The System is Gigged

By Jack Lourie

FOOD DELIVERY APPS SUCH AS THESE are taking advantage of their workers, and making the city less safe. Image credit: Jack Lourie.

It was a seemingly innocuous question. On June 12, 2025, NY1 television host Errol Lewis asked Democratic primary candidates about a new law Mayor Eric Adams had just passed, limiting e-bike speeds from 18 to 15 miles an hour. In a rare moment of tameness, the candidates, who had likely heard many complaints about e-bikes during their campaigns, all seemed to be in favor of the idea.

Laws such as the 15-mile speed limit accomplish two goals. First, they seek to quell a growing majority of New Yorkers who are frustrated with the rules of the road not being adhered to by cyclists. Second, they further criminalize an already marginalized population: delivery couriers. In April of this past year, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Adams conjointly launched a Quality-of-Life Division in NYC. The stated goal of the division is to tackle “issues like illegal vending, substance use, abandoned vehicles, illegal mopeds and reckless driving” (Office of the Mayor). The result? This program has changed what is typically a traffic violation (which can be handled with a fee) to a criminal summons. These are handled in the court of law. Many delivery workers are undocumented.

We all want a safe city. And it makes sense to try to punish those who put your loved ones in danger. But we’ve misdiagnosed the perpetrators. We must recognize that by targeting e-bikers instead of their employer, we are treating a symptom instead of the root issue. Making low-wage workers the enemy, instead of publicly traded corporations—business behemoths that will always be looking to find more profit—misses the mark entirely. Their profits exist in the margins of faster deliveries.

Bikers do not set their delivery times, an algorithm does. In the report Delivering Justice by the Worker’s Justice Project–an advocacy group that organizes low-wage, immigrant workers–the organization explained, “The apps use their algorithmic management systems to allocate and manage tasks assigned, set unrealistic time delivery predictions and penalize workers without cause and with the ultimate intent to maximize their profits at the expense of worker health and safety. As a result, app-based delivery work has become the most dangerous job in New York City.” If a rider does not overload themselves with deliveries, they not only get fewer contracts, but they also can be deactivated in the system. In fact, couriers below a 4.2 customer rating are at risk of this deactivation. What would that mean for someone who immigrated here and spent their savings on an e-bike?

The DoorDash algorithm factors customer rating, acceptance rate, completion rate, and rate of deliveries that are on time or early. Additionally, DoorDash tracks the total number of deliveries within the previous 30 days, as well as lifetime deliveries. If the total number of deliveries in the 30-day window is under 200, the courier will be penalized with fewer customers. This rewards mechanism seems counter-intuitive to the public-facing messaging of the gig economy. If you treat it like a gig and not a full-time job, you won’t see the same results.

The “on time or early” metric is particularly difficult for food couriers, and is a major contributor to why they can’t afford to follow the rules of the road. This algorithm does not provide grace in two uncontrollable variables: restaurants finishing orders on time, and customers answering their buzzer. Apps such as HungryPanda immediately punish drivers who deliver food late. And in DoorDash, even an 84% rate of delivering on time or early is marked as “needs improvement.”

Our city government has occasionally advocated for biker rights. The city did–after pressure from groups including the Worker’s Justice Project–set a minimum wage for couriers, which is now $21.44. The DoorDash Head of Public Policy in North America, Josh Horton, said setting a minimum wage for e-bike delivery workers “made it harder for local businesses, Dashers, and consumers to thrive” (La Voce di New York). The sentiment put forth by DoorDash is not shared by many of their couriers. In a statement given to StreetsBlog NYC, Josh Wood, a delivery worker for Uber said, “You don’t have to risk your life to try to save two minutes anymore. You can take your time and ride safely and have a better chance of making it home at the end of the shift.” Regardless of the cut into profit, delivery apps have responded by reducing worker’s hours, making tipping less intuitive, and changing the pay structure to keep wealth at the corporate level.

Couriers also don’t get health insurance. Coupled with inherent danger, workers are covering their inescapable medical bills with their already low salaries. According to research done by the Worker’s Justice Project and Cornell University, “49% of [e-bike delivery survey respondents] reported having been in an accident or crash while doing a delivery. Of these workers, 75% said they paid for the medical care with their own personal funds.” Given the sharp delivery times set by the delivery apps, these injuries seem inevitable.

So, let’s stop being active participants in their marginalization and criminalization. Politicians often contort the wishes of the public into policies that benefit big business, but many of us are willingly having our attention diverted to focus on the bikers instead of DoorDash, Uber, and the like. The more laws we put in place protecting workers, the safer we will all become. But any progress lost will likely lead to further demonization of the bikers, because we have already been shown to get angrier at them than their employers. Andrew Cuomo received $1 million from DoorDash (Politico), an organization that has made clear they would like to roll back the progress made in establishing a minimum wage. What would it mean for these bikers if Cuomo wins the upcoming mayoral election, the rollbacks occur, and accidents rise? Likely, further criminalization.