Strike at Smood: delivery workers describe difficult working conditions

"When you place your order on the platform, by phone or whatever, it will be immediately sent to the Smood back office office", explained to On en parle Farès Doudouhi, delivery man for Smood and union representative for the Vaud Riviera and Lausanne.

After verifying that the order has been paid for, the back office sends it to the restaurant that will prepare the dish. The delivery person then receives a notification about 10 to 15 minutes before the delivery time on his phone with the information concerning the restaurant, the dish and the customer. The order is assigned to the “nearest, most available and least busy delivery person […] to do it as quickly as possible”.

Tips fairly redistributed?

Do delivery men and women really receive tips paid electronically by customers? "No, not at all" replies Farès Doudouhi. "I often had clients who said to me 'I gave you a little tip' and I said 'oh good?'. I didn't know because we have no notification […], We do not know anything."

On his salary slip for last January, a month when he worked almost 9 to 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, his tips amounted to 14 francs, "whereas, normally, you cash in cash 50, 60, 70, 80 francs". Where did the rest of the money go? "With all the delivery people, we said to ourselves, there, they have us... they have served themselves well". Farès Doudouhi urges customers to tip hand-to-hand instead of doing so electronically.

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Slow restaurants penalized and delivery people rated

If a restaurant takes too long to prepare an order, this delay does not fall on the delivery men and women "because Smood has implemented a system of "penalties" for restaurants". A "more or less fair" system, according to Farès Doudouhi.

Smood deliverers are rated by the customer: "we have a ranking in their database, from 1 to 100. If you are a really good deliverer, you do it as quickly as possible, you get 100". A bad grade will have no direct impact, but for Farès Doudouhi, it could have a negative influence on the future of the employee in the company.

Equipment and vehicle at staff expense

Equipment, clothing and cubic bag "is ours but not ours". Smood takes a deposit of 200 francs from its deliverers for this equipment. For the guest of On en parle, the implementation of this system following numerous thefts of bags and jackets is an understandable step.

As for the vehicle, "I do with my private vehicle, petrol at my expense, repair at my expense". As one of the oldest deliverers in the Vevey-Montreux region, Farès Doudouhi has repeatedly asked for a small Smart in the colors of Smood. But he saw his request systematically refused. He denounces opaque award criteria.

Radio subject: Théo Chavaillaz, Bastien von Wyss and Philippe Girard

Web adaptation: Sylvie Ravussin