'Sometimes it feels like we're slaves': On the road with the Evri delivery drivers who say the job is 'awful'
It's just past 11am and Craig has already been on the road for several hours. But so far, he claims he hasn't made a penny.
But tensions have become so heightened at one depot in south Manchester that drivers were involved in a stand-off with bosses this week. They say they 'grafted hard' over Christmas to help clear a huge backlog of parcels, but claim the 'tipping point' came when changes to their routes were implemented. Evri say they are in discussion with a 'small number' of couriers affected.
"So someone will be delivering that for the same cost as an ASOS parcel but it will take up the whole boot and you've just got to come back to the depot again to reload." "Luckily I have quite a good thing going where I deliver and people have my number so I can let them know updates but you'll always get someone who will make it difficult. Some people will refuse to leave the shed open or things like that. They want it in their hands but then they are never in."
"By the time you've sorted the parcels you've been there for two hours without getting paid, getting absolutely soaked if it's raining or standing in the boiling sunshine. Another driver, who has worked for Evri for several years, says it's the 'worst job he's ever had,' but claims he's found it impossible to find work elsewhere. The courier, whose name has been changed to Richard, told the M.E.N he 'works hard for not a lot of money.'
"The hoops we have to jump through for the sake of 50p is a lot. If I could get a job somewhere else I would love to but there is nothing else out there. "At the depot we are left completely to the elements. If it's raining we are just open to the elements and all the parcels get wet. Evri doesn't care about us, it's just like it or lump it.
They claim they won't be able to survive on this and there were chaotic scenes outside the unit in Wythenshawe last week, as a group of angry couriers refused to pick up parcels as they demanded answers over what was happening.
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