Rue du Fort-Louis, in Bordeaux, in the historic premises of the Restos du Coeur, has just opened a new kind of house: a day reception for couriers from home meal delivery platforms. In this room loaned by the city of Bordeaux, led by the environmental mayor Pierre Hurmic, they are regarding fifty to have joined the Association for the mobilization and support of delivery people (AMAL), which manages the place.
This name was chosen by its three founders, Khalifa Kota, 27, and Mamadou Balde, 27, and Mafoud (who did not wish to give his surname), 26, delivery people from the Uber Eats and Deliveroo. A word that also means ” hope “, in Arabic, adds Khalifa Kota. If this “delivery house” was born barely two weeks ago in the city center, the project, led by the Gironde messengers’ union, dates back to 2020. The municipal campaign was then in full swing and the union’s objective was to draw the attention of candidates to the precariousness of meal delivery in the metropolis.
“They also have psychological suffering linked to the pressure put on them by the algorithm. » Jonathan L’Utile Chevallier, from Doctors of the World Aquitaine
At the same time, Khalifa Kota wonders. He witnessed, in the middle of work, twice, accidents involving a delivery man and a car. Each time, his colleagues are injured, without a car stopping, but he intervenes. One of the delivery men tells him that he has to get up and go on his way: he has no choice, he has to work.
For its part, as part of its mission carried out in squats and slums, Doctors of the World discovers that many bicycle delivery men live in these precarious habitats, 80% earning less than the minimum wage. It is difficult to know their exact number. The NGO estimates that, out of 6,000 autoentrepreneur statuses registered in delivery companies in metropolitan France, more than 30% are domiciled at the municipal center for social action, at the reception center for asylum seekers or in residences. great precariousness. Not to mention those, without a residence permit or without identity papers, who sublet the account of workers registered on the platform.
“Discussing with them in the squats and shanty towns, we noticed physical suffering linked to the accidents of which they are victims. They also have psychological suffering linked to the pressure that the algorithm puts on them, they have insomnia, feel harassed by these applications which push them to work constantly », explains Jonathan L’Utile Chevallier, project manager for precarious workers, at Médecins du monde Aquitaine. Compared to the large precarious that the organization usually encounters, bicycle delivery men are for them “visible and invisible”. “We see them on their bikes, but their problems are invisible, while all of them are suffering », deplores the project manager of the NGO.
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