Tech companies try to address food delivery driver safety

As extra folks have relied on meals supply apps through the pandemic, thoughts of workers’ basic safety have arisen immediately after substantial-profile crimes.

On Monday, DoorDash supply driver Andrew Satavu was shot and killed within his automobile right after dropping off an order close to the McHenry Village purchasing middle in central Modesto. Police have not unveiled any facts on a possible motive or suspect. The deadly taking pictures is the initial reported murder of a 3rd-occasion shipping and delivery app employee whilst on the position in the metropolis.

The two Modesto Law enforcement Department and Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department spokespeople reported incidents involving shipping and delivery workers in the region continue being exceptional. Modesto law enforcement spokeswoman Sharon Bear reported detectives are not doing the job on any theft or carjacking cases involving supply drivers. Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Luke Schwartz said his division has seen no “significant improves or noteworthy trends” involving shipping workers.

Nonetheless, the city has had incidents in the previous. Most 3rd-occasion app shipping and delivery motorists don’t have large amounts of hard cash with them, simply because payments and recommendations are produced through the customer’s mobile phones. But their automobiles have turn into targets.

In December 2019, a distinctive DoorDash shipping and delivery driver was picking up an get at Garcia Jo Jo’s on McHenry Avenue in Modesto when her motor vehicle was stolen with her 9-calendar year-aged daughter nevertheless inside of. The thief ditched the auto shortly soon after realizing there was an unforeseen passenger, but left the vehicle functioning, so it crept together the road and clipped parked motor vehicles prior to remaining stopped by a very good Samaritan. Neither the girl nor her mom were being injured in the carjacking.

Law enforcement in some significant metropolitan locations, which includes Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., have noted all through the pandemic that carjackings and motor vehicle thefts have absent up, like in opposition to gig employees who travel for third-get together apps like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats.

General nationally, robberies and rapes are down considering that the start out of the pandemic, according to the Police Govt Investigate Discussion board, but homicides like shootings have long gone up.

In response, tech businesses that use shipping gig workers have current some of their insurance policies and treatments. A DoorDash spokesperson mentioned the organization delivers occupational incident insurance policies to its drivers (who they connect with Dashers) at no expense. Past year, it also launched an in-application safety toolkit for its gig workers.

“DoorDash requires the safety of our community incredibly significantly. While destructive incidents are incredibly rare, we’re consistently doing work to make improvements to our solutions, procedures and procedures due to the fact even a person incident is one too several,” mentioned a DoorDash spokesperson in a written assertion to The Bee.

The program, known as SafeDash, associates with the countrywide stability company ADT and lets for swift get hold of with one particular of its brokers. It also has a button that will connect supply staff with crisis providers.

Considering the fact that the pandemic started off, rival business Uber Eats also has set new security guidelines in place, including GPS monitoring and an emergency support button for shipping and delivery persons. And Grubhubs, on its web-site for delivery motorists, reported it will “proactively close marketplaces when a market place as a total will become unsafe for our delivery partners.”

Incidents with food items shipping motorists follow many years of reports of assaults, harassment and even worse for their gig-conomy cousins, rideshare motorists. Platforms like Uber and Lyft have claimed statements of of thousands of sexual assaults by itself in several years previous. The tech organizations have rolled out attributes aimed at earning the assistance safer for riders and motorists, which includes Uber’s new audio recording choice for the duration of rides that was launched late very last yr.

This tale was initially released April 21, 2022 12:53 PM.