• The Just Eat platform has decided to pay its bicycle meal delivery men in several cities.

  • In Lille, the service was launched a month ago and already has 120 employees.

    A figure that will be increased to 400 by the end of 2021.

  • According to Just Eat, home delivery, boosted by the health crisis, should continue to grow.

Just employees. They are everywhere and more and more since the start of the coronavirus crisis. The bicycle delivery profession has experienced exceptional growth with the administrative closure of restaurants for more than six months. The platforms that share this juicy market have until then all operated on the same model, employing self-employed delivery men. In Lille and in three other French cities, Just Eat has decided to focus on salaried work.

It's been a little less than a month that we see delivery men dressed in orange crisscrossing the streets of the capital of Flanders.

A uniform that immediately identifies the brand, and contrasts radically with the mismatched outfits of their colleagues from other platforms.

According to the company, 120 delivery people have already been recruited on permanent contracts in Lille.

"They are either full-time or part-time on the basis of a remuneration of 10.30 euros gross per hour," says Mélelyne Rabot, CEO of Just Eat France.

That is to say an increased minimum wage of "a few cents" per race so as not to enter "a race to order", continues the manager.

By bike and only by bike

The company is not particularly philanthropic and finds its account there "with a certain volume of orders" and a commission of "25 to 30%" paid by the partner restaurateurs. For delivery people, Mélelyne Rabot points to a “virtuous effect”. “They have a guaranteed fixed income, social coverage, are not obsessed with time and benefit from training. "

Another theoretical advantage should be obvious to road users.

Many delivery people from other platforms have abandoned their bikes to get on a scooter without changing their behavior on the road.

Some now also travel by car, or even by motorbike.

Not that at Just Eat: "They are prohibited from riding with anything other than their bike - which is also normally the case with our competitors," says the general manager.

Checks are carried out in the field by 'captain' deliverers and breaches may be penalized ”.

An employee status which would therefore allow better control of behavior.

It would also prevent account holders from illegally employing third parties on their behalf.

A market that will last beyond the health crisis

So many advantages would they lead to a tidal wave of applications from delivery people from other platforms at Just Eat? Not really, actually. “There are, yes. But the wage system is not of interest to deliverers who rely on the number of orders to generate revenue, ”says Mélelyne Rabot. Except that some can combine the two systems part-time.

Will the home delivery bubble eventually crack?

“95% of our partner restaurants in Lille have assured that they will maintain home delivery after the crisis.

The trend has been on the rise for several years anyway, even if the Covid has greatly accelerated this rise, ”explains the manager.

Consequently, Just Eat intends to increase its fleet of salaried delivery personnel to 400 by the end of 2021. This service is due to be launched in Nantes and Strasbourg soon.

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  • Bike

  • Delivery man

  • Lille