Delivery drivers fired after cut-price GPS app sent them on ‘impossible’ routes

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/02/food-delivery-drivers-fired-after-cut-price-gps-app-sent-them-on-impossible-routes

by herendin • 4 years ago

12 4 4 years ago

theguardian.com

mPReDiToR• 4 years ago

This is my gripe with all the cross-border cabs UBER introduced to the UK.

Drivers traditionally had local knowledge of the area they worked in because they lived there.

Since the new breed has taken hold it seems that every journey is down to the way Waze thinks is best, even if that's the wrong way down a one way street, or the longest way round because the driver doesn't know that there's a path that saves a tenner.

GPS and mapping is far from ready for this kind of business, even if it's as good as it gets. Reliance on technology in such an organic activity as driving lowers the safety of the roads. Drivers need to look at the paint on the floor and the signs on the street, not just trust the tech.

I feel strongly about that s because I drive for a living and when I'm held up it's usually the "one leg dangling delivery riders" or it's the out of town cabs trying to three point turn and backtrack to get on course again.

politelemon• 4 years ago

That's quite sad to see the chain of decision making events in play here. A group of people at Stuart co. would have made a decision based on cost, without considering implications of said decision. It's unknown what kind of real world testing was carried out, but the decision to pick the cheaper GPS would have been a foregone conclusion at that point.

Drivers were given bad routes, terminated, but the decision makers are sufficiently abstracted away from the consequences of the decision. At most, it will go back to them as 'feedback' which they will shrug on to the cheap GPS provider in the form of an email, which will be phrased as 'we are working very closely with our provider to resolve these issues'.

trasz• 4 years ago

The real problem here is that the company was allowed to fire them like that. It isn’t some new problem; the fact that it’s using GPS is a technical detail.

kderbyma• 4 years ago

Dear Board of Directors and any executives....just stop. Stop being cheap, lazy, unprofessional, and taking the most tired solutions to task....you are greedy, Ill-advised, and lacking any foresight into the technicals except from yes men who surround you.....just stop it

you cannot built technology...stop ruining it with your greed!

Delivery drivers fired after cut-price GPS app sent them on ‘impossible’ routes

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