Taiwan is rightly famous for its food culture. Whether boba tea or beef noodle soup, we love to eat. Online platforms, restaurants with their own delivery services and new food delivery services are enabling consumers to enjoy their favorite foods quickly and easily.
Working parents who need a night off from cooking, students craving energy to study for their exams, elderly Taiwanese who find it hard to move from their home or anyone who just wants a tasty treat at any time of the day: All have come to treasure their ability to use food delivery apps.
ECONOMY
Today, over 60 percent of restaurants and many grocery chains in Taiwan offer home delivery, ranging from national treasures like Din Tai Fung to Wan-you-chuan — a must-go-to Jinhua Ham vendor in the Nanmen wet market.
The growth of food delivery has led to increased sales and greater value for restaurants. Meanwhile, supermarkets, convenience stores and specialist retailers are increasingly turning to apps like Uber Eats to ensure their customers can get groceries, toiletries and other products.
In a study by Public First, Uber Eats by itself created NT$10.3 billion (US$327.87 million) in additional value for restaurant and merchant-partners in Taiwan in 2021 alone.
COURIERS
At the core of the food delivery ecosystem in Taiwan are the couriers. They come from a wide range of backgrounds. We see college students looking to earn a little extra income, young parents balancing work and caregiving responsibilities or new business owners needing extra income while they launch their ventures.
To better understand how we could help couriers have the best experience while partnering with Uber, I recently met with representatives of several courier unions.
Uber Eats couriers have no shifts and are free to work whenever they want. Couriers tell us that they enjoy this flexibility and do not want to be treated as employees, but they also want some of the benefits, such as guaranteed minimum earnings and basic benefits and protections that are currently only available to employees. We agree that flexibility should not come at the expense of benefits and protections.
However, current laws do not allow for this kind of hybrid arrangement. Currently, if couriers were to be provided with additional benefits and protections, it would come at the cost of their flexibility.
‘THIRD WAY’
That is why today we are calling for new laws in Taiwan, applicable to all industry players and couriers nationwide, that would create a “third way” other than traditional employment and independent contractor status. This would give them the protections of minimum earnings as well as benefits they deserve, and also preserve the flexibility that couriers value.
While our internal data suggest that couriers on the Uber Eats platform earn more than the minimum wage for the time that they are doing deliveries, we are also calling for government-mandated minimum earning standards for all platforms.
These standards need to strike a balance between ensuring good earnings for couriers while ensuring the “three-sided” marketplace of consumers, restaurants and couriers continues to thrive.
Governments from Australia to Chile, along with several states in the US, are moving toward this concept of a “third way.”
At this important juncture, we stand committed to working with industry, couriers and governments to develop modern laws that would improve earning opportunities for couriers across the industry.
Chai Lee is the general manager of Uber Eats Taiwan.
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