ifood adds nearly us$400,000 to deliverers’ tip jar, but something doesn’t add up
Contxto – User’s of the iFood app in Brazil contributed with a total of over R$2.2 million (US$400,000) in tips for deliverers during the month of April. iFood for its part contributed with twice the amount for their tip jar.
So today (7), the Brazilian startup announced it chipped in to amass nearly US$800,000 in tips for its red backpack-bearing couriers.
The logistics startup also announced in a press release it would be expanding its benefits program, “iFood Delivery of Advantages” to more partners.
It launched this program in October of last year to provide its motorcycled staff with insurance and discounts. Up until now, it only applied for deliverers in São Paulo and Campinas. But due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, it will now be available from May to June for their +170,000 partners throughout the country.
Sounds great, right? Sure… until you do the math.
iFood does what it can
If there are over 170,000 deliverers and there’s a pot with (nearly) US$800,000 that means on average, each partner got around US$5 in tips during April. But, considering that it’s more than 170,000 partners and not “exactly” US$800,000 means they actually received less.
Note that I’m not implying that users’ tips are all gathered and then distributed evenly. This is just an estimate that doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Moreover, the amounts will range depending on how many trips a deliverer makes.
And it gets worse.
In a press release, iFood stated:
“During April, the amount of tips given to our delivery partners grew by 115 percent compared to March. Solidarity has always been a very strong characteristic of Brazilians and the numbers only reinforce this.”
Seriously? Yeesh. It doesn’t matter how you sugar coat it. These numbers suggest that users were stingy tippers and couriers were worse off even before the pandemic took force.
Deliverers are out there risking their health so you can enjoy a nice meal. The least you can frigging do is loosen your wallet a bit.
Math ruins everything! Or at least offers a more realistic perspective.
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Still, kudos to the iFood peeps for sweetening the pot a bit. The current context is making money tight, so it’s within reason that they aren’t giving more away (though tippers ensured the bill they footed was pretty light…). Plus, they have their other programs for deliverers to consider.
The only other disquieting matter is regarding its benefits program. When the startup launched it last year, iFood stated it wanted to expand it throughout its entire network of partners by November of 2019. So clearly it didn’t play out that way.
But hey, who would’ve guessed 2020 would be the year of profitability and pandemics? So iFood’s plans changed.
Oh well. Darn you facts and logic!
Related articles: Tech and startups from Brazil!
-ML
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