“Exhausting” days: Médecins du Monde warns concerning the every day lives of bicycle supply staff | EUROtoday

Long days, low revenue, opaque algorithms… Bicycle supply staff are at risk, warns Doctors of the World in a examine whose methodology is criticized by the platforms, who imagine that it ignores the specificities of the unbiased standing, on the coronary heart of the controversy.

For its Santé-Course report, Médecins du Monde interviewed greater than 1,000 supply drivers in Paris and Bordeaux within the first half of 2025. Results: these supply males from Uber Eats, Deliveroo or Stuart work on common 63 hours per week, for 1,480 euros gross month-to-month.

“Exhausting” days, denounce the supply males, for a mediocre revenue which frequently forces them to spend “an entire day without having a real meal”, warns the NGO.

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“Stress” and “exhaustion”

Furthermore, amongst these staff with unbiased standing, the platforms and their algorithms create “a strong subordination” producing “stress” and “exhaustion”, she believes.

An overwhelming majority of staff say they “strictly follow instructions for fear of being disconnected” from their account, denouncing the very fact of not realizing how the platforms allocate rides and feeling like they’re “constantly monitored.”

In March 2025, the well being company Anses affirmed that this administration by algorithms, which inspires individuals to do one purchasing after one other, posed dangers to the well being of supply staff.

Those interviewed by Médecins du Monde really talked about ache within the again, shoulders, wrists, fingers, knees, urinary issues as a consequence of an absence of entry to the bathroom, but additionally continual fatigue, nervousness, despair.

More than half say they’ve already had an accident. Among them, 78% report having been injured.

Uber Eats, questioned by AFP, disputes “the conclusions of this report, the methodology of which is based on a limited number of testimonies”, presenting a bias, Médecins du Monde having partly surveyed the supply individuals in associative homes, frequented by significantly precarious populations; and in Paris and Bordeaux solely whereas Uber Eats is current in 538 cities.

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“False self-employment”?

In addition, this survey “misunderstands the very basis of the meal delivery activity, a complementary activity which is only carried out when customers sit at the table”, estimates the platform for which connection time shouldn’t be corresponding to working time, as for different unbiased professions.

This is the crux of the issue: are the greater than 70,000 bicycle supply staff in France actually unbiased or are they present process a type of disguised employment with out having fun with the advantages?

A contested standing on which French courts have already dominated, condemning platforms like Deliveroo or Frichti for hidden work, and which the European Union intends to right.

In November 2024, it thus adopted a textual content aimed toward correcting the “false independent work” that “around 5.5 million” platform staff would expertise. Member States have two years to transpose this directive into their laws.

The Union-Indépendants union, consultant of the career, referred to as on Tuesday “the public authorities to stop inaction. Allowing this model to persist amounts to condoning a continued deterioration of working conditions throughout an entire sector.”

Deliveroo additionally disputes the report’s conclusions, recalling that the supply individuals working for them profit from insurance coverage protecting accidents, medical health insurance and civil legal responsibility; and that security gear is accessible to those that request it.

For Médecins du Monde, solely 68% of supply staff have well being protection, and lots of forgo care due to “paper problems” or for financial causes.

In April 2025, the sector regulatory authority (Arpe) revealed statistics demonstrating the drastic fall of their revenue between 2021 and 2024.

This report “shows that Deliveroo is among the best-performing platforms in the sector in terms of remuneration in recent years,” the corporate defends to AFP.

“The establishment of a minimum income per order has notably enabled delivery people to generate 21.50 euros per hour of activity, up 5% in 2025,” argues Uber Eats, which additionally affords insurance coverage in opposition to work accidents and occupational diseases.

With AFP