Orders placed with food delivery services led to coarser piles of packaging waste. "This is a huge, huge problem," deliveroo chief will shu told the german press agency.
The british company is the third largest provider in germany. "It’s not just us – all the food delivery services, amazon and all the online retailers in the world create waste." deliveroo says it is working to reduce plastic in circulation.
Plastic cutlery is to be available in germany in the short term, as it is in great britain, only upon express request. In addition, environmentally friendly packaging is to be offered to partner restaurants around the world – at "competitive prices," as the saying goes. Compostable food boxes and soup cups, for example, are already offered by deliveroo in some countries. However, they are not yet readily available for all markets.
Deliveroo was founded five years ago. The intermediary platform collects orders for partner restaurants in major cities in twelve countries and organizes delivery via its bike couriers. In germany, 2000 restaurants are involved. "I think we can double that in the next six months," said shu. In addition, the company has opened its platform through the offer "marketplace+" for restaurants that work with their own suppliers.
Deliveroo announced its withdrawal from essen, dortmund, dresden, leipzig, mainz, stuttgart, bonn, dusseldorf, hannover and nurnberg in august. Instead, the company wanted to invest in berlin, munich, koln, hamburg and frankfurt, cities with stronger growth.
Recently, there had been speculation that the ride-hailing service provider uber and the retailer amazon were interested in deliveroo in order to strengthen their own delivery services. Shu now made it clear: "we are not selling the company. We have just started, and we want the company to grow."
In the competitive german market, deliveroo competes with other services such as foodora, lieferheld and lieferando. The union nahrung genuss gaststatten and the initiative "deliver at the limit" has long criticized the working conditions of bicycle couriers.
For deliveroo, company says 1100 freelance delivery people are on the road, paid per order. Demand is highest on sunday evenings. "People like the flexibility," shu says, justifying the decision to forego permanent positions. Many drivers are students, he says, usually working ten to twelve hours a week and averaging 16 euros an hour, according to the company’s calculations. Critics assume less and sometimes talk about earnings below the minimum wage.
On average, customers in germany order for 20 euros, said shu. "Germans order more sparingly and more traditionally: burger and salad with rooster. "More often than anyone else, the germans order beer to go with it – but not the subigkeiten."