry yet it doesn't really ever get addressed. This is why I don't really feel bad for restaurants either. They're doing the same shit the gig companies are doing and they've been doing it for far longer.

[@thenobin]

When anyone tries that companies spend billions of dollars lobbying to not do that. You can want companies to pay their workers and also understand that is not the current reality of the situation. Tip people or don't buy from the business. The company isn't suffering if you don't tip, the employees are.

[@lilwestkid]

he also means that should happen. but is saying that you probably aren't the very few people who NEED a food delivery service so you could pay the driver a reasonable amount of money or go get the food yourself it's not that complicated my guy

[@markomib]

why don't you start a company and do that? The restaurants are losing money aready, even grubhub's parent company has gone from $20 a share to $3, people want to elect trump because they think prices are too high - you go out there and show us the way instead of lazily armchair quarterbacking that 'companies' should majically pull a rabit out of their hat, for you.

[@ahsatan8997]

Door dash straight up rejects my orders and can take an hour bc if my tip isn't big enough nobody will accept it. Like bro I'm buying $9 vodka from a place three miles from my house bc I'm crying too much to drive and you think you deserve $5 piss off

[@danielfegley2735]

I know of a coworker who said that while she called off work because of snow, she called out for food. When I said did you him a extra big tip she said no he's lucky I paid him at all the guy was late and I had to walk down the road to the end of the block because it wasn't plowed . She thought that the delivery guy should walk through the snow to her house even though it was dark out and the house was hard to find .

[@DoYaPhilMeh]

Hats off to John, I'm not sure if its the writers or not but you really have been bringing your A game this season and these little segments every week on something new have been both hilarious and informative, long live LWT.

[@Ghostbuster_119]

Nice, just woke up for work. Time to get depressed by John Oliver.

[@d1boundkj]

It’s finally completed: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGPLgJd7Zpl2rrssi=zvKhYkcEbCrZmxPW

[@Pknuckles1804]

I can barely watch this show anymore because I either end up pissed off or depressed.

[@OGZackov]

is your job being john olivers wife and lover?

[@User12347ejdj]

@@Pknuckles1804, don’t drive over any bridges.

[@saltdaemon4453]

Nope, now I got something to work towards today...I got to go, no time to watch now.

[@SmartLittleFishy]

As a DoorDash "Dasher" (their word not mine) on a bicycle. I have discovered those ordering food from the richest neighborhoods or the most expensive condos are the worst tippers. They often choose not to tip at all. While the people with the lowest means have always been the best at tipping, often tipping in the app and giving a few dollars in cash.

[@gabedom_]

I worked for 5 years at a casino. Your assessment of rich people is correct, they are stingy and bitter when it comes to tipping. Non rich folk tip decently because they work for their money, so they recognize when someone else is working.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

I noticed that too. I stopped taking those orders and Uber would try to manipulate me into going to those areas anyway. I would just turn off the app. It's ridiculous.

[@afreaknamedallie1707]

The ONLY reason I will choose to work in rich neighborhoods here in SoCal is purely a numbers game. Rich people tip for shit, but they order more food overall and more often, so even at a 10% tip I'm more likely to make more, while working class neighborhoods might have fewer orders for better tips, I just want to stay moving as much as possible. But after 15 years of delivery on and off, absolutely same assessment. For me it started with delivering to my fellow classmates, and ironically for this context: computer science majors are the single worst tipping group of people, the ABSOLUTE rudest to service workers, and unsurprisingly, the ones making these apps so bad for us.

[@tekbarrier]

I've heard that people who work at very fancy restaurants have been saying the exact same thing for years

[@wontbefooledagain9400]

I’ve worked on tips for 46 years and working people are my best customers rich people do not tip!!!

[@Charlie-uf4ko]

I love the person who yelled "What?!" at the beggining

[@yvaincallipso84]

I never tip in the app, I always hand them the money in person. Never gonna forget when I asked a guy if they even get the tip from the app and he just gave a tight smile and said "half the time no".

[@jackieruso6493]

As a DD/GH driver, seeing no tip in the app is risky because not many people carry cash like they used to. I've shown up to do some deliveries for people who have promised to leave a cash tip but they never do. With contactless options such as "leaving it by the door" there's almost always no cash tip. This is part of why these delivery drivers have a "no tip, no trip" motto if they don't get tipped via the app.

[@c0d3_m0nk3y]

@@jackieruso6493 This also sucks for customers. You are supposed to tip before you even receive the service. So you don't know whether you are going to get good or bad service.

[@rondomane]

im a new Uber driver with about 450 trips under my belt. 2 have tipped me in cash.

[@07GhostHD]

really they don't even give the drivers the tips? I gotta check with my grubhub drivers to make sure they are getting their tips because I make sure to tip as high as I can which ranges from 30 to 45%. If they are not getting that tip that would piss me off.

[@evilhouse6694]

I respect the idea friend but let me tell you that not typing on app means your order goes straight to the lowest rated drivers in the system. The apps use this as a method of incentive/disincentive to keep drivers in line and "reward good behaviour and punish bad behaviour"

[@BensOnTheRadio]

After realizing how obnoxious the fees were for the apps, I’ve made it a point to do takeout orders through the restaurants own website, or over the phone. My regular pizza order from my local place was about $7 cheaper this way, plus they offered loyalty rewards and coupons that way.

[@Liz-in8lu]

100% me too!

[@brruunno]

Way better this way

[@TechBearSeattle]

Likewise.

[@plantagominor722]

Thank you for reminding us that this is even an option

[@palletpatrol3009]

Same. I'd rather drive a couple miles than pay a bunch of jacked up fees. Ain't no one got money for that shit in today's economy. Live strong, spend smart.

[@gimbobjenkins405]

"Get a real job" is what a lot of people told me during my time as a driver and as long as society has that mindset nothing will change.

[@RocafellaPlaza]

It was probably the best decision you've made recently in the occupation situation. I hope you doing better these days 🙏🏻

[@zacharywhite211]

Serious question mate.... but why the fuck did you do it if you found it so oppressing and miserable? It's kinda hard to empathize when this are voluntary jobs. To quit you could simply delete the app.

[@dotonthehorizon9620]

I have delivered food for 6 years and delivering food is not a real job.... A monkey could do it. It took a real job to realise that.

[@hannahbrown2728]

​@@zacharywhite211 Im not the OP but I do gig work myself. No jobs are voluntary. Not even the ones you clock-in to. Without a job, you dont get money, and then you die. If you are providing a service and arent paid for it, thats charity. If you are providing a service and are paid for it, thats a job. You literally just said "Get a real job" to this guy with more words.

[@kennerfreak7]

It’s not a job, it’s a side gig. It’s not worth the effort in the long run. Hopefully you realize that.

[@michellehardee6546]

Goodness, I've not watched LWT in a very long time and forgot how good the snark (and information) is. And the writers and directing of the segment, seriously amazing job y'all. Keep it up.

[@rhythmaddict808]

I'm a delivery driver. You are right about our driving habits and today I promise I will stop doing that. Thank goodness I live on Maui, delivery with ocean and mountains;-) Aloha and Mahalo John Oliver!

[@zacharywhite211]

Serious question mate... Is it really that bad to do that gig? I keep getting abused by others here for saying that if the job is so oppressive, simply get the fuck out and do something else. Even if it's a different app gig.

[@st.youngman124]

@@zacharywhite211 I dunno about the gig but for my two cents, if you're getting abused by KZbin comments, simply get the fuck out and do something else. Even if it's a different website.

[@zacharywhite211]

@@st.youngman124 ah I see what you did there ha! Good thing I don't really give a fuck about the abuse. It's kinda funny most of the time. Unlike the people sharing sob stories about being delivery drivers acting as if they were being held hostage at gunpoint by the companies 😂

[@Cousineddy77]

@@zacharywhite211I did Uber for a while and kinda liked it, its progressives acting like people are forced to sign up to drive and deliver. They can’t fathom that if people didn’t really like it they wouldn’t sign up

[@shadowprophet99]

​@zacharywhite211 it benefits everyone to fight for everyone to get a living wage. No benefit comes from the bootlicking attitude of "its fine to let companies abuse employees, they can always leave and let the free market fix it!". The free market clearly hasn't fixed it.

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

This isn’t even getting into the prevalence of fake restaurants, aka ghost kitchens, on these apps. What appear to be local different local restaurants are often just a single kitchen to pumps out the same food under different names. These tend to crowd out actual local restaurants. They’ve also proven difficult for the FDA to track down and regulate for food safety. Eddy Burback had a good video on these for those interested

[@joz534]

Ghost Kitchens *are* local restaurants. That they don't have a room you can sit in and eat their food doesn't mean they magically teleport food for you from China. Many places have 95+% of their orders be deliveries. Why should they spend money on place with dinnig area?

[@AndreJHoward]

Places like Ruby Tuesday are listed as like 5 different restaurants. Each one has a "specialty" and they don't tell you where it's actually coming from.

[@TomDarkwulf87]

Yeah, ghost kitchens are wild. Found a wing place on DoorDash near my work that literally turned out to be the 99 the next town over.

[@kennygwalk5328]

​@@AndreJHowardI hate that. Boston Market and Denny's does that too. Got me paying extra fees and tip for some damn Boston Market

[@chekaschmeka4283]

My God you aren't joking. If people only knew.

[@peaceness888]

My parents were frustrated by Doordash arriving late and with the wrong order until I finally convinced them to drive the 5 minutes to pick it up. Then they stopped arguing when dinner came late, saved money, and got what they ordered.

[@Poppa_Capinyoaz]

People are their own worst enemy.

[@commonsense.1014]

I can no stress enough. One time I waited an hour for a burger and fry to be put out, just to deliver it. And get yelled at cause it was wrong. Then, just to get a complaint to the app, then getting a call by the app. Why did I deliver them the wrong food an hour late. Yaaa know..... in a sealed fcking bag.

[@ambsd8419]

5 min drive and they were getting delivery.......I understand if you have an injury or disability. But they should have figured that out on their own lol. They could walk there and get zero delivery fees. Certain generations are too reliant on "convenience" over being practical.

[@califsherry]

And the restaurant did better.

[@Moobeus]

As a former Uber driver I can tell you that if I drove for an hour without receiving tips (which you rarely do), I would make on average 7$. SEVEN DOLLARS FOR AN HOUR OF WORK. Uber literally pays you 1$ for every 10 minutes a delivery takes and you get no salary or stipend for being on the clock whatsoever. That means if you stop even just to catch your breath you are literally losing money. It’s one of the most high intensity and stressful job you can imagine. The best part is Uber will not tell you how much they will pay you for a delivery, only what the total you will get is with what they will give you PLUS what they think you *should* get in tips. You also only get TEN SECONDS to decide whether or not to accept ones before you lose it. You can accept a delivery that they say will pay 15$ and take 40 minutes. Then when you complete the delivery and they don’t tip, you actually make 4$. Not to mention you are pressured to accept every job they offer you, since if you are just driving around or waiting for a “good” job in a parking lot you are literally again just wasting time and losing money; not to mention burning gas. Also sometimes deliveries will dump you in the middle of nowhere and you only receive jobs if you are close to restaurants. So somtimes you are driving for 30 minutes with no pay just to get BACK to where you can actually receive jobs. I never in the 6 months I did it had a single day where I actually made minimum wage, and that’s BEFORE GAS.

[@quendanmana1802]

I worked for Postmates for a short time in San Diego. I was constantly sent to pick up orders on one side of the county, then had to deliver that food to a person on the opposite side of the county. I'm sure my rating wasn't great because after picking up food at a restaurant at an obscure location in El Cajon and delivering to a mall with paid parking in La Jolla the food is often time cold and soggy. I even argued with a restaurant for the customer once because they ordered a hot cocoa and were receiving a Styrofoam cup and a packet of swiss miss. Then, after being forced to take it I apologized profusely to the customer for the restaurants screw up because I didn't want the blame.

[@Blewlongmun]

Can we talk about the one guy in the audience clearly enjoying this episode way too much, I'm glad my guys enjoying the show.

[@NervXT]

Sounded like he was the one stomping his feet.

[@imnotdavidxnsx]

Legend has it later that night he said "OH THANK GOD...THE FOOD'S HERE."

[@shelbynamels7948]

I think it might be the same guy making the rounds of all the shows - Colbert, Stewart, Kimmel, ...

[@kristagentilucci3661]

I’m so glad that John said the Devil plays a better fiddle than Johnny because I’ve said this for YEARS!

[@cyro420]

The band is good the devil just makes noise….johnny wins

[@elliottgordon3679]

Zac Brown Band has a great version where Johnny deserves to win

[@FireElement7]

I've always thought the same thing 😂 at least in the original version 😅

[@MISNM0]

Hard disagree but saying with love

[@cha7278]

I have a restaurant in France. We tried Uber eats during the pandemic. They took 30% commission, charged the customers a fortune for the delivery distance and kept listing our Italian restaurant in the Asian cuisine section :-) Ended up doing delivery myself. The petrol costs were a lot less and had an excuse to break curfew!

[@Liz-wz8dh]

I wish more restaurants in the US would go back to having their own drivers. I know their hours would be much more limited but it would be worth it.

[@stephenvelez9710]

Many years ago, I was having a rough day delivering food. It was raining, we were slammed, I was getting stiffed all over the place. Near the end of my shift, a woman at a University of South Carolina sorority gave me a 5 dollar tip on 6 dollar order. Made my day❤

[@ChristopherAndersonPirate]

I used to be a food delivery driver in the early 2000’s for nearly a decade, it used to be you worked for a specific place like a pizza or Chinese food joint, and you did deliveries for that place. Now the horrific Uber and Lyft models have invaded food delivery as well, causing all sorts of problems outlined here. But most customers don’t care, that’s why Amazon and Walmart became so powerful.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

The Doordash drivers ruined takeout from my favorite places. I used to only get takeout from places like Panera and chinese that had their own drivers, but then they went to having Doordash drivers and I stopped getting takeout. I stopped eating at those restaurants almost entirely.

[@akshayde]

most customers DONT know

[@Aviii11]

Just like Squidward said: Nobody gives a care about the fate of labor as long as they can get their instant gratification

[@TheCth777]

Well, it’s also nice for customers who don’t care about the asinine costs, because there are way more options for delivery now

[@Daedalus117]

I drove for a food delivery company back in the day that contracted with restaurants, and I was a regular full time hourly employee. I drove a company car, had high quality hot bags (none of this doordash bullshit where your food is cold on arrival), and had benefits. That company was put out of business by uber eats and door dash because we had slightly higher fees, and people like me were replaced by a bunch of untrained "contractors" who had shit equipment (if any), and had to drive and pay for their own cars.

[@jobro724]

This is why I stopped using delivery apps 3 years ago and instead started calling the restaurants for pick-up orders. Not only do the restaurants I like makes a better margins and can stay in business, but also it takes me less time to drive to the restaurant, grab my food and come back home than it takes with the delivery app. So I encourage my restaurant, pay less, have hot food, eat earlier and all it cost me was a 15-20 minutes drive.

[@TheSuperappelflap]

Imagine having restaurants in walking or cycling distance, you wouldnt even have to pay for gas.

[@h.e.l.p.3655]

It's still really useful for the disabled and people who take care of children.

[@skeetrix5577]

I drive for Uber eats in St Louis and have never had a acceptance rate above 10%. think about that. I have to decline over 90% of the orders that get sent to me if I hope to make any money at all, because the orders I get are absolutely crazy. just insane. 10 miles for 4 DOLLARS. yes, it happens ALL DAY LONG. And the usual base pay is just 2 bucks which means you want someone to drive to you in traffic to spend 3 bucks on gas to make a lousy 4 bucks. If you're that person, you suck and I hate you and apparently it's a lot of you.

[@TheSuperappelflap]

@@skeetrix5577 isn't there a minimum rate per mile? That can never work. Why would you even work for a company like that.

[@chudleyflusher7132]

@@skeetrix5577 Yes. That’s why maff is important.

[@caelalbridge3347]

As a former delivery driver, I had never seen much of anything come back in my favor from the apps. I was actually employed by the restaurant I delivered for and got back 5$ per delivery per night plus a share of the total tips per night. During early COVID I had to make a 1am delivery to a place that on a clear day would have been about 25 minutes away from the restaurant. Tonight there was a snowstorm, and it took an hour and a half to get there and 2 and a half hours to get back to the restaurant and hand in the cash to the manager. I quit as soon as I walked in the door. Thankfully I was already starting at my next job later that week. Please be kind to your delivery drivers if you must order delivery. Or just order ahead and pick it up from the store yourself.

[@caelalbridge3347]

Just saw about fair pay to restaurant workers in the comments here. How much the delivery driver gets paid depends heavily on the popularity/quality of the restaurant and its food.

[@laurao3274]

A pizza place near me charges a delivery fee, but the drivers don't see that money. The restaurant keeps it.

[@AliShakeel-l5m]

They take such a huge cut that many have to increase prices. They take a huge cut: 30%+ from restaurants sales (make restaurant pay a premium to have their names be relevant on their platform) + 10% from you as service fee + flat fees + a cut from the delivery drivers as well. Order by calling or use the restaurants websites.

[@kerrischlosser1823]

How can they not be profitable yet be able to spend millions lobbying? I don't get it.

[@MaxiTB]

Well, it's the same way how boomers could afford a house: cheap and easy loans. That's basically what investments are: You promise the investor that you will eventually pay back his money with some interest.

[@MusouInken]

Venture capital has massively distorted the way companies are theoretically supposed to work. Amazon, for instance, lost money every year for nearly a decade before becoming profitable. Now it's all about seizing market share, profits optional, as those investors hunt for the next Amazon.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

A small business owned by its operators does have to be profitable to stay in business. A large corporation owned by stock holders can be in the negative and still ultimately able to make money; They get their money from investors, not from business operations. In turn their profits also don't go to the company, they go back to those investors. So long as they can trick the stupidest people on the planet (who have disposable income) into thinking their operations are a good investment, then the big corporation literally cannot fail hard enough to go out of business.

[@Abbadon3232]

They've got a bunch of investors to rip off. Never made money, never will.

[@monikar.5490]

That's what I am also curious about. They are basically a middle man, they take a big cut, how is it possible that they are not profitable.

[@cvtuttle]

hahah "starting an orphanage". The half a second before everyone burst into laughter was the longest WTF moment for me. So great.

[@Jkjoannaki]

It felt like hours. Took a second for the people to laugh, felt like an hour of shock.

[@YukonBloamie]

I feel like that CEO was work shopping his stand up bits in that call

[@jasontan5808]

@@YukonBloamie It sound ad hoc during the conf call but he was trying to use a noble situation to his advantage. What a d.

[@jkjenkins33]

We need to eliminate tipping from the face of the earth. It’s a ridiculous concept. If you are in the food business, a core part of your business is getting your product to your customers. Pay your workers a real wage for executing your core business.

[@paultidwell8799]

I've always agreed, the only massive exceptions I feel is for the guys and gals who work at establishments where they commonly drop like 100 plus dollar tips.

[@logansmall5148]

Or go back to what tips originally were, not expected or part of an employees expected pay, but given for service above and beyond the norm.

[@jblps]

@@logansmall5148 Yeah it defeats the whole purpose asking for a tip before I've had my food/service. I've tipped well then got cold food. It's a toss up

[@SteveConkie-t6r]

It is an insult to tip in Japan and almost unheard of in other parts of Asia. I once tried to tip a Japanese bar person who was working really hard....and she never spoke to me again. Refused to take my order. And I swear I wasn't being sleazy.

[@senaruryuin2773]

I was expecting the dude at 1:36 to say 'disabled people' and got whiplash by the 'Drunk or stoned' L O L. I'm an adult living at my folks place, disabled and can't drive and these delivery apps have made me able to have a real choice in the things I want. If I go to the store with or ride along to a fast food place and I order more than they think I should have (Even when I do the same from instacart or door dash, that extra quantity is for LATER because I know I'm gonna want it tomorrow or the other half for dinner, why call someone to deliver twice and waste their time when I could do it once?) I know it sounds ridiculously silly that having an app like this helps me have more independence, and god I hate how bad these people are treated, but for people like me in situations where we can't drive or have the energy to do major shopping, delivery apps are not even joking, a life saver. I always tip my drivers as much as I can afford, which I wish was more, if only disability paid us fairly. I wish they were paid a proper wage from the start!

[@calebtrimble4628]

This should be a series of videos. I work for a grocery delivery service. They changed the pay model halfway through and wouldn’t tell us how pay was calculated because we couldn’t understand. Now they say it’s based on “effort”. But if I carry up 4 32 packs of water up 4 flights of stairs, they still pay around maybe $7-8 for that delivery. And then, of course, no tip. And also, do people realize that we are people? That when we try to communicate with them about their order (when needing to make a substitution), that we’d appreciate a response back because we’re human? Not even a thank you for going out in a blizzard to grab those facial peels that you definitely needed at 8PM? I will say, if you use a grocery delivery service and you can’t figure out why your order gets pushed back an hour or you keep getting crappy shoppers, it’s because we remember where good tippers and non-tippers live. If you want the convenience of having groceries at your door, tip. I wish John would’ve gone into depth on companies besides restaurant delivery services. Grocery delivery services are just as terrible to their independent contractors. Bundling orders, adding “multiple delivery hour orders,” and punishing you for reasons you can’t control. Please do a deep dive into grocery delivery services. I think you’ll be shocked.

[@lauralake7430]

So safeway drivers arent allowed to accept tips, ok they are employees. But sometimes the safeway delivery gets dumped onto a gig delivery guy. He needs a tip. But i have no idea this is happening. The groceries are left on the doorstep i dont randomly leave money outside i feel terrible, but i cant be sprinkling bills outside..

[@naturalnashuan]

"Because you wouldn't understand" is a big warning! I was the elected President of a nonprofit and asked for a financial report from the treasurer who told me I wouldn't understand . I never saw the data. An employee was stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars and the treasurer got the building and sold it after we went bankrupt because of the theft. Now I know better than to allow this kind of treatment.

[@ratty5]

I did Shipt until I was a couple minutes late on an order that was upstairs with packs of water bottles. The app stopped giving me work even though I had great reviews. When I asked about it, they lied and told me that they sent me offers. We even did a connectivity test. I saw Shipt shoppers inside Target but got no orders. So I took that as I got quite fired and quit. 😂

[@kjsaaaaaaaa]

@@naturalnashuan What does this have to do with... anything?

[@nonbinarypickle]

​@@kjsaaaaaaaa their response is to the op's part about how the delivery service they worked for telling them they wouldn't understand how their pay is calculated, and saying that's a big red flag and either not take that as an answer or avoid such businesses altogether

[@adamellis6785]

I delivered for Uber Eats for a couple months when I found myself between jobs. In those two months, I put a couple thousand miles on my car, hundreds of gallons of gas into the tank, and made just enough to cover the gas and an occasional meal. The only good thing was the "set your own hours" aspect of it, as that provided me enough time to go get another real job. I now work fewer hours, make much more, and only have to drive my car to and from work. Should things go wrong, and I find myself out of work again, I think I'll consider a life of crime rather than go back to delivering.

[@Sebadoh1995]

Haha I’m with you on that one! I have a job but it doesn’t pay very much so I was doing door dash and it’s a joke. The amount of gas I wasted was never enough to equal what I was being paid. Everyone who is a driver for Uber and DoorDash should stop using it for a week and I bet they would have to pay people a lot more

[@nationalskyline]

I freaking love this show. It's about time someone shed light on gig apps' exploitation of drivers & restaurants. Thank you!!

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Especially when wealthy, influential, powerful companies lobby to SILENCE their "independent contractors". 🙄 It's friggin' ridiculous. I drove for Uber & Lyft prior to the pandemic. It was *barely* worth it back then. But NOW?! HEEEYYYLLL NAH, BRAH. I can't go for that. No can do.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

Next we need to cover how restaurants exploit their staff too. Most restaurants are toxic work environments anyway.

[@j3en534]

I lived in Minnesota when they passed a law forcing a minimum wage and I got three to four emails from Uber/Lyft and day saying they’re sad they’ll have to pull out of Minneapolis because the laws would make it impossible for them to operate

[@ambisinisterr5735]

You missed an EXTREME safety concern. I ordered a soup from a local Italian restaurant but got an incorrect soup. The soup we received was Lobster Bisque. We called the restaurant and they stated the soup we ordered isn't on their menu and Doordash ordered the lobster bisque. After calling Doordash it turned out they had the incorrect menu and instead of dropping the soup or calling they substituted the soup we ordered with lobster bisque. First, automated substitutions should never happen but why would you substitute with a shellfish dish?! What if I was allergic to shellfish? If they made that mistake with shellfish what is to stop them from doing that with peanuts? Maybe this has been fixed in the last two years but the fact it ever happened is insane.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

That's the other thing...the apps rarely update their menus so a lot of times you're still ordering something the restaurant doesn't sell anymore. That used to irritate the hell out of me when I worked at restaurants. We don't have the ability to update the menu on their end and they probably won't ever do it. Customers also get mad when we just don't substitute orders iether and there's usually no phone number attached with the account so we couldn't call to let them know we were out of something. Just do yourself a favor, don't use these apps. They're extremely flawed. You can save yourself the risk and aggrevation by just picking up your own food. In fact, just making your own food at home is the best way to avoid allll this bs.

[@annemettefrederiksen7751]

I would have fould someone allergic to shellfish, got them into the idea and claimed that the soup was for them and then sued their asses off😂

[@ambisinisterr5735]

@@annemettefrederiksen7751 my mother in law is allergic to shellfish and this happened at one of her go to restaurants if we are eating together. This is why my wife and I pointed out how bad it was to all parties and emphasized that on another night this could have caused a serious issue.

[@feather_lilly]

I'm so glad this episode came out. I've been appalled by delivery and 'gig' apps for a while. I've been surprised to not see much coverage on just how predatory and forced they are, and so many restaurants just never were and still aren't equipped for it. When are workers going to stop being disposable subcontractors?

[@bararobberbaron859]

There's a gig app for dog walking, I like that one! But the rest of them, I'm with you.

[@xrimn9294]

Yeah, my conclusion is this doesn't work and we shouldn't support it, especially when this consolidation will meant things are bound to become even more expensive. Unpopular opinion maybe, but when you're too baked to drive, just make yourself a pot of pasta at home. It's quicker than waiting for food, not difficult and much cheaper.

[@aklevin]

2:06 "I'm like Miss Piggy the way I'm hittin' that green. Even now, I'm about as high as a giraffe's arsehole and as spaced out as a ninth grader's essay trying to meet the page limit." This is really high quality writing. Especially that last one. Respect. Now on with the program.

[@bricksmashtv2]

bars

[@kehlcassidy9562]

Nah... He got it all wrong! The only PROPER euphemism is "high as giraffe *pussy*..." FAIL. But respect nonetheless.

[@siberx4]

It's incomprehensible to me that these apps can charge restaurants so much, pay drivers so little, and _still_ seemingly make no money. Sure, it takes _some_ amount of money to build and maintain an app and back-end services, but somehow back in the "pizza place pays a few kids to deliver each night" days, restaurants somehow did so profitably without it really costing the consumer much more.

[@mindstalk]

Pizza and Chinese places had a very different business model. Employee, who had other duties during downtime, and who could leave with multiple orders at once which is more efficient. And a limited service area so short trips. It's like airport shuttles (profitable, before Uber killed them) vs. taxis (very expensive) or Uber (expensive, not profitable). Point to point, or "many to many", is very difficult at best. "one to many" is a lot easier. And even then, ordering food was a special treat for most people, not a regular lifestyle.

[@Kaiheart]

As someone that works for one of these food delivery apps, I'm ready to have my job scrutinized to hell and back. I'm ready. Edit: I've been doing it since 2017, I can say there is a stark contrast between how I was treated by everyone pre & post- pandemic. I was treated awful by customers and restaurants 2017 to 2020, but 2020 to 2022 I was treated so dang nice and people actually thanked me. Once the pandemic was "over" in the minds of most, attitudes have shifted to a middle ground. I'm partially disabled, so this job is one of the few I can work, since the flexible schedule and being able to constantly sit down is a must. As a driver: If you order food, please remember that the drivers are just the "messenger" and don't take out your frustrations on us. I've had people try to shoot me because they were drunk and ordered the wrong items and got mad cause I brought exactly what was ordered, please be lenient.

[@dee_dee_place]

When I first started ordering from apps, I thought the drivers were allowed to check my order for accuracy, the same way I would check it if I was picking it up personally. When the drivers & the app customer service reps told me they weren't allowed to touch the food AKA check the order, I was ticked off at the restaurants. Sometimes I order from a restaurant with a specific item in mind & if it doesn't arrive in the original delivery, I'd have to pay for a new delivery to finally get it. That stinks. The only time I get angry with the delivery people is when they deliver my food to the wrong apartment or clearly mishandle my food (store it sideways, etc.). This might be wrong, but I tip according to how far the driver has to go to get my food & deliver it to me. If it's a short trip, I give 15%. If it's a long trip, I give 20%. And, I only tip the % on the cost of the food, not all the fees added to my bill.

[@Kaiheart]

@dee_dee_place Yeah, checks out. My company says we are not allowed to open bags or fill drinks, since we cannot come into contact with the food, so we have to go by the restaurant's word. I always go down the list and make sure everything is present, but sometimes the person handing it to me isn't the person that packed it, so they just confirm without checking themselves - and this has led to a lot of me being yelled at or threatened. I do know several people in my delivery FB group that got suspended because the restaurant reported them for hand-checking food, but I kind of agree with the company on that part because most of the suspensions occurred during the height of the pandemic. If anyone has any questions for me, I'm willing to answer. I just can't give out my company name, sorry.

[@Kaiheart]

Also to those wondering: Yes, people CONSTANTLY open the door naked. I've seen so many people naked... I'm almost numb to it after nearly 7 years, but every now and then someone will answer the door naked and I'll be like "this is new". Had a lady answer the door with a robe around her waist, bobbles out, and was bleaching her hair - and she only ordered 2 bread sticks.

[@QMS9224]

Same I've been delivering as a side hustle for years and it's been mostly neutral-positive. $1 tips are pretty common but that's to be expected in low income areas, usually I'm averaging around 3-4. If you know what you're doing you can actually game the system to make decent money, sometimes $30 per hour on a good day. But I see so many drivers who have no idea what they are doing. Also don't get me started on food theft, have you ever had your order cancelled and refunded? That means most likely a delivery driver picked up your food, then canceled the order and kept the food for themselves. Also double booking is a big problem where sometimes you show up and the food is gone already and you get no pay.

[@lilr6199]

How is the piece in your opinion? Do you feel scrutinized?

[@jayrutter6111]

He is the most plugged in of all the comedy hosts. Great writers, great researchers and timely subjects.

[@Movieguy5]

“Trigger warning for anyone under 30. You make a phone call” LOL FELT 🤣💀

[@LarsaXL]

Please, I'm over 30 and it still hit pretty damn hard.

[@aliciapeck7869]

💯

[@gaelsdottir5046]

Twice that age and all I can think of is what we have lost in order to pay for all the cool shiny stuff...

[@generaluse2878]

Delivery riders are so under-appreciated. They risk life and limb, through the harshest conditions, to deliver the customers' orders to their doors. All this for barely enough pay to survive, many times not getting proper tips, and even getting bad ratings from unscrupulous customers. Hope we can appreciate more of what they do, and give them a bit more respect.

[@JayBigDadyCy]

The door dash dude talking about an Orphanage was hilarious. Gotta love when the jokes write themselves. It feels like the "app for everything" era has made very few things better and just made an alternative to an already, usually better, system. You can thank a lot of food prices being jacked up around urban areas on these apps. Not just inflation.

[@lisamari941]

FIRST OF ALL, that “some DOORDASH DUDE” THATS THE CEO!! And second, inflation happens regardless, even more so when CONSUMERS continually spend their money on garbage! The only way to beat “INFLATION” is to hoard YOUR own money as much as the parasitic companies do!! If they don’t care about paying their employees they most definitely don’t care about YOU! That’s why the quality of everything we buy now days is significantly lower than ever before! Including these “new” Home Depot catalog homes. That start falling apart within a few years and you paid nearly half a million for it! 🤷‍♀️ ya know, it goes from food delivery to housing market to the airline industry with planes falling apart in the sky! And I bet the common denominator in all these situations I just listed is….WALL STREET! The CEOs of each and every one of these companies caring more about their stock prices than ANYTHING else AT ALL!!! Yet these gig economy CEOs are completely lying when they say they’re not making a profit. Because half their profit is probably in India where their “customer service” is located.

[@martin-1965]

These "techbro" scumbags have no connection with reality. Damn it, I love tech and convenience, but why are "techbros" always picking the lowest hanging fruit? Because it's easy I guess, to just middle-man some aspect of life and create a need from a want or replace an already working system with a shiny app. I dunno about anyone else, but I never had a problem ordering pizza delivery or other food BEFORE these apps appeared. Yeah, sure I had to talk to someone on a phone but I guess I'm old enough to be able to handle that horror lol. Anyway, I'm off to open up my orphanage as soon as I've smoked this fine bowl of weed 😜😜🤪🤪

[@lamplighter5545]

When I was in college, in the mid-70's, I drove for a private car service. We were often called to deliver food. However, the transaction was much more straight-forward. The customer called the restaurant, ordered and paid for the food. We picked it up and delivered it, and got paid just as if we were transporting people. There were no hidden fees. We didn't charge the restaurant anything.

[@AlexsGoogleAccount]

Yeah, for all of this talk about no sustainable way to do this, I'm not sure I buy that. Classic delivery models are already expensive for a restaurant. For those with drivers, it's expensive in the form of benefits, wear and tear, and cost of having staff on hand when you're slow on the chance that you might get an order. For those without drivers, the expense comes in the form of missed sales vs competitors who offer delivery. Hypothetically, instead of restaurants individually having their own delivery staff, we could create a company that delivers on behalf of all restaurants in their area, in exchange for a fee. This company could afford to provide employee protections and benefits to its workers and could manage the staff on hand more efficiently, since they're operating at scale. This model could manage benefits better since all employees can have the same plans, could manage staff on hand during slowdowns more efficiently because a restaurant needs at least 1 delivery driver on hand during slowdowns, so if you pool that need for 10 restaurants, instead of having 10 employees on standby, maybe you can make do with 4 for the group? You can scale these numbers throughout the day as needed. Hypothetically, you would be pooling resources to reduce costs with such a model and if the classic delivery model is sustainable, this should be too, at least in areas with lots of restaurants. Why wouldn't the private care service model work here?

[@jiyda7157]

🎉😮❤😢😅😮

[@jeremywilliams5107]

Never used delivery apps, but someone was handing out coupons for 10% off the first 3 deliveries yesterday. Thought that was attractive, and then it sank in how much they must be marking up deliveries if they can give 10% off the total cost!

[@erikd814]

“You may have noticed food often costs more on an app than in the restaurant” I certainly have, as well as noticed what a massive understatement that is. Food always costs more on an app. Then add the delivery costs and fees and taxes, additional taxes on delivery fees, then the tip on top of the usual auto gratuity. And it’s easily almost always at least double the cost.

[@matthewgauci7936]

Well dont order then and go yourself

[@erikd814]

@@matthewgauci7936 who says I don’t? Though unfortunately, some restaurants won’t allow you to order directly. Grub hub and Uber eats have contracts with some restaurants in my city which make takeout orders exclusive only through these food delivery apps.

[@erikd814]

@@matthewgauci7936 who says I don’t? Unfortunately though, some restaurants you can’t order takeout from directly. These food delivery apps have exclusive contracts with some restaurants in my city where the only option to order takeout is through an app.

[@erikd814]

Who says I don’t? Unfortunately, these food delivery apps have exclusive contracts with some restaurants in my city. So the only option you have if you want takeout must be through one of these apps.

[@matthewgauci7936]

@@erikd814 my point still stands. Dont order from those restaurants. Clearly it makes financial sense for them to do it. Not really the delivery app’s fault

[@fatman1152]

I have watched this happen though basically all of what my adult life has been. And I have felt this the most obvious thing happening right infront of us. Thank you John and the staff for pointing out how simply ludicrous situation

[@marajade9879]

I'm a millennial and since 2012, when I first found out that delivery apps were exploitative, I have never used them again. Instead I face my worst fears every weekend and call a restaurant to order. And I'm proud of that! 😊

[@chiarosuburekeni9325]

Meh, I still use them. I just tip the driver well and enjoy

[@JamesG1126]

Dumb as shit and feeling good about it.

[@AG-iu9lv]

That's awesome! Keep being bold, friend. You can do it!

[@sephpratt9493]

Same! I've used the service, maybe, once. I simply refuse.

[@neufala2398]

Ugh same.

[@sarahadkins5044]

The cries of “what?!” that the audience members expressed after the DoorDash douche said “buying a gift or starting an orphanage” was exactly what my brain started doing as I heard it.

[@bakedpotato7858]

I could have had 10 billion guesses at what he was gonna say next and I wouldn't have came close 😂

[@sidhackney8831]

I yelled it out loud

[@Jkjoannaki]

The longest "ehhhh?" my brain has ever thought

[@ips0fact0proof1]

As a restaurant manager this hits home, I feel bad for the drivers yet worse for my staff. It's one of those issues that have to be addressed, thank you John Oliver

[@Sebadoh1995]

I got into a car accident trying to rush a door dash delivery when the 3 drinks they ordered spilled all over me. I was trying to rush. I had to drive 3 towns over and didn’t even get a tip. Door Dash is a terrible app for drivers. They pay you nothing and it takes more gas money to get where you are going than what you are getting paid a lot of times. If enough of us protest it or stop doing orders for even a week then they would be forced to higher the pay.

[@l1fef0rm]

There is a huge negative for restaurant workers too. I am a bartender, where I work, after 8pm the "to go" worker leaves and the bartender takes over that role. We make no tips from delivery services and it takes us away from taking care of our patrons. This absolutely takes away from our tips from OUR patrons because we have to go to the kitchen, box up the orders, and pass them over. This makes it look like we are ignoring our patrons, we can't talk up our bar guests and give them the service they expect. We get nothing from Uber and Doordash, I hate it so much.

[@MChagall]

Doesn't the restaurant cause this? They can also close down to go at 8 pm.

[@magnoliaskogen]

That sucks so bad. I'm sorry

[@H3H3HUMOR01]

That's such a a good point! And since the restaurant is essentially losing money off the whole thing regardless, they don't give you a raise either for the extra work!

[@richardspillers6282]

This is why I don't go out much and if I do I make sure I can leave a 2020s appropriate tip. Imo the minimum tip for anything now is $10.

[@evifnoskcaj]

"Numbers Being Yelled at You with Human Squidward" is totally what this show is called in another universe. 😂

[@dreamforgegames4776]

Fun fact about the Fiddle Duel in Devil Went Down to Georgia. The Devil is playing in a way that sounds good but is a simple way of playing the fiddle. Johnny then not only plays through a variety of complex folk songs but melds them and iterates on them. Its Johnny saying to the Devil 'I have enough technical skill with this fiddle to beat you around the bush with any melody.' Equivalent to when Beethoven took the discarded sheet music of his opponent, played it and proceeding to riff on it for forty minutes. Now, if the Devil challenged Johnny to a music contest, maybe the Demon Backup Band would have mattered, but he didn't now did he Mr. Oliver :)

[@lattilatti6441]

like the man said, "Happy Easter , by the way."😊

[@sampotts7062]

ive always liked the devil's solo better but thank you for this new perspective. i had no idea :)

[@endTHEhegemony_Today]

That is my favorite part of the original lore!!!! I'm so glad u brought it up here, that hit me sideways too when he said it I love the nuance here!! 🖤💜💙💚💙💜🖤 Much Love!!

[@robertlloyd122]

"In this dissertation, I will..."

[@PanEtRosa]

hear, hear! don't underestimate those ol folk songs! they tend to be short and fiendishly complex to get the blood up.

[@snurt256]

Also, I love how audibly happy the translator/narrator guy sounds to finally be narrating the speech of someone who isn't a dictator of some sort.