Stuart Courier Reveals The Stresses Of Working In The Gig Economy

• Published date: 27 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Employment and HR, Corporate and Company Law, Employee Rights/ Labour Relations
• Law Firm: Leigh Day
• Author: Mr Gabriel Morrison

Martin Buckley was a courier for Stuart in Gateshead for three years. Here, he explains the impact not having workers' rights had on him.

When I started couriering for Stuart I'd already been working for other delivery companies.

What made Stuart more appealing was that they offered a minimum hourly guarantee which meant I had more security.

If you were working an hourly slot then you were guaranteed to make at least '7.50 even if it was quiet, whereas with other companies you're just paid per job.

But over the years, things got progressively worse. When I started you could book to work a certain zone and you wouldn't be asked to work outside of that, but now they can send you miles away.

I could be in Gateshead and they'd send me across the river to Newcastle and while I was there, they'd send me to another zone so I could end up three zones outside of where I started.

There's also a time limit as to how long you can be outside the zone you're booked into, and if you miss that time limit, you'd lose your minimum guarantee.

You don't get paid for how far you travel to the pickup location, just for the distance between there and the drop off location, so when you're travelling around a city centre, you can end up losing money.

I had to have courier insurance which worked out about '7 a day and added to that was the...