‘I make £20,000 as a Deliveroo rider – cycling five hours a week’

I became a Deliveroo rider three years ago when I saw an Instagram advert encouraging people to sign up as riders. It sounded like fun and I thought: “Why not?”

I liked the idea of doing lots of cycling and earning some extra cash. As I was one of the first to apply, I managed to get the position. Nowadays you are put on a waiting list to become a rider. There’s far more competition.

The application process was swift and simple. They did a background check and asked for my identification. I submitted a photo of my bike and helmet. I had to wait for them to send the equipment – you get a special thermal bag and they also sent me waterproof gear and shirts with the Deliveroo logo on – but then I was good to go.

In my first year, I earned more than £20,000 delivering orders and cycling between five and 10 hours a week. It was really addictive. I felt as though each new order was a mission. I was cycling 125 miles a week and logging each journey in Strava [a fitness app where you can log your exercise].

Those days are over sadly. The money is not as good. Deliveroo has lowered payments. When I started, they paid £4 an order as a starting amount and then it went up according to the distance you travelled. Now their fee structure has changed and shorter journeys are paid less.

A job that takes 10 minutes will probably pay around £3 but sometimes I get lucky and it’s magically £4.50. That could be because of a tip or because sometimes during busy periods, such as when there’s a big football match on, Deliveroo will put on a bonus where the customer pays more for delivery and I get an extra 30pc.

Deliveroo only considers the duration of your journey from the restaurant to the customer as your work so you don’t get paid for the time it takes to get to the restaurant. But even with all the extra riding, I still think the pay works out well considering how little effort it takes to deliver some food.

Every week, the money you’ve earned goes straight into your account. You can get it early but you have to pay a 50p charge. I just wait every week and it goes in on a Tuesday. You are classed as self-employed so it’s up to you to sort out your taxes.

I have noticed that demand for Deliveroo has depleted. There are other food delivery services on the market now. Lots of riders work for several services at once but I only work for Deliveroo.

It’s not a normal job; you don’t clock in or clock out. When I am on call, I set myself to be “available” and stay at home, ready to go if an order does come up. Right now, I’m on call for about eight hours a day. In the early days, I would get more than 10 delivery offers a day but now it’s more around five to 10. I probably only do it for a couple of hours a week right now.

It’s only ever going to be part-time work unless you’re really committed and you’re in a big city such as London where it’s super busy and you’re able to get orders constantly. I’m in a market town in the home counties and there’s not enough orders to make it a full-time job.

In the beginning, I accepted every single job. I’m a bit more discerning now and I don’t accept journeys if they are over 10 minutes. Most of my orders entail just one mile of cycling. I live in a very hilly area so I bear in mind the altitude too and let the scooters take the steep jobs.

The customers vary. There are some that are still in lockdown mode. They refuse to answer the door and just hide inside. There’s one gentleman – he always tips incredibly well, so I’m happy to do it – but he has all these signs that say “Keep away” and “Don’t knock on the door”. I just put the food down and get away. He is one of my regulars.

I’ve had surprisingly few negative experiences considering I’ve done thousands of pick-ups. I have had a customer put in their address incorrectly and then yell at me, demanding to know where their meal is. There was one order where the coffee I was delivering spilled and I went back to get them another one and that spilled as well.

I have got savvy. I’ve learnt to take the short jobs because I’m just on a push bike so I don’t want the food getting cold or there being a delay.

There have been Deliveroo drivers who steal meals. A while ago, a couple was going around in my area setting up several Deliveroo accounts which they just used to steal the orders. Once they got caught, they’d delete the account and use another. I used to see them all the time when I was picking up orders. They were sneaky. I contacted Deliveroo and told them what they were doing and the couple stopped doing it after that.

‘I do feel like an underclass’

There is definitely a social stigma to being a Deliveroo driver. I do feel like an underclass doing it. I have a university degree and I’ve worked in other professions. It is annoying when friends say things such as: “You’re not still doing that, are you?”. But I try not to let it bother me.

Right now I work for Deliveroo, I put my rented flat on Airbnb and I do some gardening to make ends meet. I was offered a full-time role front-of-house in a restaurant with a £30,000 salary, but it would have been 50 to 55 hours a week and I don’t think that salary covers how much of my life I’d lose by doing that job. I don’t want to be stressed all the time working indoors; I like reading, writing, watching TV, going to sports classes and going to the gym.

I understand that Deliveroo doesn’t give me certain protections – such as sick pay, holiday pay or a pension – but I get to work on my own terms and make as much money as I want to make. I like being outdoors, I like cycling, I like interacting with people and I like feeling useful.

I suspect I’m always going to do it for the baseline income. I have a job with the police starting soon but I’ll still do Deliveroo on the side.

I’ve only ever ordered a Deliveroo once. I thought it was too expensive. It was £25 for two medium pizzas and I felt guilty because I could have just gone and got it myself.

A Deliveroo spokesman said: “Deliveroo offers the flexible work riders tell us they want, attractive earning opportunities and protections including free insurance, sickness cover, financial support when riders become new parents and a range of training opportunities.

“Rider retention and application rates are high and the overwhelming majority of riders tell us that they are satisfied working with us. We value dialogue with riders and are always seeking ways to support them and offer the work they value.”