Delivered Lives I live here in São Carlos. I'm not married, but I live with my son's mother. I have a two-month-old son, and I help them like this.
I live here in Cantagalo, Ipanema. I am married and I have three children. 10 year-old, 8 year-old, and 2 year-old.
I live in the Jacarezinho. I am not married, I live together. I live with my wife, but we are not married on paper.
We have a 7 year-old son. The people here downtown who work at iFood, with delivery apps are all from where I live. They are all from there Including my brother, he works with a car.
He works for 99 Taxi, an app too. I was like. .
. when I started working with an app, it was due to his encouragement. He said, “go man, the app is good”.
At first, it was good. Now it's bad. I myself came to apps like that.
I came looking for a job, then someone working showed up, then I asked. So I did what I did. I installed the app, I was called, and I started delivering.
A lot of people come downtown looking for a job, then they can't find it so they see people working like this, and they ask about it. I work together with my husband. We ride together during the day, he and I.
Or else we take turns. When I go home, he goes out, at night we both go. He became unemployed, and he was our source of income.
He had his salary and we could sustain ourselves. What I made with my cakes, my stuff, what I sold was just to help out. But he was unemployed, we lost our source of income.
We saw people riding on the streets, so we went out and asked. So he installed the app and started it first, then I started. There are days I don't make any deliveries.
Then I see some people coming from São Gonçalo and Niterói to work here downtown, and they encourage me. I say, "They are coming from far away, and I live really close" "I should just start riding, if people are there, I should be there too" It’s our coexisting, we are practically a family We meet each other downtown. They are my encouragement.
Nowadays there’s everything. There are women. There are men.
There's everything. Most of my unemployed neighbors are all coming to work with an app. To ride through an app.
Because unfortunately, the unemployment has become general. It’s bad. it’s ugly.
Nowadays, you see all profiles. there are people in college, there are people who graduated and work with this. It is because the unemployment rate is really high.
They have nowhere to go, so they come here to app delivery. There are a lot of people. There are people who live in Catete, in Lapa, in the South Side, and are working with this.
-At night, it seemed like there was only me there in Tijuca -Really? -Yeah really, I got 5 rides there. -5 rides?
It's been a long time since I got 5 rides. -It was easy. But today it's going to be good.
-I hope so. -For sure. -Thanks.
-Thank you so much. Thanks. For the bike we pay 20.
00 R$ per a month. We have to use it in one hour, because otherwise we pay an hourly fee. And I ride with Uber and Rappi.
I work for Uber and iFood. I've worked for 4 to 5 months. 4 to 5 months.
I work for iFood, Rappi, Uber. I pay 20 R$ per month for the bike. but there are a few unavoidable 5.
00 R$ fees. It's when you go overtime. Sometimes you go ovetime.
You have an hour to deliver, but sometimes you get stuck on a delivery, and it always goes over an hour, then you pay 5. 00 R$ more. In a bad week, you can get around 300 R$, about 200 R$ or so.
Now when it's good, you can get 500 R$, 600 R$ in a week Well, on a good day we get 50 R$. on a bad day it’s not even 20 R$. In the beginning, the delivery rate was good, but later on, I think it’s been going down.
It's getting worse every day. they took away our. .
. how do you say. .
. They took out a little bonus that they had for us there, they took it out. The worst thing is the rate, because it is very low.
That the rate is low, everyone already knows. Sometimes we ride and ride. Uber is absurd.
3. 50 R$. Sometimes we pedal, pedal, pedal, and that's what we get.
Rappi sometimes also generates a debt that we don't even know why. The bonus was an incentive that we had. If we made 5 deliveries from 11:30am to 1:30pm, then we earned an additional 45 R$.
It was a good bonus for us. If we made it, we've already guaranteed the day. They took that away.
We don't even want a bonus, we want to increase the delivery rate. because it's a very low value. The customer cancels the order, then we have to deliver back to the restaurant.
Back at the restaurant the food gets cold. It gets cold, and they throw it in the trash They prioritize those who have money, if the restaurant says “oh, he didn’t deliver the order here". The app goes there and cashes in our delivery.
Rappi is… Rappi is like. . .
Once with Rappi, a friend of mine kept the order, not because he wanted it. It was because the customer put the wrong address and he had to keep the order without a choice. he said, “man, I'm gonna have to keep it” Rappi charged him for the order.
and threw an even higher amount. He had to pay. He is working to pay.
it’s discounting from his deliveries. Sometimes, you go there to get it, and you smell that food. you feel your stomach, and it makes you even more hungry but we have to deliver.
Once in a while when the customer cancels the order From time to time the customer cancels it, and we can stay with the food with Uber if it’s iFood or Rappi we can't Rappi orders the food to be delivered in Botafogo iFood orders it to be delivered back to the restaurant Uber orders it to be discarded. We discard it, and we keep it for us. Now other than that, we bring some packed lunch, eat whatever you have on the street, a snack.
Man, I never had an accident. But a friend of mine had an accident at a VLT track He has a speed, a speed bike, those cyclist bikes. He got stuck in the VLT, When he got stuck, he flipped.
When he flipped, his shoulder moved out of place Then he stayed, had to wait for his shift to be over. to be able to go to the hospital Then he waited there, then I said, “Man, go to the hospital already" "Are you gonna wait for your shift to end? This is your life and your health".
I told him. He got a lot of advice. He was, “No, I’ll stay here, I will wait for the shift to close" "Then I go to the hospital" So then he waited the shift to end, and went to the hospital.
We always suffer accidents. Sometimes just a small fall. Sometimes when it’s raining those BRT tracks.
They are slippery, but nothing so serious like that. I don't really know. I've seen a lot in these WhatsApp groups.
My husband has already fell, but it was not serious. but he fell and kept his hand bandaged for a while. He didn’t fall, a car threw him on the ground.
I don't see myself as an entrepreneur. I see I don't have a boss, because we also don't have any support from anybody. I'm.
. desperate, but I am not a microentrepreneur. I don't have a boss, but I'm a desperate person because I don't have a job, what can I do?
Is it right? Is it cool? Sometimes we arrive in the morning on the street after leaving home We arrive here on the street in the morning Sometimes it’s noon, and we didn’t get any delivery yet Is what I want?
Of course not, but it's a person after some opportunity, right? That's it, but microentrepreneur, I think there are people who think like that but I see myself as a person without a boss. We ourselves are who is going to run after our losses.
Because to speak with the app service support is already difficult. Sometimes, when the payment doesn't come, you send a message to the service support. You have to wait two, three weeks to solve, even months.
Then I don't know why it's difficult. Today you saw it, you followed me all day. I only made one delivery, I had all day to make 7 R$.
That doesn't even buy my son's milk. So I’d prefer to work with a formal contract, to have my benefits, to have a health plan, I can put my child in the health plan. I can have a meal plan, there are more benefits There are year-end bonus, so because of these benefits I would prefer to work with a formal contract.
Because you have more benefits. You have the right salary, You have your fixed salary. If you are sick you have where to go.
Here, if you fall ill, you're done with. Here, if there is an accident, we don't have any support. But not with a formal contract.
If a registered worker gets sick, if there is an accident, you have INSS and these benefits. But not here. I would choose a formal contract.
Because sometimes I can get much more than a salary, but there are times when I can't even get close to a salary. We don't have the security, you know? Because one month we have it, another month we don’t.
That’s it. Us out here, we work a lot, we are stressed out here on the street There comes a time when we take our problems home. And it's like.
. . my wife already starts saying, “you went out to make only 7,00 R$?
” Go write some resumes, go to work. My son’s mother constantly questions me. She says, “Are you going to work for an app until when?
" "Come on, go after a formal job". I say no, be calm, it will get better. It was good.
This is just a phase. It will get better. I always tell her that.
But I see that I'm going to have to work with a formal contract anyway. Total hustling. To wake up early, do the shores, go out.
Go to the deliveries, wait for a delivery, pick up the deliveries. At home I take care of my children, and I give a little attention to them. Then I go out again.
When the day is weak, I stay at home with them. when it's not weak I go out and make dinner deliveries with my husband too. And that would be all.
Total hustling. I sleep at midnight, eleven o'clock or midnight. That's it.
Sofia, my ten-year-old when I arrive, or when her father does, first thing she does, she covers the couch. She says, "mom, dad, rest, because you are tired". I'm not going to lie, we have thought about going on strike.
But not everyone chooses to stop. We have already thought about booking to strike three times with everyone, bikers, cyclists, but nobody stops. if we stop, turn off all apps, I certainly think there will be an improvement, because they depend on us.
There was a time with iFood. . .
I don't know very well, because at the time it was very new. The guys stopped working, but the bikers started worrying about the cyclists. Being that we kept working, kept working.
Then we called our logistic operator, We asked if it was to join the strike with them. Then he said, if he went on strike, we would be blocked. And that’s what iFood did.
The people went on strike, and they blocked them all. So what they did? They put a truck in different locations, in different neighborhoods.
To activate new accounts. And they activated a lot of people. and whoever went on strike, those who did it, they blocked a lot of accounts, because they didn't work.
Look, I don't want this for life. In the future, that's what I tell him Men need a formal contract, especially in a place where we live. A man needs to have a formal contract.
and I, as a mother, also need to have my formal contract. And what I see myself doing in the future. It is working and having a job.
Having my income, our income. Lately, I’m not even trying to choose. I just want to be a registered worker, and away from the apps, far away.
I think I'll stay a long time without looking at a bicycle because I can't stand looking at a bicycle anymore. When I find a job, I don't wanna hear about Itaú anymore I'm even in a trauma of Itaú. Right here, I don't intend to be here anymore in a year.
Get a profession, working in a good refrigeration or electrician company. I see myself in that, because in September intend to take my refrigeration course. The course that is right there, but they are renovating.
. . how do you say.
. . their HQ is under renovation, will return now in September.
Then I will take this course there. They say that after finishing the course, you can already send your resume to the job market, and so I hope. Oh man.
. . I've not been looking myself in the mirror.
Now, I haven't been looking in the mirror to be able to imagine my future. Because I'm 19 years old, my son is two months old. And I only think about giving the best to my son.
I only think about working, working, working to be able to give things to him. but I don't stop, I swear, until now I haven't stopped in the mirror to be able to ask myself what I want to be in the future. So far I haven't stopped.
I haven't analyzed myself yet.
