Uber Eats Appears to Have Killed the Walking and Biking Programs Again

In April of 2022 I wrote a few articles detailing how Uber Eats had essentially killed their walking and biking programs. They did this by massively lowering the radius of orders that would be given to each type. So, if before an Uber walker would get an order up to 1 mile, this was reduced to about 0.2 miles. Meaning unless a customer ordered food from across the street, walkers wouldn’t be getting any orders.

At the same time, Uber sent out an email encouraging everyone to rent an e-bike. Which was pretty ridiculous since they nuked the biking program at the same time by reducing its radius as well.

Over the last week or so I started getting comments on those old articles. People were saying that Uber was dead again. So, I decided to investigate a bit. I dusted off my old Uber Eats account. The first few days I had it set to walking. Then I set it to biking and just watched the orders roll in to see what was going on. I also happen to live near several busy restaurants so I could make some observations on the street. I even talked to a few Uber car drivers and asked them about their orders. They were telling me that things were great. One guy showed me his order. It was from a McDonald’s to an apartment building less than a block away. He was just going to walk it over.

These orders used to go to people who had their app set to walking. If they didn’t go to walkers, they went to bikers. But now it seems that everything is going to the cars.

What I think is happening is this: Uber has given maximum priority to cars. If 10-20 drivers turn down an order, it is then offered to bikers. Walkers get the absolute dogshit leftovers. The ones that have bounced around forever being declined by everyone. What this means, is that Uber would rather your food sit in the restaurant getting cold, AND they would rather increase the pay and bribe a driver to take it rather than give it to a walker or a biker.

When an Uber Eats order is declined by a driver, usually due to no upfront tip, Uber will add a cent or two to the offer, then offer it to someone else. If you’re delivering for Uber Eats and see an offer that’s like base pay + 30 cents, that means about 20-30 drivers declined that offer.

So, what sort of walking orders did I see? Basically nothing. One or two orders a day, with no upfront tip, and usually annoying ones. Like orders with lots of soup. Or shop and pay orders with 40 items. Orders that nobody wants to do because they take forever and pay less than minimum wage.

Biking orders were a bit better, but still mostly junk that drivers had obviously turned down.

Why is Uber doing this?

Good question. Last April, people speculated that Uber was annoyed with drivers in cars marking their apps as walkers or bikers. This way they would get shorter trips but could complete them faster with their cars. Given that phones have accelerometers, it should be child’s play to see which drivers are doing this and terminate their accounts.

But it seems Uber has taken the lazy scorched Earth approach again. Drivers won’t be setting their apps to bikes in this environment. And they definitely won’t be setting it to walker. This has been going on for more than a month and I’m assuming that most of the walkers will be looking for new jobs now. There’s no way for anybody to survive on $5-$10/day.

It's very lame that once again Uber did this without warning anyone. Why not send an email? A message through the app? “Hey, just a heads up, but starting in 2023 Uber bikers and walkers will be receiving drastically less orders so you might want to consider looking for a new job.”

Obviously, Uber doesn’t care about its walkers or its bikers. Uber doesn’t care about lowering its carbon footprint. And it doesn’t care that downtown areas are plagued with Uber drivers doing three-point turns on busy streets, running reds, stopping and parking in no-stop/no-park zones.

At this point it should be obvious that Uber is not a good company to work for

Uber should be seen as a temporary job you might take if you have literally no other options. Maybe they’ll bring back biking and walking some day, but Uber has shown on multiple occasions that they can’t be trusted. They don’t even have to deactivate you to fire you, they can just stop giving you orders. If this were a real job, then the way that Uber treats its delivery people would be illegal. But since drivers are “contractors” then Uber can get away with murder.

Hopefully one day the government will grow some balls and legislate these clowns into complying with employment laws. But until then you should avoid at all costs working for companies like Uber. They can’t be trusted and the money varies too wildly to be depended on.

So, to all remaining Uber Eats walkers and bikers, I strongly recommend you dust off that resume and look for a new job. Uber is shit and will always treat you like shit. Run for the hills and don’t look back. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.