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The U.K. Gig Economy

And you will count your blessings for small mercies. Young man.

Well - things have now turned to shit - Ford have got the AA to come out - guy called me to ask what was the issue and said that’s it’s a common fault on Ford’s - I’ll need a new ignition barrel which has to be done at a dealers - which are all shut apart from one which in in reduced hours.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday so Ford will likely be closed, and it’s them I need to speak to again as they provide courtesy vans and sort dealer repair. I’ve told work I’ll not be in tomorrow due to the above - and that’s about it - total shit:(
 
I wouldn't make that assumption. It's Amazon or contractors we are talking about, who have fined people for going sick and having to get someone else to cover the round.

marty1, does Amazon do that?

I thought that was DPD.
 
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Anyway - van is now working again (temporary fix) thanks to AA guy.

Tho - interestingly he wasn’t the AA guy who was originally meant to do the job.

First guy called me and asked what was wrong - I told him and he then asked me if I was a key worker. I told him yes, I was. He then proceeded to tell me that the problem sounded like a well known issue with Ford vans and it would require a new ignition barrel but I wouldn’t be able to get one in a hurry due to the lockdown - BUT - he knew a guy who could come out to me tonight and do a temporary fix for £300!!!! He then proceeded to tell me this contact guy of his had just done a temp fix on another key workers van as they couldn’t afford to have days off as they wouldn’t get paid (just like me).

Alarm bells started ringing with me that this was a scam so I declined the offer - but AA guy said he’d still come out - as he had to take my mileage???

So when they AA guy turned up I thought it was the scam AA guy but it wasn’t - it was another AA guy - the scam guy had passed the job over to a colleague (presumably because he hadn’t got a £300 sale).

I told the AA guy who fixed my van and he basically confirmed this was a scam and shook his head - I’d likely have been charged for the same job he’d done covered under my van warranty. It sounds like if I’d agreed to the £300 job the original AA guy would have sent one of his mates out to do the ‘job’ and split the cash.

Fucking vultures taking advantage of this pandemic ffs!!!!
 
Just talking to other drivers earlier - one driver went out yesterday with 305 parcels.

Another driver didn’t finish until 10pm.

Amazon have their boot firmly on drivers faces and are stamping harder than ever.
 
Hermes delivered to me yesterday by hanging my item on the garden gate. At least they chose the right garden gate but I am unimpressed!

I had been expecting a phone call and having to give a signature - according to their email.

Luckily a neighbour noticed and told me, otherwise it could have been hanging there for hours and anyone walking past could have taken it!
 
Hermes delivered to me yesterday by hanging my item on the garden gate. At least they chose the right garden gate but I am unimpressed!

I had been expecting a phone call and having to give a signature - according to their email.

Luckily a neighbour noticed and told me, otherwise it could have been hanging there for hours and anyone walking past could have taken it!

Hermes driver delivered a parcel to my mum yesterday - she lives opposite me and I was just finished washing my van so I saw the delivery.

My mum was at her front door as she must have seen the guy walking up the drive, he stopped about 12ft away and frisbee’d the parcel onto the doorstep :facepalm:

They guy then waved and went bk to his van and emptied a load of parcels onto the road before sorting thru a few and putting some in his front cab.

Maybe he was having a bad day 🤷‍♂️
 
If that were me, it would be a bad day. 200+ parcels a day and all that grief, no thank you.
A reverse way of also saying respect to you and others that do do it.

I’ve spoke with a few Hermes drivers on my travels - they typically do around 100 drops per day and use estate cars of small vans like this VW caddy that the guy who delivered to my mum was driving.

1200px-2013_Volkswagen_Caddy_(2K_MY13)_TDI250_van_(2015-08-07)_01.jpg


But Hermes drivers are no different from any other delivery driver no matter who they contract to - the whole last mile delivery industry is an exploitative joke.
 
I’ve spoke with a few Hermes drivers on my travels - they typically do around 100 drops per day and use estate cars of small vans like this VW caddy that the guy who delivered to my mum was driving.

1200px-2013_Volkswagen_Caddy_(2K_MY13)_TDI250_van_(2015-08-07)_01.jpg


But Hermes drivers are no different from any other delivery driver no matter who they contract to - the whole last mile delivery industry is an exploitative joke.
Hermes does have a pretty bad reputation, including with me - I'll actively avoid ordering something if I know it's going to be sent via them (but nobody tells you). OTOH I have always put that down to the company being shit, disorganised, overloading people, not retaining drivers because of pay and conditions etc etc.
 
Hermes does have a pretty bad reputation, including with me - I'll actively avoid ordering something if I know it's going to be sent via them (but nobody tells you). OTOH I have always put that down to the company being shit, disorganised, overloading people, not retaining drivers because of pay and conditions etc etc.
They wont even deliver to us half the time - too dodgy an area! So we have to go miles to collect anything that wont fit though the letter box.
 
Hermes does have a pretty bad reputation, including with me - I'll actively avoid ordering something if I know it's going to be sent via them (but nobody tells you). OTOH I have always put that down to the company being shit, disorganised, overloading people, not retaining drivers because of pay and conditions etc etc.

Yep - when I did the rural routes with the other delivery firm I delivered to a Hermes driver and got talking - Hermes drop parcels off at drivers house and they have to sort them into a route order. He was still waiting for his delivery despite it being around 1pm - he said sometimes if something goes wrong he doesn’t get a delivery but the next day gets 2 days worth to complete in one day ffs.

Afaik, they get paid per drop but they’ve got to pay for their own fuel.
 
Yep - when I did the rural routes with the other delivery firm I delivered to a Hermes driver and got talking - Hermes drop parcels off at drivers house and they have to sort them into a route order. He was still waiting for his delivery despite it being around 1pm - he said sometimes if something goes wrong he doesn’t get a delivery but the next day gets 2 days worth to complete in one day ffs.

Afaik, they get paid per drop but they’ve got to pay for their own fuel.

A mate that used to work for Hermes used to have to wait around, with the rest working locally, at a local delivery off point, the truck was regularly 1 or 2 hours late, and take half an hour or so to unload, for which they weren't paid.

He got paid 50p per drop*, can't remember if that was per package or per address, using his own estate car - they never even advised him to ensure that his car insurance covered him for business use, which it didn't, so he was basically driving around uninsured when delivering.

* That was on an urban route, it was a little more on rural routes.
 
A mate that used to work for Hermes used to have to wait around, with the rest working locally, at a local delivery off point, the truck was regularly 1 or 2 hours late, and take half an hour or so to unload, for which they weren't paid.

He got paid 50p per drop*, can't remember if that was per package or per address, using his own estate car - they never even advised him to ensure that his car insurance covered him for business use, which it didn't, so he was basically driving around uninsured when delivering.

* That was on an urban route, it was a little more on rural routes.

The entire industry needs regulating- this fake self-employed status is a main root of its exploitative evil.

This article is from 2017 but it stuck with me as one of the very worst examples (apart from the poor guy who died at DPD):


The delivery firm I’m currently with are the polar opposite of the above example. [Edit] but I’m still at the disposable mercy of Amazon due to this self employed exploitation.
 
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Same route today as I had yesterday only with an extra 28 drops.

I finished earlier than expected yesterday so Amazon’s algorithm works out extra drops for the next day so they can pull back any perceived un-worked time - the bunch of fucking twats as it doesn’t work both ways:mad:
 
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