Deliveroo in fewer and fewer cities

Author: Mario Schmidtgen
Date: 21.08.2018

German locations are dwindling

Although the British startup delivery service Deliveroo announced a year ago that they would expand their presence in Germany, the service is now ceased in ten cities. Customers and employees in cities like Essen, Dortmund, Dresden, Leipzig, Mainz, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Bonn, Hanover and Nuremberg were informed by e-mail about the end of the delivery service. Although the head of the German section, Felix Chrobog, emphasized in July 2017 that the company was still running well, Deliveroo was just following the delivery service competitor Foodora and was dependent on investors.

In total, around 860 million US dollars have been invested in the company, which was founded in 2013. The last investment was in September 2017 and included $ 385 million. The big problem: Since the beginning of the year, bicycle couriers on the streets in Germany became angrier, and therefore founded the first works council in Cologne. The consequences: Deliveroo expired all fixed-term employment contracts of the employees and the works council. Moreover, winter work clothing was not provided to the couriers and wages were not paid regularly.

“Of course, Deliveroo is tired of ending the employment relationship with our drivers at the sites we close,” the company said. Overall, in the 10 cities only 136 drivers are affected by the end of the employment relationship. It was said in September last year that 1050 drivers should be employed at all locations. It is believed that there is a lack of applications, as the working conditions of the competitors Foodora and Lieferando are better.

„Deliveroo tut es natürlich leid, dass wir an den Standorten, die wir schließen, auch das Arbeitsverhältnis mit unseren Fahrern beenden“, so das Unternehmen. Insgesamt sind in den 10 Städten nur 136 Fahrer vom Ende des Arbeitsverhältnisses betroffen. Dabei hieß es noch im September vergangenen Jahres, dass 1050 Fahrer an allen Standorten beschäftigt werden sollen. Vermutet wird, dass es an Bewerbungen mangelt, da die Arbeitsbedingungen bei den Konkurrenten Foodora und Lieferando besser seien.