What Happens When Food Delivery is Everywhere
Food delivery has become a trend in recent years, Taiwan now has a huge market of delivery and most of the people have used the delivery platforms to get the food they want. A report from Tech News indicates that the total amount of order from delivery platforms is over 50 million dollars in September 2019. And the annul growth rate of food delivery is closed to 500%. The reason behind this phenomenon is that delivery service can save consumers a lot of time. Also, through the delivery, there is an opportunity for restaurants to increase the number of meals sold. It seems like food delivery is a wonderful thing for everyone and now it is everywhere; however, it has caused some effects on our daily life.
First, the food delivery brings about some traffic problems. Due to the convenience and efficiency, most delivery drivers ride motorcycles to work. However, many delivery drivers rush to finish their orders and deliver the food on time. They also feel much pressured to be quick so the customer will rate them well; therefore, they don’t want to spend time riding around trying to find somewhere to park. Food delivery thus results in the traffic chaos of illegal parking. Some delivery drivers park right on the red line, and some even treat the pavements as their own private streets. In addition, speeding and running a red light are also the common things that result from the food delivery. Neither of them should happen and cause the inconvenience of the society.
Second, food delivery increases the use of disposable tableware which may indirectly harm our environment. We all understand that when we have meals in the restaurant, usually the restaurant will provide us reusable tableware to use. However, when we take away food as well as use delivery platforms to order meals, the restaurant will provide us disposable tableware. Nowadays our planet is facing a lot of environmental problems and many issues have been discussed including waste reduction. If we keep ignoring the increase of disposable tableware, our planet may be getting worse.
The last one is about the rights of delivery drivers. The law about the relationship between delivery drivers and the delivery platforms is disputed and uncertain. Currently, there are two types of relationships: one is employee, and the another one is self-employed. To simply explain, being an employee means that you are an employee if you perform work under a contract “of” service where you work under the control of your employer. In contrast, self-employed refers to the situation when you perform work for others under a contract “for” service. There are many differences between these two relationships including financial contracts, payment received, level of control, and the most important one, whether the delivery drivers have the insurance. This is also a critical issue when more and more people work for delivery platforms without understanding their own rights and relationship between the platforms.
Nowadays, food delivery is everywhere. Although it provides convenience to people but it also results in some problems in our society. The increase of food delivery reminds us the traffic chaos of illegal parking, speeding and running a red light, the environmental issue about disposable tableware and the disputed and uncertain laws about employment relationship. I think it may make the world better if we keep thinking about the different aspects when we are facing the things we’ve ever heard or things we have already known.
References
Tech News (2020)
Pictures:
Disposable Tableware
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/2785172
Illegal Parking
https://vidol.tv/news?news_id=623037
Delivery Platforms
Illegal Parking
Disposable Tableware