An Uber Eats worker claims unvetted drivers, particularly newly arrived migrants, pose a major security risk to New Yorkers by borrowing or renting genuine accounts which give them access to customers’ homes.
John Gray, who’s been delivering for Uber Eats in New York for five years, said The Post’s reporting that delivery workers on the platform haven’t provided proof of identity or gotten criminal background checks — and don’t even operate under their real names — has the potential for disaster.
“Illegal working using borrowed delivery apps is a significant security issue, as we go inside peoples’ homes,” Gray said.
“In walkup buildings, it’s basically: buzz the intercom from outside, buzz the door, and you walk in. It’s the walkup buildings that I feel have the greatest security gaps.”
A delivery person will do three to five deliveries per hour, which “for a 12-hour shift, that means entering up to 60 private residences per day,” he said adding deliveries run late into the night, often past 3am.
Gray’s concerns come after The Post revealed a black market that’s emerged for Uber delivery brokers who predominantly target new migrants, who arrive broke and without work authorization, for a cut of their earnings.
Three migrants interviewed in the last week said they had accounts set up with Uber using other people’s details, and two admitted they pay someone else for the privilege of using their profile. The same is true of other food delivery services such as Doordash and GrubHub.
Uber requires new hires to provide several types of identification as part of the onboarding process, and undergo a criminal background check which is repeated annually.
“All couriers who use the Uber Eats app are required to pass a criminal background check, be over the age of 18 and hold a valid right to work.
“Any courier that fails to meet these criteria — including through periodic identification checks that require couriers to take a selfie to help verify their identity — will no longer be able to work with Uber Eats,” said company spokesperson Josh Gold.
However, Gray — who has made over 4,000 deliveries for Uber since 2018 and has a 92% satisfaction rating on his profile — claims they could easily “shut down this illegal work tomorrow” with more frequent checks.
“[Uber Eats] runs random security checks using facial recognition… about once a week. It just takes 10 seconds.
“The app freezes your account, asks you to take a selfie, and submit. It uses facial recognition to verify against the picture you used to register in real time. After facial recognition it unlocks the account.
“If Uber Eats firms up the security checks to every hour or so, it will end the illicit practice [because] unregistered workers would have to stop working and hunt down the registered user, making working impractical.
“All it takes is a simple change in their app settings,” he added.
Food delivery apps are a significant and growing business in New York, generating $217.6 billion in revenue last year, compared to $91.4 billion in 2019, according to business data platform Statista.
Uber said they are currently working on making their security tighter.
“We make it very clear that account sharing is never allowed, and it’s inaccurate to say that the company makes no efforts on these issues. We take these issues seriously and as a result of recent reports have begun renewed audits of accounts for fraudulent behavior,” said company spokesperson Josh Gold.
The companies do not break out their earnings by state, although New York City is the largest market for DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub.
In July, the city passed legislation raising the minimum wage for app-based delivery workers to $17.96 an hour, not including tips. The companies have sued the city and it has yet to go into effect.
The new arrivals, meanwhile, take jobs the veteran workers are pushing back on – those that pay a base wage of as little as $2.60 for a trip that can take more than 20 minutes, sources told The Post.
Gray, who uses a bicycle for deliveries, said he’s seen jobs drop off and wages go down on the app over the last six months, impacting how much he earns from it.
However, he added deliveries are just a side hustle for him as he has an office job in the week.
