It’s 9 a.m. and the Instabee courier app is pinging. The Budbee driver gets to know what the working day looks like.
According to the delivery van drivers that SVT has been in contact with, the work shift means a fight against the clock. To make it within the app’s calculated time, they are forced to drive too fast and run with the deliveries.
– When your driving time is up, you no longer get paid. You still have to deliver the packages, otherwise you risk being warned and having your driver level lowered, says “Joakim”, who previously drove for Budbee.
Driver level is a salary supplement which, according to the drivers, is determined based on how fast you work. He says that in one day he delivered between 70 and 110 packages to sometimes 90 home addresses around his municipality.
– I noticed that hours were missing from the salary spec. It turned out that Budbee does not compensate for overtime, which they believe would be a carrot if you are fast and efficient, says the driver.
Recently signed collective agreement – rounds it off with haulage companies
An example that SVT has seen from the app Instabee courier, it is estimated to take 6.5 hours to deliver over 100 packages to home addresses that are spread over a large municipality in northern Sweden.
– This is a way of exploiting labour. Many who drive are young people with foreign debts and they may not know what rights they have as workers, says the driver.
Why do you think people don’t speak up?
– Maybe you have a situation where it is better to have a job and not get paid for all your time, than not to have a job at all.
Return should take one minute
When the work day is over, the drivers must handle any returns, according to the app, it should take one minute, regardless of whether you have one or 40 returns.
Instabee has chosen to decline an interview, but writes in an email to SVT:
“This is not how our model is designed, it is a requirement from us that the drivers receive compensation per hour worked, this is included in writing in our agreements and audits (systematic evaluation reds. note) are carried out on an ongoing basis to be able to maintain the conditions.”
Read the full answer here.
In the video: Watch one of the former drivers talk about the working conditions, the stress and who he believes is responsible for the shortcomings.