Society

Brazil's couriers strike bring delivery apps rating down

Appbot found that iFood, Uber Eats, Rappi, Loggi, and James had their worst day of evaluation by users since June 2012

Protest of delivery application couriers during a strike day on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo. Photo: Roberto Parizotti/Fotos Publicas

02.Jul.2020 16:47 BRT
UPDATED 19:00 BRT

On Wednesday, couriers from the main delivery apps in the country took over the streets of major Brazilian cities to claim for better working conditions;
Among the requirements, workers ask for improvement in delivery fees and pandemic assistance;
iFood claimed to respect freedom of expression by couriers and consumers and said that it wasn’t possible yet to estimate the impacts on its operations.

Delivery app workers took over the streets in Brazil on Wednesday, July 1st, to claim for better pay and working conditions. Among the requirements, couriers are demanding an increase in delivery fees as well as in the minimum fee per deliver, ending to the scoring system, insurance for theft or accident, and pandemic assistance.

With protests over the main Brazilian cities, the outbreak has also reached social media apps, with the #BrequeDosApps reaching the trending topics on Twitter in Brazil this Wednesday afternoon. “This stoppage had a very good adhesion from the deliverers. The new date of the outbreak is already in national vote to gain more strength. We cannot stop or even give up now, it is just the kick-off of our fight against precarious work,” Alessandro da Conceição, one of the organizers in the country’s capital, Brasília, told the news media outlet UOL.

According to a survey conducted by the local media outlet Globo through the Appbot website, a service for monitoring ratings in app stores, delivery apps iFood, Uber Eats, Rappi, Loggi, and James had their worst day of evaluation by users since June 2012.

On Tuesday alone, until 5 pm, the top five apps that offer the service of delivery of meals or products received 53,411 reviews, and 96% of them gave 1 star to the apps, the worst possible score. Nevertheless, app scores have suffered little overall, due to the much larger number of reviews in recent years. Together, the applications have received 2,926,759 reviews since the beginning of their operations, and Wednesday’s ratings meant only 1.8% of that total.

Delivery platforms were affected by delays on orders during the day, but according to iFood, in a memo sent to UOL, the firm claimed to respect freedom of expression, both demonstrations by couriers and consumers, and that, for now, it wasn’t possible to measure the impacts. “Naturally, on a day of protests, fluctuations in service are expected, but deliveries continued to be carried out,” said the company.