What is the app ``UberCheats'' developed by Uber Eats delivery staff who are worried about being underpaid? Data shows that 17% of Uber deliveries, including those in Japan, were underpaid.



Delivery drivers for the food delivery service Uber Eats use the delivery driver app ``

Uber Driver '' to check delivery routes and calculate wages. However, an Uber Eats delivery worker who claims that ``Uber Driver app has many errors and wages are not paid correctly'' has developed an app ``UberCheats'' that calculates the actual distance traveled.

UberCheats
https://radicaldata.org/projects/ubercheats/

The delivery rider who took on his faceless boss
https://www.ft.com/content/5c72d938-5d17-4600-a2e4-1cc20d3f9de1



When UberCheats was developed in 2020, it was common for Uber to hide the exact delivery location from delivery drivers in order to protect personal information, and once the delivery was completed, the delivery driver would be informed of the number of miles traveled and the amount paid. was listed in the Uber Driver app. Therefore, even if the distance traveled was incorrect due to an error in the app, the delivery person had no way to confirm it.

Armin Samii, a former engineer, argued that ``Uber Driver apps have many algorithmic errors and are often underpaid,'' and developed the algorithmic audit tool ``UberCheats.'' UberCheats can calculate how far you actually traveled by extracting GPS coordinates from your receipt and comparing it to the distance traveled listed in the Uber Driver app. If there is a large discrepancy in the distance traveled between the two apps, UberCheats will alert the delivery person and provide information to claim the missing pay.



Sammy interviewed Uber Eats delivery drivers around the world, including Japan, Brazil, Australia, India, and Taiwan, and found that in total, about 6,000 deliveries were recorded on UberCheats, and 17% of them were underpaid. It turns out. Also, as a result of analyzing the data recorded on UberCheats, it was calculated that each delivery was an average of 1.35 miles (about 2.17 kilometers) shorter.

A delivery worker told Mr. Sammy, ``When I used UberCheats, which you developed, it became clear that about 8.31% of my deliveries were affected by underpayments.'' I have filed a class action lawsuit against Uber. 'If we can gather enough data to make a case, I would be happy to join the case.'

Mr. Samii was inspired to develop the UberCheats app after the Uber Driver app took 90 minutes to deliver to a location specified as ``6 minutes to destination.''

Mr. Sammy thought, ``Maybe this is an algorithm bug,'' and sent more than a dozen messages to Uber regarding the underpayment of wages. However, Uber sends automated suggestions such as ``Try logging out'' and ``Try restarting the app.'' However, I persisted and continued sending messages and was able to connect with someone who was available. Mr. Sammy reported, ``Finally, I was able to pull up Google Maps and connect with a person in a position to admit that ``this is a glitch.'' And they paid me $4.25 (about 633 yen).'' .



This led Sami to think, ``Is there a way to determine the location from the receipt I received, refer to Google Maps myself, and check whether the Uber Driver app is correct?'' He said.

However, in February 2021, Uber requested Google to stop distributing UberCheats on Google Play, claiming that it could cause confusion with actual Uber products. After that, Mr. Sammy sent an email to Google demonstrating the usefulness of UberCheats, and as a result, the suspension was avoided.

In addition, Mr. Samii said, ``Technical maintenance and management is a huge burden,'' and will stop distributing UberCheats in February 2022. According to Samii, every time Uber made a regular code change, it took hours of maintenance work. Sammy says, ``We didn't have the funds or the space to file a class action lawsuit based on UberCheats data.''

'The Uber Driver app provides real-time information to help you get the best price for delivery drivers in your area while minimizing wait times for your customers,' an Uber spokesperson said. 'The matching tool follows a process that balances a variety of factors, including time and distance, to provide the best possible experience for everyone using the app.' The company denied accusations that this led to low wages for delivery workers.

in Software,   Web Service, Posted by log1r_ut