Maybe we should focus on the fact that US tipping culture has incentivised places to pay a lower wage for the food service workers.

As a european hearing People say "make sure you tip" is so weird. no, make sure workers are paid a living Wage. The employer needs to pay his employees not the customer.

“Trigger warning for anyone under 30. You make a phone call” LOL FELT 🤣💀

“Millennials getting some sort of subsidy in life, after all this is a group who will never be able to afford a house, is drowning in student debt, and can’t even enjoy Harry Potter any more”…John Oliver always sums it up in the most important, and the truest statements possible.

I'm so sick of hearing someone referring to a person's 2-5th jobs as "side hustles". If you need multiple "side hustles" to live they are JOBS.

"Choose your hours" As a PhD student, that's such a huge trap. It's a morbid joke in grad school that "You have the freedom to work any 80 hours you want each week."

"I'm like Miss Piggy the way I'm hittin' that green" is absolutely fucking unhinged

I never tip in the app, I always hand them the money in person. Never gonna forget when I asked a guy if they even get the tip from the app and he just gave a tight smile and said "half the time no".

In the netherlands, deliveroo workers sued deliveroo for requiring them to become independent contractors, which takes them away from a lot of worker's rights we have here. The judge decided that deliveroo is not allowed to do this, and then they just quit doing business in the entire country lmao

Big Food Apps: "We are barely making a profit!" Also Big Food Apps: "Here is $184 million so that we don't have to give our employees health insurance."

The right thing with the "enshittification cycle" is to abandon ship immediately when the rates go up and the service goes down.

This is why I stopped using delivery apps 3 years ago and instead started calling the restaurants for pick-up orders. Not only do the restaurants I like makes a better margins and can stay in business, but also it takes me less time to drive to the restaurant, grab my food and come back home than it takes with the delivery app. So I encourage my restaurant, pay less, have hot food, eat earlier and all it cost me was a 15-20 minutes drive.

“Can’t spell Millennial without three massive L’s” Yeah. I felt that.

Ah yes, delivery apps, where a $17 dish somehow rounds to $46.53 at the checkout window every single time

“Spaced out like a 9th grader’s essay trying to meet the page limit…”. 😂😂😂😂😂

As a former Uber driver, I can say it is one of the most stressful and high intensity jobs imaginable. Not only does 70% of your income come from tips, so if people don’t you literally make almost nothing, In order to even have a CHANCE of making minimum wage you cannot stop even for a second during your work day, no lunch, no drinks, no phone calls nothing as you get no stipend for being clocked in whatsoever, you only get money for making deliveries themselves. You need to be 100% focused driving and delivery orders as fast as you can. Not to mention gas will literally eat over half of your money just by itself. You are so painfully aware that every wasted second is lost money it becomes depressing. Traffic jams, long elevators, people slow to answer doors, all cost you and you are, like I said, *painfully* aware of that fact. Every single one is infuriating as you are literally watching your money tick away with time. And we havent even gotten to the worst part. When you are offered a job you have TEN SECONDS to decide whether to accept it, and sometimes, you will literally end up with a job that costs more in gas to deliver than you actually make from the delivery itself and that’s assuming you get a GOOD TIP. If you get a bad tip you’ll literally lose money. Most people don’t order large amounts of food so the tips are tiny even if they are large % wise. You can literally get assigned a job where it will take 40 minutes to pick up and deliver the food and you’ll make 5$ TOTAL. 40 minutes for 5$ and remember it probably cost more than 5$ in gas. You have no idea how much you will make for a drive in advance as the only number the app gives you is the “potential earnings” which includes what Uber pays you PLUS what they think you *should* get in tips. But it’s literally always MUCH less than what Uber says you will because people don’t tip. If I drove for an hour and received no tips and only made what Uber gave me as a delivery fee I would make literally 10$ TOTAL before gas if I’m LUCKY. And remember, at least half of that is going to gas. It needs serious regulation as right it’s practically equivalent to a sweat shop.

I worked at a local pizza place right before the pandemic as a paid delivery driver. At one point someone walked in asking to pick up a DoorDash order, the owner explained they had not signed up for DoorDash and told them to leave. The owner then went on the app and saw that they were indeed listed but also that the app contained the trademarked logo and images of the menu that the owners held the copyright for. They steal whatever they can and keep getting away with it.

Instead of telling people who order food "You need to tip more", we should tell companies "You need to pay your workers more".

One problem not addressed in this video is the restaurant owners themselves. When they sign up for these delivery services, they get a huge boost in the amount of customers they have. Very few restaurants hire more cooks. It gets to the point where the people eating in the restaurant wait longer because they are being bumped back for the delivery orders. No such thing as free money.

John Oliver has quickly become an American national treasure. His shows are incredibly eye opening. Keep up the great work and looking forward to future episodes of "Last Week Tonight"

Despite the $40 cost for delivering a $12 meal before tip, somehow the apps manage to not turn a profit. Instead of paying lobbyists, perhaps they should keep that money.

I work at Circle K. Tons of Uber and Lyft drivers come in for gas. So many of them have zero idea that they should be saving their gas reciepts for when they file taxes, because many of them seem pretty unaware that they even need to file taxes, much less that they can deduct expenses related to their car. These apps should be required to educate their drivers on these things. I know its just one in a huge list of disgusting abuses by these companies, but it just really upsets me.

I’m glad that I actually work for a restaurant as a delivery driver. My customers know me, my boss knows me, everything works out. Been doing this job twelve years.

He truly deserves to win the Primetime Emmy's annually. He is a master at what he does; entertaining, educating and enlightening.

"We have replaced the tyranny of the boss with the tyranny of the algorithm" is an amazing summation of the issue from Prayag

One thing this segment left out was the phenomenon of “ghost kitchens”. These exist as a single storefront in the real world, but operate as potentially dozens of fake restaurants on a food delivery app, all of which have the same address and often the same food items too. The effect of this is a single ghost kitchen taking up huge amounts of space on these apps and artificially outcompeting locally owned restaurants.

I love the person who yelled "What?!" at the beggining

About a year ago, I was near a wrap reastaurant I liked in the past, so I stopped by. They were clearly closed, and for awhile, you could see that the fixtures had been stripped out, etc. Guy walks up and asks if I knew the place, if they had moved or something. Turns out he was a DoorDash driver. They hadn't moved, they just closed. I thought it was awesome that the company had literally failed to call in an order and not bothered to tell the driver.

Numbers being yelled at you with Human Squidward is my favorite show. I simply cannot get enough of it.

I was an Uber driver for 2 years in Los Angeles and did thousands of rides. I moved to a small town and got a job at a local pizza place doing deliveries and made way more money for less hours of work. I also drove about 20,000 miles less doing pizza delivery. These gig apps don't care about their workers.

Goodness, I've not watched LWT in a very long time and forgot how good the snark (and information) is. And the writers and directing of the segment, seriously amazing job y'all. Keep it up.

I’ve actually never used a delivery app bc I refuse to pay the fees but this really reaffirms it. During the pandemic we got a LOT of takeout if the hopes that our favorite restaurants would stay open but we always picked it up.

"Mafia margins" - best phrase ever to describe this highway robbery.

That Orphanage Side Hustle tangent had me ROLLING

I got into a car accident trying to rush a door dash delivery when the 3 drinks they ordered spilled all over me. I was trying to rush. I had to drive 3 towns over and didn’t even get a tip. Door Dash is a terrible app for drivers. They pay you nothing and it takes more gas money to get where you are going than what you are getting paid a lot of times. If enough of us protest it or stop doing orders for even a week then they would be forced to higher the pay.

at some point there could be a major collapse. many delivery apps in europe went under when regulations were tightened, like forcing the companies to classify their drivers as full employees.

Tipping is a ridiculous model for paying workers. No worker should depend on a different individual's decision making every moment they're working on what their compensation should or will just plain be.

Imagine if your job paid you $30/hr for three years and then suddenly paid you $8/hr. That's the gig economy right now.

It's incomprehensible to me that these apps can charge restaurants so much, pay drivers so little, and _still_ seemingly make no money. Sure, it takes _some_ amount of money to build and maintain an app and back-end services, but somehow back in the "pizza place pays a few kids to deliver each night" days, restaurants somehow did so profitably without it really costing the consumer much more.

I am a tax professional specializing in personal and small business (aka 1099) filings. Unless you keep detailed records, and even then, it is indentured servanthood payable to the IRS. As a “full-time” job, you will forever be in the hard working/paying class, and never get ahead.

Nice, just woke up for work. Time to get depressed by John Oliver.

I work for a food delivery app and it would be nice if the app itself paid us more. Tips are great but the person buying the food should not be the main bread winner of my job. But I am always incredibly thankful when I get big tips. And one thing left out is that there are a lot of really bad drivers out there that do steal food, eat the food or are creepy during the delivery. Those people really ruin things for the rest of us because then you do get clients that dont tip because of the prior delivery person doing something bad.

I have never used one of these apps and I highly doubt I ever will. Then again, I have only bought one thing from Amazon and that was around 15 years ago.

another thing to mention, is working for food delivery long term, your car will absolutely break down faster. and you now just have to pay for the repairs

Really feels like the answer is to not use these sites… I can’t believe these companies aren’t profiting at this point. We paid $30 in fees last night on a $60 order before tip… if they’re squeezing fees from consumers and half of the profits from restaurants how on earth are they not profitable. If this much isn’t enough they shouldn’t exist.

These companies work really hard to maintain the illusion that delivery workers are success stories following the "work hard to get ahead in life" model by spending a little extra time on the side to boost their income, as opposed to being desperate and exploited and probably making less than minimum wage after accounting for buying and maintaining their equipment.

Also, I love how audibly happy the translator/narrator guy sounds to finally be narrating the speech of someone who isn't a dictator of some sort.

It's tragic when you hear tales of Delivery and cab personnel penalized for accidents, not caused by them, being late over a minute,delivering an order snafued by the kitchen, or worse actually being assaulted by road rage, angry customers and or managers! Sans any breaks for mealtimes!

"... as spaced out as a 9th-grader's essay trying to meet the page limit." This might be my favorite simile ever!!

When I worked at a restaurant, we hated the food apps because the delivery guys got in trouble if an order was late, but we'd get in trouble if the order was wrong. So if we were in the weeds and running late on orders they'd just grab a random order off the shelf and knowingly deliver the wrong one.

i'm glad people are raising the concerns about the disconnect between product and worker's effort with food deliver apps. i just wish this kind of outrage existed for teachers who have been dealing with the same issue for a long time.

As someone who used to work for one of these companies for a few years, I'm looking forward to this.

In the late 90s I was a sushi delivery guy in the Carroll gardens in Brooklyn . I made approximately $500 a night on a good night and the restaurant paid me something like $100 a week . I did well because I spoke the language and knew the neighborhood as I had grown up there . The owner of the restaurant was responsible for my safety and I was responsible for getting their food to the customers intact and on time there were responsibilities that interlocked the food delivery Aps have bypassed the responsibilities section and just moved on to taking everyone’s money

I am always amazed at John Oliver's ability to sustain a high level of sustained incredulity throughout his broadcast. THAT is a gift.

I always thought the devil’s fiddle part was better too! 😂

Tried it once. Thank you to the driver who took a photo of my house and dropped off nothing. Thank you for forcing me to spend another hour demanding my money back instead of the credits. I dont need to spend $45 everytime i want to order food. Now i have zero desire to use delivery apps. Im lucky.

Can confirm: I managed a dive bar in Manhattan that was constantly being listed on food delivery apps as a "restaurant" with a fake menu of items we didn't have. It was a cash-mostly, bud-light-and-fireball type joint that maybe could bust out wings or fries some of the time, if items were in stock. I would get angry people calling or even walking in about orders I'd never heard of, on apps we didn't use, for items we didn't sell, and all I could offer them in apology was a beer or a shot. It was the kind of joint that didn't even answer the phone when it was busy or loud. Corner dive, blatantly not a restaurant, and yet...

We stopped using delivery apps. It’s so expensive. I thought food prices eating out skyrocketed. Except we started actually going to restaurants and it’s like $30 cheaper.

my 83 year old aunt used a delivery app to order Ben and Jerry's ice cream from 7-11 when she was baked. So, that's a plus!

1:33 This guy is a hero and a man of the people

How can they not be profitable yet be able to spend millions lobbying? I don't get it.

My parents were frustrated by Doordash arriving late and with the wrong order until I finally convinced them to drive the 5 minutes to pick it up. Then they stopped arguing when dinner came late, saved money, and got what they ordered.

Just stole a collegehumour bit with that thing about skype lol

Right on. Thanks for sharing.

As a DoorDash "Dasher" (their word not mine) on a bicycle. I have discovered those ordering food from the richest neighborhoods or the most expensive condos are the worst tippers. They often choose not to tip at all. While the people with the lowest means have always been the best at tipping, often tipping in the app and giving a few dollars in cash.

My husband spent a few months as a delivery driver for DoorDash and lemme tell you I’m SO GLAD he’s not doing it anymore. The drivers get really screwed on pay, often offered only 2-3$ per delivery and only more if the customer tips. Most deliveries weren’t even worth the gas it took to make them. I avoid using these apps now, it ends up being twice as expensive and knowing the driver and restaurant aren’t even getting most of that money just completely turns me off from using the service.

Holy shit, Big Money at 00:10 😂

Back in 2004 when i was delivering, there were already companies starting out as delivery companies that subcontracted out drivers to places like pizza joints and chineese food restaurants. This was figured out long ago but got supercharged lately

During the pandemic, I suggested we have some food delivered and my husband decided to go out and get it instead. He felt it a great reason to get out of the house and got the money where it needed to be. We concentrated on local eateries that we had always frequented and felt we were helping to preserve the local economy. This episode only verified we chose correctly.

"Get a real job" is what a lot of people told me during my time as a driver and as long as society has that mindset nothing will change.

Lmaoo I can’t get over someone saying “What?!” At the post mates ad

That orphanage joke hit too close to home. Lmao

2:06 "I'm like Miss Piggy the way I'm hittin' that green. Even now, I'm about as high as a giraffe's arsehole and as spaced out as a ninth grader's essay trying to meet the page limit." This is really high quality writing. Especially that last one. Respect. Now on with the program.

John forgot to cover that delivery drivers also have to pay for their own gas, oil changes and maintenance on their vehicle. That eats up a majority of tips. Plus! You have to pay taxes at the end of the year.

They take such a huge cut that many have to increase prices. They take a huge cut: 30%+ from restaurants sales (make restaurant pay a premium to have their names be relevant on their platform) + 10% from you as service fee + flat fees + a cut from the delivery drivers as well. Order by calling or use the restaurants websites.

Got a food delivery app add right before this video. Excellent

I owned a bagel store during the pandemic and a couple years after, sold it last year. About a month after I bought the store I ended our relationship with grubhub and Uber eats for the exact reasons John describes in this. People complained, but it wasn't worth. Thank you John Oliver for this.

"Numbers Being Yelled at You with Human Squidward" is totally what this show is called in another universe. 😂

Delivery riders are so under-appreciated. They risk life and limb, through the harshest conditions, to deliver the customers' orders to their doors. All this for barely enough pay to survive, many times not getting proper tips, and even getting bad ratings from unscrupulous customers. Hope we can appreciate more of what they do, and give them a bit more respect.

I just watched Sophia 's Choice for the first time about two weeks ago 😁😄🤣👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

hahah "starting an orphanage". The half a second before everyone burst into laughter was the longest WTF moment for me. So great.

I’m so glad that John said the Devil plays a better fiddle than Johnny because I’ve said this for YEARS!

I always recommend checking the app to see what you want and then call the place directly. never yet ordered from an app

Using one of these apps has just never even occurred to me. I have a freezer full of frozen dinners when I am not in the mood to cook.

I am a Doordash driver and they recently cut the pay in my area from a minimum of $5 a delivery to just $2. It went from being just enough to make a living to now I am questioning whether or not I can continue. It often costs me more for gas and time than I get from the delivery, leaving me to rely on tips. Which on many orders I do not get, I have driven orders over 20 miles from the restaurant (which I must commute miles to get to) for fewer than $8 (and then I have to drive back, totaling almost 50 miles and over an hour of time). And on DD, if you don't constantly accept orders you become less likely to get more orders so you have to take the low paying ones hoping to get more better offers. It is also true that ratings are a hugely stressful part of the job.

As a gig worker, thank you for covering this... so much needs to change.

I shattered my leg really severely last year, I needed surgery and both before and after the operation I had to spend 23 hrs a day horizontal and with my leg elevated. I live with my mother because rent here is atrocious but she still works and I can’t expect her to do my meal planning for me so delivery was really a life saver for me. My rule of thumb however is to figure out what you want first and then check to see if food places in the area have their own websites or call in to ask if they do delivery. It’s a bit more effort but in the long run it saves you money

On point about review with compassion because it really hurts business. Suddenly we became a culture where everyone is a food critic without an idea of food and hospitality.

"The tyranny of the algorithm" is spot on. I work as an Uber driver and am highly rated - a super-high rating over thousands of trips. But at the odd times a passenger gives me a bad review, Uber never checks on me to hear my side. Instead, I get a message threatening to block me from the ap. Drivers are not seen nor supported by Uber.

I drove for door dash for awhile. Most reviews and people were great, however here are some negative reviews that I got: 2* My cold stone ice cream was melted when I ordered from 25 minutes away from my home 1* The store didn't have the drink that I wanted 1* Food not delivered (the store they ordered from was closed and I had to call and cancel their order) 1* I called to inform the person the machine was down and asked what they wanted instead, I gave that to them and then they gave me a bad rating because it wasn't what they originally wanted When you factor in wear and tear on a vehicle, the inconsistencies in tipping, waiting around a restaurant because the order isn't ready, app mistakes causing a picked up order to be requested over and over it made it no longer worth it. When factoring in those items, I was making less than $8/hr

when the restaurant still got their own delivery service i go with it. before door dash and other stuff like that, we used the taxi

I feel like a backpack joke was sorely missed. When you’ve got door dash at 7pm & death stranding at 8pm

I lost about 68 seconds after he said " I am like miss Piggy the way I be hitting that green". Lol 😂😂😂

I'm a millennial and since 2012, when I first found out that delivery apps were exploitative, I have never used them again. Instead I face my worst fears every weekend and call a restaurant to order. And I'm proud of that! 😊

I am dying at the saving up to "start an orphanage"

love that john oliver implied ms piggy tops kermit

One of the most important segments ever in this show 👏🏽 PLEASE do a follow up on 1) how all corporations are using this model to elude labor law 2) how corporations are using tipping culture as wages

After realizing how obnoxious the fees were for the apps, I’ve made it a point to do takeout orders through the restaurants own website, or over the phone. My regular pizza order from my local place was about $7 cheaper this way, plus they offered loyalty rewards and coupons that way.

I love numbers being yelled at you by human squidward, it's my favourite!

I worked for a corporate office for a franchise. I can confirm they would add the restaurant without knowledge of the restaurants and advertise menus that were not updated or accurate. It was such a shady process that made the restaurant look implicit for their discrepancies.