With the lockdown forcing many Canberrans to stay at home and limiting our ability to go out for a meal, the demand for food delivery drivers in the ACT is surging.

For some under quarantine restrictions and others refraining from going out for their health and safety concerns, delivery drivers like Nabin Adhikari come to the rescue by delivering food, groceries, medicine and more.

Nabin told Canberra Daily he’s been very busy in lockdown over the past three weeks, with a constantly flow of deliveries coming in.

“There’s definitely some extra orders coming through given a lot of people are in isolation,” he said.

Accepting around 18 to 27 orders a day, he predominantly delivers to the Woden-Weston Creek area, but often ventures out to Canberra’s Inner South, Molonglo and Tuggeranong.

Having worked as a delivery driver for around three years, Nabin has delivered in Canberra for the past 18 months.

He said the community spirit has been noticeable across town during lockdown, with many Canberrans polite and pleasant, happy to receive his deliveries.

“Canberra residents have been really good to deliver to, and what I’ve heard from other drivers is they have all found them to be really great,” he said.

With case numbers rising and new exposure sites – of which many are food outlets – popping up daily, Nabin said food delivery drivers are apprehensive about getting caught up and having to quarantine.

“Most of the drivers, we’re all talking about exposure sites and what’s going on,” he said.

“It’s scary out there as a delivery driver in the frontline,” he said.

An Uber Eats spokesperson told Canberra Daily the wellbeing of their drivers and customers is paramount to them.

“We have a dedicated team working around the clock to support them the very best we can.

“Among other initiatives, contactless delivery is available Australia-wide on the Uber Eats platform, and every trip is GPS tracked which enables us to work closely with public health agencies in each state to support contact tracing,” the spokesperson said.

Driver payments allegedly ‘not transparent’

While unable to disclose any exact local data, a March 2021 Accenture report commissioned by Uber Eats showed a 210 per cent increase in demand for food delivery since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

DoorDash reported an “over 20 per cent” increase in demand for food delivery locally since the ACT lockdown began last month on 12 August.

Due to the delivery apps having a mechanism to cap delivery numbers, Nabin said his workload has not increased.

“There is a fixed time,” he said, “when we get on the app it’s a matter of how many orders we get.”

While enjoying his work, Nabin and the Transport Workers Union are critical of the automated payment system used by Menulog and DoorDash, decrying a lack of clarity in both their delivery offers and itemised payment breakdowns.

“The payment system is not transparent,” he said.

Given the integration of grocery, retail and chemist deliveries into other food delivery systems, Nabin said drivers are handling orders often in excess of 10kg and up to 60kg but getting paid the same as if they were delivering a much lighter standard food order.

“When we ask why, we’re told it’s an automated system payment, so it’s correct,” he said.

“Probably two years ago I stopped asking them what the payment is, because there was no point.”

Nabin said he once took a 65+ kg order comprising three 22L bags of potting mix, for which he was paid the same rate he would expect from an order of “two bags of McDonalds”.

“The DoorDash team said that either you do or don’t do the delivery, and they expect drivers to complete every delivery regardless of if they include huge heavy items,” he said.

A DoorDash spokesperson told Canberra Daily they are “committed to ensuring fair and equitable earnings opportunities for all Dashers”.

“Dashers see a guaranteed amount they will earn on that delivery and are always free to decline any order,” they said.

“Dashers can see their full pay breakdown in their app after completing an order, including base pay, promotions, and 100% of the customer’s tip.”

Menulog were contacted for comment but did not respond.