Toronto delivery drivers demand fair pay and safer conditions from app companies

Hundreds of delivery drivers rode bikes, scooters and mopeds from Nathan Phillips Square down Yonge Street on Monday, pressing the companies they work for over pay and safety. If you have ordered from Uber Eats, DoorDash, SkipTheDishes or Fantuan in Toronto, the people bringing your food are the ones making the case, and one sign carried at the rally put base pay as low as $1.50 per delivery.

The group behind the protest, Delivery Drivers United, has been at this for eight months, organizing in parking lots, apartment buildings and restaurants across the Greater Toronto Area. Drivers for all four companies marched, carrying signs that read "Together for Fair Pay" and "Together for Health."

Founding member Sayeed Mirza, who drives for Uber Eats, DoorDash and Fantuan, said the companies "want to break us. To make us feel alone." In a letter to Uber Eats' Toronto headquarters, the group wrote that "those profits come at a great cost to us," describing wages it called unlivable and a lack of protection on the job.

Drivers are asking Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford to pressure the companies on wages, conditions, minimum wage and employment standards. The group's other demands include fair and transparent pay, better health and safety protections, an end to what it calls unfair account deactivations, and dignity and respect.

The companies and the officials named have not responded to the protest so far, and the pay claims have not been independently verified. HighOnCity covered the same rally on Nov. 2.