Shadowing and being shadowed
Most of my work in the last few months involved ethnography as a food courier for the platform Glovo in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. I did deliveries myself, I spoke with other riders and I followed them at work. When Gary, one of my mentors, wanted to know more about what my research looks and feels like, the most obvious thing to do was get him on a bike and have him follow me while doing deliveries. In the same way I did with my research participants. He rode behind and alongside me for two hours in November last year and wrote a short report which is very insightful for whoever wants to know more about what I’ve been up to lately and what is it like doing the gig work. Enjoy! Thanks, Gary!
Glovo delivery slot Thursday 18th November 2021, 7pm-9pm, Cluj
This is a highly simplified reflection on shadowing a Glovo delivery agent in Cluj. It does not contain any detailed knowledge of the platform or the way it or its app operates. As such it is a short travel-based observation of a couple hours in the life of a delivery agent in Cluj. This means that this is not an ethnographic account as there is insufficient depth in all respects. This experience is far from being able to represent what it is like to seriously undertake delivery work as a way of making money to support day-to-day living. Instead, there is merely a glimpse of what such a life might be like.
Earlier in the day, a local of Cluj described to me how the delivery agents had kept life going through the COVID lockdown. The implication being that without them life would have been so much harder. There was a clear appreciation of the service element and the fact that an important need was being fulfilled. The same must be true of the businesses that were able to use the agents to carry on selling to the public.
That same person also asserted that to their knowledge, there is a high proportion of university educated people doing such work. In other words, the local labour market is unable to supply sufficient graduate jobs and that this is a known post-university job. Of interest would be just how long such graduates spend doing delivery work before securing something else (assuming that they are interested in getting a different job).
The outside temperature is around 1 degree, there hasn’t been any rain so the roads are dry, it is dark but there is a clear sky. Knowing it was cold I got well wrapped up in case there would be lots of hanging around time as I believe can happen on slow nights, perhaps when there are lots of delivery agents out and about. Lots of layers, gloves, hat. Thankfully I am using an excellent bike, reliable, stable and functional. Stories of riders getting knocked off never seem to be distant. In fact, we saw a rider who had recently been knocked off a two-wheeled bike on a tricycle. Given the need to weave in and out of traffic, this might be a safer option, but it struck me that it would probably reduce the capacity to make money.
Despite it being after 6pm, there is still much traffic on the road. The roads in Cluj are good. There are not so many pot holes, and the drains at the side of the road are often flush with the tarmac. There are some dedicated cycle lanes but not enough to make a big difference. These lanes are only of partial use when you need to make swift progress to get through the orders efficiently. As became apparent later, were one to follow all the rules of the road to the letter, it would be an enormous challenge to make much money doing bicycle deliveries. Perhaps it is quite different with a car, where the physical effort of the travel is less and the capacity of the load is greater, resulting in a higher potential for profit. Of course, in a car, infringements of road rules could be lethal and is likely to be more strictly policed.
We arrive at McDonald’s in the centre of the city at 7pm, with the assumption that the first order might be from there. It wasn’t. But after around a minute order number 1 came through…
Delivery 1: The kebab shop
The kebab shop is not so far away from McDonald's, it is on the wide road close to the memorial with the high bell. It takes maybe around 7 minutes to get there, as mentioned, there is still quite a bit of traffic and we need to wait at traffic lights at major junctions a few times. Being on bikes, we are able to weave through lines of cars and get to the front of traffic queues at junctions. It may not be representative, but throughout the evening the cars were respectful of us and there were no incidents. The exact location of the restaurant was not known [to Cosmin] but we quickly found it. The shop had the delivery ready so it is a swift pick up and we are quickly on the road to the delivery address. The delivery address is about 7 minutes away and it is not obvious which side of the road it is on, there are no numbers obvious on the apartment block on the side of the road we stop on. It turns out to be on the other side of the road. A few minutes lost to searching. Delivery made. Glovo notified. New order comes in. Cosmin predicts that next order will be from McD, where we started out, and it is. With a delivery address taking us a bit further out of the city, which leads Cosmin to predict that the subsequent delivery will take us to the mall a few km out (as it was). So we cycle back to McD’s.
Delivery 2: McDonald's in town
Arriving back at McDonald's, Cosmin sees an acquaintance — another delivery agent. Time for a chat while we wait for the order to be ready. It’s quite busy at the order pick up point with around five sets of people waiting. Most seem to be delivery agents, but it is not always clear. Some are on bikes, others on electric bikes, and others in cars. We have around a five minutes wait for the order then it is back on the road. The general direction is the same as last time and once we get closer, we need to check the location on to refine the route to the address. We stop to do this, as doing it while on the move would not be entirely safe. The closer we get to the address, it is apparent that the one way roads that we need to go down run in the opposite direction to which we need to go. Pavement cycling is one solution to this given that it is clearly highly unsafe to cycle the wrong way down a one way street. Again, once in the close vicinity of the delivery address, identifying the house/block takes a few precious minutes. This address being a bit further out of town, Cosmin suspected that the next order would be to be picked up from McDonald's at the Iulius Mall. That Cosmin was able to predict this might suggest that the delivery algorithm works in a way that the delivery agents are able to work out where they could end up next. Is it to do with the delivery point? Mode of transport? Speed of delivery? Maybe all (or none). The algorithm which matches agents to orders ought to be at the core of an efficient system designed to maximise the throughput of the business and hence its profitability. Presumably, the IT infrastructure of these platform delivery companies is an important part of their investment, perhaps requiring tuning, and maybe something which could benefit from some machine learning. We set off for Iulius Mall a few km out of town.
Delivery 3: McDonald's at the Iulius Mall
We arrive at the mall. Immediately we realise that things are not altogether as they should be. The entrance normally used for pick ups is not open and there is some building work happening there. On asking one of the car delivery agents we are told to continue round the back. This we do, down a poorly lit road with large potholes that are difficult to spot. Around the back there are lots of cars and no bikes that we can see. We chain the bikes to a metal cage and go in the back entrance. A Glovo cyclist coming out describes the situation as chaotic inside.
Inside the mall it is still quite busy. This is a large shopping mall with a full range of shops, designed for everything to be availably under one roof. Although it is after 8pm, there are still a great many people there, old and young, families with small children. Not the busiest place, but still enough people to make walking down the lanes slower than were no people there. This being the first time this entrance has been used [by Cosmin] we don’t know where McD is. The mall is so large that it is not easy to work out exactly where we are. On asking at the information desk, they tell us to go upstairs. Up the escalator we then find McD where there are a great many people hanging around, including a range of delivery agents. There is clearly a fairly long wait for food. It takes around 20 minutes to get the delivery — it looks like burgers and a couple of large cokes. Into the Glovo bag they go. As Cosmin says, extra care is needed with these large drinks.
It’s easier finding our way out of the mall, unlock the bikes then on our way, back to the same area where delivery 2 went. There is still quite a bit of traffic on the road and care is needed to cycle safely. So far, I have been keeping up with Cosmin, cycling as close as I dare to him so that we don’t get separated by lights changing, or by me not getting onto a roundabout in good time. This has worked fine, and if we got separated, I said that we would meet back at McD in town. I keep far enough back to brake in good time. However, as we approach a roundabout, I am a little too close. We need to go all around the roundabout and there are many cars around. Cosmin stops as we can’t safely get on to the roundabout and I momentarily lose concertation and before I know it I have run into the back of Cosmin’s bike. “Shit!” I yell, assuming that I will push Cosmin over resulting in a sloshing mess of coke and burgers inside the delivery rucksack.
Somehow Cosmin stays upright, he said afterwards that this was because he had fully stopped and so was quite stable with a foot on the ground. We are fine, bikes are fine, and importantly, the order is still intact. Later I ask what would have happened if the order had been spoilt. Cosmin isn’t sure as it hasn’t happened to him before. I am so glad that I wasn’t responsible for him finding out. Eventually, he tells me that if the client rejected the spoilt order, he would most likely keep the food and eat it, but he would not get paid for the job.
The delivery is made and there is 15 minutes left before the shift is over. This is a tricky time as it can happen that you are given an order towards the end of the shift that could extend it longer, and we wanted to end at 9pm. So, the thing to do in this instance is to wait a while before indicating on the app that the delivery has been made. Once it was 9 minutes to 9 the declaration of delivery was made and no further orders were allocated. Time to go home.
We made only three deliveries in two hours. Had Cosmin been on his own he would have done more. The delivery addresses were not always obvious. I am sure that there could be a temptation to check the map on the phone while cycling. Cycling in traffic, close to cars is not always easy. Lines of static cars can be weaved through if there is enough space, but one could easily scratch a car if one were not careful. The weather was cold, but otherwise it was fine. In rain and wind this work would be significantly more treacherous. The large delivery rucksack must act as a sail such that one could get blown off course and towards traffic.
We cycled only 16K in 2 hours, but this would have been more had Cosmin been alone. 37.09 lei (£6.31) money earn in the app.
And then there is a need to reduce this due to taxes and fees that the delivery agents must also pay to their subcontractor. Which left him £4.08. That means £2.04 per hour of work and £0.25 per km cycled.
Cycle delivery agents need to be fit, have local knowledge to get around efficiently, and some probably also take shortcuts (which, of course, compromises safety).
