WHERE IS YOUR DELIVERY
(PART 3 OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS)
Having ordered a takeout through the app, and once the order has been fulfilled by the restaurant, clients (on most apps) will be notified once the order is in transit. This passes the question of ‘where is my food/delivery’ from the restaurant to the courier and might (then) be even phrased as ‘where is the courier’? In asking this question (and not necessarily from the perspective of the ordering client), we could gain insights about ‘neighbourhood making’ because we attend to what the couriers experience in their attempts to fulfil deliveries and how they narrate it (which reveals not just their practices, but their reflection). If ‘neighbourhood making’ shown by this research’s participants is actioned-upon in order to modulate the conditions of their work environment, and such ‘making’ can, therefore, be seen as the constitution of their workplace, this presentation should deepen its review of what they are trying to modulate.
A little girl in the middle of the cycle lane
Photograph provided by Dror
In reference to working outdoors and in constant movement, Dror stated once: ‘I am coping with the elements’ (‘coping’ in Hebrew = מתמודד. Here it can contextually be understood as ‘combating’). Therefore, what couriers experience when fulfilling deliveries is (upon retrospect) relevant to ‘neighbourhood making’ because these experiences (a) testify on how they use the ‘neighbourhoods’ they have had conceptualised, and (b) might show whether their experience is being projected by their understanding and practice of digital means.
One of the substantive findings of this research is that (while on the job) smartphones are not considered by couriers just as means (instruments) that enable them to do what they want to do, but also as means that might disable them from doing what they want to do. More holistically viewed, smartphones (here) are viewed both as means and as conveyors (or catalysers) of conditions. Smartphones may convey conditions (as stipulations) from the food-delivery app itself (e.g. the 10 seconds window to confirm/decline a delivery opportunity) and may catalyse their own conditions (such as a limited battery supply, technical faults, etc.). Focusing on catalysed conditions suggests that in the fashion my participants’ work in, smartphones are held as condition-forming factors and, therefore, are part of the ‘neighbourhood’ my participants try to ‘make’ (negotiate). As explained earlier, what I view as ‘neighbourhood making’ practices in this fieldsite is derived from my participants’ attention to — and their understanding of — contextually defined factors (the contexts being ‘productivity’ and ‘independence’) that affect/set the conditions of their workplace and are associatively linked to geographic coordinates (secondarily) and to practices of navigation (primarily).
When I asked him about his gear, Adam described a saga involving the location services on his iPhone, or rather, iPhones in plural. Right after he began working as a courier, he acquired an iPhone 7 because he reckoned his previous device’s location services as inaccurate. This inaccuracy, he says, negatively influenced his workflow — the food-delivery app he works through received his location but alternately (and unpredictably) did not. This issue, Adam says, relapsed on his iPhone 7, which he bought hoping to be redeemed from that technical fault. A bit later, Adam bought an iPhone 11 — the device he currently carries — but location services were still malfunctioning. Since this fault has made his job extremely inconsistent, unpredictable, and has put Adam in a position of impotence, he tried solving it both with the assistance of the platform’s customer service and with that of his network provider.
Location services on Adam’s phone have been mended, eventually, but this point of friction has much to tell. Firstly, he reports that this technical fault had extremely negative effects on his motivation to work; secondly, and in more immediate terms, since the app did receive his geo-data but still alternately malfunctioned, Adam compared his productivity with other couriers and has seen that his circumstances certainly exhibit poor productivity. The cause of his lacking circumstances is such that he could not have mended in real-time because it crashes while he is on the job and by surprise (hence the term ‘impotence’). Since exterior factors, which he cannot really manage have stipulated (conditioned) his productivity, the extent of his independence has been thus minimised.
The significance the device you are using poses on your productivity and on the working of the platform’s app is also discussed to some length in a Facebook group of couriers. Even Dror mentioned it to me on his own initiative. He says, according to ‘rumours’, couriers that use devices that run Android’s operating system receive many more delivery opportunities than couriers who use iPhones (which run Apple’s operation system — iOS). I asked him if there is any truth to the rumour, and Dror — who is using a device that operates Android — admits he cannot decidedly say; because he never used iPhones on the job, he explains, he has nothing to compare his experience to. ‘What about your peers who use iPhones’, I asked. ‘This is very complicated to compare’, he answered.
Photograph provided by Dror
Screenshot provided by Dror
(left) A selfie Dror has taken in a client's lift; (right) Dror's home screen.
The couriers’ consideration of their smartphones as conveyors and catalysers of their workplace’s conditions is also evident in the ‘home screens’ of their smartphones. This, if you will, tells their attempt to negotiate the posed conditions; much like Adam’s attempt to overcome the location services fault by replacing his device, and much like Dror’s consideration of the worthwhileness of his device. All participants, it is worth noting at this stage, use a single device for both professional and personal purposes. Their smartphones, which are supposed to fulfil (here) both types of tasks, leave evidence of such personal and professional fusion in how my participants have arranged their applications on the home screen and especially on the dock — a position of prominence that remains fixed on all home screen pages. Being kind enough to share this information with me, my participants testify to the following arrangements [apps arranged on the dock are underlined, and the order of the rest is from top to bottom; the delivery platform my participants use shall remain anonymous] Adam: ‘the food-delivery app, its platform’s version for couriers’; ‘Google Maps’; ‘WhatsApp’; ‘Phone’; ‘Wind’; ‘Spotify’; ‘G-Mail’; ‘Moveit – Public Transport Live’; ‘Ravkav Online’; ‘Israeli Railways’; Google Drive’; ‘Google Photos’; ‘Podcasts’; ‘Settings’; ‘Notes’; ‘App store’; ‘Clock’; and ‘BeHance’. Dror: ‘Spotify’; ‘the food-delivery app, its platform’s version for couriers’; ‘Apache Cordova’; ‘Photos Gallery’; a Google search widget; ‘Google Maps’; ‘Boost Online’; ‘Shazam’; and ‘Genius’. Dror has also modified a small, fixed, ‘floating’ window with shortcuts to make it easier for him to control his smartphone with just one hand while on the move.
The fieldsite has provided another interesting finding that illustrates the central role couriers have given to the smartphone (and to digital technology, at large) in their work. This finding, however, shows less a catalysis of conditions, but a digital atmosphere centred around a cultural understanding of productivity with performance. This finding was uncovered when Dror has taken great pride in his speed. This is not necessarily the speed of cycling; he mostly meant the amount of time it takes him to complete a delivery task. To elucidate, Dror emphasised the advantage he has over other couriers who depend on GPS instructions and had not learned the city’s roads, paths, and shortcuts. He exemplified how two streets that parallel each other on the map can actually be slightly curved against one another and distance the courier from their destination. The GPS, Dror says, may not consider such elements nor may it always consider shortcuts and thereby send the courier to the road of the nearest turn, rather to the road with the correct curve.
Screenshot provided by Dror
Taking note of Dror’s pride in his speed — rather, efficiency — I asked him if it translated for him to anything else apart from productivity. Recognition, he said. Exploring this angle further, Dror made it clear with much certainty that — to his feeling — both the ordering clients and the platform’s customer service actively monitor him (the app shares the courier’s progress and live location on a map with the ordering client). He positively views any possible monitoring because he considers himself a good courier; further, he (in another conversation) said that he knows he makes people happy by getting them their food quickly. He aims to please, if so, and he does his best to master his workplace’s conditions and to make his knowledge of the city instrumental in his job. The monitoring feature and the recognition he believes it enables gratifies him because it means to him that others, too, see that he is doing more than well in his job. This reminds me, a bit, of some in-office show-off because Dror has made no mentioning nor any association between his speed with tips ordering clients may give for such speedy service. If so, the dominant significance he finds in being quick or monitored fuses competitivity and performativity in accordance with a local, cultural understanding of productivity.