Inside the thriving black market for illicit Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat drivers

A delivery driver hands over your takeaway on a Friday night but you probably don’t give the exchange too much thought.

Food delivery apps pride themselves on offering safety and tracking features such as including the name and photo of a rider – but the truth is you don’t really know who you’re opening your front door to.

An i investigation has uncovered a growing black market for renting accounts on apps including Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, with more than 100,000 people subscribing to Facebook groups where people can rent, buy or sell profiles in the past three years.

Your food may have been dropped off by a ‘substitute’ rider, someone who has rented a profile on an app from another worker without having to register and will likely have avoided the strict vetting process official riders undergo.

It is a loophole that can be exploited by those who would fail a criminal background check or are in the country illegally, with activity on the Facebook groups, seen by i, indicating the majority of people wishing to rent out a profile on an app do not go through any level of vetting and do not meet the legal criteria to work in the UK.

Three women’s rights groups said they were concerned by the findings of i‘s investigation and warned that women were being put at risk of violence and sexual harassment by the practice of allowing substitute drivers to be effectively untraceable.

They also fear that if an official account holder is blocked from using an app because of a complaint, they can go onto rent another account anonymously through the Facebook black market.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), urged the “multibillion pound corporations” to take urgent action and invest in making their services safer for women.

“We also know women don’t usually report this kind of harassment for many reasons – including safety concerns when a perpetrator knows where you live, or the fear of not being believed or taken seriously,” she said.

There are also concerns that some substitute workers are being exploited by traffickers and gangs in breach of the Modern Slavery Act. One expert said that the UK’s “hostile immigration environment” is pushing people into precarious work and that more scrutiny should be on Government policy and the business model of food delivery companies.

Official delivery workers are also frustrated by the practice, arguing that undocumented migrants are willing to take the poorest paying jobs, which impacts efforts to campaign for better pay and working conditions from the food delivery giants. One union representative claimed the firms are exploiting both sets of workers for profit.

Zamir Dreni, a spokesperson for another union, the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) told i the “majority of workers are good people” but there is “this loophole that allows some bad people to come through.” “They are not vetted so they could do anything,” he added.

Food delivery giants not only know about the use of substitutes, but advertise it as a perk, saying it gives riders greater flexibility. Just Eat used to promote their scheme as “one of the many positives” of working with the company, but removed this line from its website following i’s investigation.

Currently none of the companies ask for a record of who a substitute rider is but i understands that Deliveroo is now committed to doing so in the future. Uber Eats and Just Eat did not say if they would also take similar action when asked.

There are 4.7 million gig economy workers in the UK, with figures for Deliveroo and Uber Eats in recent years suggesting the two companies have more 120,000 riders between them. Just Eat has under 2,000.

But firms are facing pressure to close this loophole entirely or to enforce stricter rules to ensure background checks are properly carried out. The Home Office said it already had agreements in place with delivery companies to strengthen recruitment and vetting processes and that it was working to crack down on “enablers of illegal migration”.

All three of the food delivery giants currently put the responsibility of background checks for substitutes on the rider who is officially registered to an account.

Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat all use specialist companies when they need to vet new riders. Once verified, they are permitted under employment law to give a substitute worker access to their account to carry out jobs on their behalf.

The companies do not extend the same resources to a person wishing to hire a substitute, however Deliveroo does offer some money towards the cost of a background check.

Analysis by i shows demand for renting delivery app profiles through Facebook is growing. One such group has gained almost 28,000 members in less than 18 months.

People using these Facebook channels to find work can pay an up-front deposit and a weekly rental fee, which is usually between £70 to £100 a week, to get a rider account. Buying a profile is less common, with some fetching up to £5,000. There are no caps on how much a rider can charge but the rules state they must pay the courier.

A substitute rider operating in the black market is vulnerable on a number of levels. For example, they are required to hand over large sums of money up-front and they are reliant on the account holder honouring their agreement and transferring their earnings whether they are renting or have bought the profile.

The delivery companies said they are working with the Government to improve issues around substitute riders. They added that they have a “zero tolerance approach” towards those who are in breach of their legal obligations when working or who harass or harm customers.

INSIDE THE GROUPS

A rider receives a job, usually transporting food from restaurants and shops to people’s homes, through an app on their phone.

i spoke with eleven people looking for a substitute delivery app account on Facebook. All of them said they were undocumented migrants – people working in the UK illegally.

One man explained that he came to the UK on a tourist visa. He said: “I am a person who does not have papers, and now I am disabled, without work, without [a] residence, without money.”

“I have spent a lot of time and a lot of money in the Home Office and they always ask for proof and proof, I deliver it and they reject me”

Substitute rider who rented an account without background checks

Others claimed they had worked legally before but had then been hit by administrative delays when they renewed their paperwork and had to find a way to keep earning money.

An Algerian man, who was looking for an account in north London, told i changes to immigration rules had confused him and his paperwork had expired. He said he is unable to pay for a solicitor to help so has turned to free sources of assistance while he tries to find work for the delivery apps through the black market. “I [have] been to the Citizens Advice bureau last week and they are going to help me and I’m waiting for a letter from HM Revenue.”

“My problem is I’m waiting for my share code [proof of right to work] from [the] immigration office because I had an old residence permit.”

He says when the UK left the EU, he didn’t realise this would mean he needed a new permit.

“I didn’t know. I sent a letter to the Home Office and they asked me for proof [of work] from 2010 to 2020. I don’t have the money to get a solicitor… I’m too old to chase all the companies I was working at [as] most of them have closed down.”

i identified 15 groups operating on Facebook that were trading profiles on delivery apps. The largest had almost 28,000 subscribers, while at least four others had more than 10,000 members. While not every person in these channels will be looking to trade an account, and some could be fake profiles, i excluded groups that had fewer than 200 people in them, were not active, not UK-focussed or did not have a large number of recent requests.

Most of these groups were created in 2023, but all were made in the last three years and had more than 100,000 members combined.

The practice is gaining in popularity. i analysed the date members joined the largest page and found a steady increase in the last few months.

It’s impossible to know how many riders use a rented account but anecdotally, official delivery workers complain that it is happening in large numbers.

One said: “A lot people here in Essex are renting. Most of them are here illegally with no visa in the UK. I don’t know how the police in the UK don’t check.”

Facebook removed all of the pages flagged by i. The platform’s rules do not permit listings that promote the sale of digital accounts.

WOMEN’S SAFETY

Official workers, substitutes and customers described incidents where riders had “flirted” or sexually harassed customers, which had led to complaints and the accounts they were using being shut down.

Becca* ordered groceries using her Deliveroo app when she caught the flu earlier this month. She opened the door in her pyjamas, not expecting to be out of her sick bed for long.

The rider checked her ID because she had bought paracetamol but she claimed he stared at it for an unusually long time, to the point that she began to feel uncomfortable.

As he eventually handed her the bags, she said he came towards her to the point she felt forced to lean back.

“Then he said to me ‘beautiful girl, lovely girl’, and was leaning in,” she recalled.

Becca said, as a woman in her twenties who lives alone in London, she froze and felt panicked. She said she managed to shut the door, but that he quickly knocked again claiming he’d dropped his keys in one of the bags. He attempted to come into her flat but was interrupted when a friend entered the room. He then left.

“I haven’t reported him as I’m afraid because he knows where I live,” she said. Becca hadn’t checked if he matched the rider’s photo on the app but said knowing he may not be registered with Deliveroo was “a terrifying thought”.

Becca said: “It’s concerning because they can essentially do what they want without any repercussions. I can’t really do anything to stop it or prevent it from happening.”

“He said to me ‘beautiful girl, lovely girl’, and was leaning in”

*Becca, who was sexually harassed by a Deliveroo rider

She’s not the only one to have had an inappropriate experience with her rider. A search on X, previously known as Twitter, shows more than 20 posts from people complaining to UberEats, Deliveroo or Just Eat. While i has been unable to independently verify each complaint, some people provided screenshots as evidence.

One woman messaged Deliveroo to complain about being sent a message calling her “sexy”, as well as a winky face emoji and a smiling, devil horns emoji.

Another complained about a rider sending her his number after trying to flirt with her on the app about her appearance.

Jamie Klingler, co founder of social justice group Reclaim These Streets, told i she had a male Uber Eats rider arrive at her front door when the app had shown a woman would be delivering her food. She reported it but got an automated response.

“We shouldn’t have to worry if our delivery driver might use our addresses to scope our homes for burglaries or worse use our addresses to harass and stalk us; but it is a real concern. And when your delivery driver isn’t the person whose picture you have been supplied, it breaks the little social pact of agreement that they will deliver the food never to use our address in the future.

“We all know that there is calculated risk in sharing any of our personal data, but those risks go up exponentially if you are a woman living alone, but are we not meant to use services that can help our efficiency or convenience out of fear?”

Kay Wesley, deputy leader of the Women’s Equality Party, said: “This is clear evidence that men are abusing the system and that as a consequence women are facing sexual harassment and are feeling unsafe in their own homes.

“There are also risks for drivers… A system that allows this scale of abuse is clearly failing, this simply isn’t good enough.”

It’s not just women who have expressed concerns. One man contacted UberEats after having a male rider turn up despite a woman’s photo being on the account.

He wrote: “@UberEats twice now your drivers don’t much [match] the photos. This makes me feel unsafe. Drivers are using women’s accounts. You clearly have a safety loophole.”

EXPLOITED AND TRAFFICKED

There are concerns some of the substitute riders are being trafficked into the UK with promises of legitimate employment, only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of debt and threats.

One rider was helped by anti-trafficking charity, Hope for Justice. Daniel*, speaking through the charity, said he had paid nearly £15,000 to traffickers who moved him from South America to the UK with the offer of a well-paying job in construction.

When he landed in the UK, this promised job failed to materialise and his traffickers demanded more money. They made him work for a leading food delivery service, with them pocketing his earnings. They threatened his family if he refused to do what they said and beat him.

“The more I paid these men, the debt would just increase,” he said. “We were really scared.”

“My wife was taking my son to school and she was stopped by one of them and they told her ‘tell your husband not to tell anyone anything, not to open his mouth or to share any information, or the worst will happen.’”

It’s difficult to know how common it is for trafficking victims to be made to work under a different person’s account on a food delivery app.

Adam Hewitt, from Hope for Justice, told i that while the big delivery apps have published measures to tackle modern slavery because they know it is a high-risk industry for this type of crime, more needs to be done.

Some of the current measures the delivery firms say they use to protect against modern slavery include identity checks on riders who sign up with them directly and monitoring accounts for suspicious behaviour. Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat all feature commitments to tackling modern slavery on their websites.

“The more I paid these men, the debt would just increase… We were really scared.”

*Daniel, a trafficking survivor who was made to work for a gig economy app delivering food

Mr Hewitt said: “We have seen cases of criminal gangs who exploit vulnerable people through forced labour using fake profiles on delivery apps, so they get the money from their victims’ work.

“Real-world evidence from trafficking victims we support shows us that the companies are not all doing enough.”

It’s something other riders have noticed too. One man, who has an official delivery account, claimed there is a channel of people coming to the UK to work on Deliveroo and Uber Eats from South America.

“They are promised by other riders from [South America] who are already here.. that once they get here they will be given a delivery platform account so they can start making money straight away but it will cost them £5,000.”

There are not just concerns for those who have been trafficked into these jobs. Some campaigners say the UK’s immigration rules have created a “hostile environment” for people who can’t prove they have a right to work in the country by blocking their access to public services and pushing them into poverty.

Dr Ella Cockbain, an associate professor at University College London who researches human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation, told i: “The UK government’s hostile environment policies make life incredibly difficult for people who don’t have the legal ‘right to work’ or recourse to public funds.

“How else do we expect them to survive other than working in the margins of the labour market? But there, they are likely at greater risk of labour exploitation.”

She added that “people working in the gig economy need better rights and protections, but rather than blaming irregular migrants desperately trying to earn money to survive through account sharing, we should be focusing on companies that make huge profits off exploitative business models and a government that does too little to protect precarious workers”.

HOW THIS IMPACTS OTHER DELIVERY WORKERS

Delivery workers who are directly signed up to the apps said it is not just substitute riders who secured accounts for rent on the Facebook black market who are being exploited.

Many argue the food delivery app companies have deliberately turned a blind eye to undocumented workers because it makes it hard for riders to, as a group, push for higher earnings.

Zamir Dreni, a spokesperson for another union, the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) has alleged that: “This is the loophole [Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat] have created to benefit themselves because these guys are illegal. They will take anything given. They won’t raise their voice, they won’t put in a complaint.”

The three companies said they take background checks and lawful working seriously and reject any claims of unduly benefiting from the substitute system.

Some riders i spoke with say those who rent accounts are “desperate” to earn so they do not want to take the financial hit of striking for better conditions and are also willing to pick up the worst paid jobs.

David* said: “They take all the cheap orders so the delivery platform can see they can offer less and less money. Even those as low as £2.80 for a three mile job.”

Another named Elliot* accused some of those working illegally of stealing food from pick-ups to save money and said he was frustrated at those who don’t pay tax and ride without insurance.

Gig economy workers have been striking for better pay, improved working conditions and to be seen as employees rather than self-employed contractors.

Substitution is a key aspect of self employment and is common among contractors but the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) said the substitute scheme was used by gig economy companies to strengthen their case that riders are self-employed rather than employees.

This is something Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo have strenuously denied and argued that riders want to work with this flexibility.

Deliveroo uses facial recognition technology to confirm the identity of account holder riders and will be rolling this out to include substitutes once they have created a register for rented accounts. Uber Eats asks riders to submit photos of themselves for verification at different times, but does not require photo verification of substitutes.

In November last year, Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat were told by government officials to implement stricter controls on substitute accounts.

In response to i’s findings, a Home Office spokesperson said: “We have led engagement with these companies to end the use of unverified substitution. An agreement is already in place for businesses to strengthen existing recruitment and vetting processes, and we will continue this work to stamp out enablers of illegal migration, and prevent unacceptable exploitation of workers.”

The three food delivery giants said they were aware of concerns around the issue of substitution.

A Deliveroo spokesperson said the company takes a “zero tolerance approach” towards any rider in breach of their legal obligations when working with the company. They said the firm will immediately cease working with any rider found to be without the right to work in the UK.

“We take our responsibilities extremely seriously. We have introduced facial recognition technology which will help to counter any abuse on the platform and we are strengthening this in the coming months. We will continue to work in close collaboration with the Home Office to support efforts in this area,” they said.

“The safety of our customers is our top priority and Deliveroo has a zero-tolerance policy in place to deal with any harassing, discriminatory, or offensive behaviour. If we become aware of reports of this nature they are immediately escalated, we will work with the authorities to fully investigate if necessary, and cancel that riders’ Deliveroo account to prevent them from working with us again.”

An Uber Eats spokesperson said: “We understand that there are concerns around this issue, and we are working closely with the government and want to find a solution. All couriers who use the Uber Eats app must pass a criminal background check, be over the age of 18 and hold a valid right to work in the UK. Any courier that fails to meet these criteria will lose access to the app.”

A Just Eat spokesperson said: “At Just Eat, we have high standards and a robust criteria in place for couriers delivering on our behalf. This includes ensuring couriers are over the age of 18, carrying out basic criminal checks (DBS), and making sure they have the right to work in the UK.

“Under the UK’s employment law, self-employed independent couriers have the legal, unfettered right to use a substitute. Legally, this means the courier account-holder is responsible for ensuring their substitute meets the necessary standards to deliver on our network.

“If we find that our high expectations are not met, we will immediately take action, including removing couriers from our network.

“We are working closely with policymakers and others in the industry to develop solutions which ensure couriers substituting their work do so safely in accordance with the law.”

*Some names have been changed