Uber Eats and Deliveroo announced on Wednesday July 8 that they would suspend deliveries in departments on heatwave red alert between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., after the Minister of Labor asked the platforms to take “measures” to protect workers from extreme heat. No department is on red alert on Wednesday, according to the Météo France website.
Asked about possible compensation, Uber Eats responded that “the slots had been deliberately chosen to find a balance between the priority issue of the safety of delivery people while limiting the impact on revenues”. Deliveroo did not wish to comment.
Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou welcomed this decision. “Last Thursday, I asked delivery platforms to take concrete measures to protect the health of delivery workers during heatwaves. An important step has been taken with this decision and I immediately call on partner restaurants to show solidarity by allowing these workers access to water and fresh areas,” he declared.
The suspension of deliveries, which are carried out by bicycle, “is in addition to our prevention protocol”, indicated Uber Eats, such as access to drinking water facilitated by certain partner restaurateurs, a system also offered by Deliveroo.
Reduction of delivery perimeters
Uber Eats specified that delivery drivers were notified by telephone notification in the event of an orange or red alert in their department and that awareness messages, particularly on the importance of staying hydrated, were delivered to them.
Deliveroo indicated that it had taken other measures such as reducing delivery perimeters, “in order to avoid too long distances”, making delivery people aware of the risks linked to high heat and mapping free water points.
On Wednesday, 67 French departments were placed on orange heatwave vigilance from midday by Météo France which forecasts “a severe and lasting heatwave episode”, which could extend “very probably until the end of the week or even beyond” and extend to the Grand Est and Franche-Comté regions.
This episode of intense heat is the third in less than two months after the remarkably early one at the end of May, followed by a heat wave during the second half of June. A sign of global warming, more than half of the 53 heat waves recorded since 1947 occurred after 2010.
