As snow and sleet blanketed New York City, food delivery drivers across the Bronx and Brooklyn continued working through dangerous conditions \u2014 just as a new law aimed at tipping transparency took effect.<\/p>\n
Drivers traveled by motorcycle, subway and car, navigating icy streets to bring meals to customers\u2019 doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday I worked for like two hours, but I stopped. I couldn\u2019t work. It was crazy,\u201d said Mohamed Lemen Elghaded, a delivery driver who said the storm made conditions unsafe.<\/p>\n
As of Monday, a new city law requires delivery apps, such as Uber Eats and DoorDash, to clearly prompt customers to tip before checkout – a change drivers say is long overdue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a good thing because sometimes you don\u2019t see the options when the customers are ordering,\u201d Elghaded said. \u201cYou don\u2019t see the tips, you don\u2019t see nothing, so I\u2019m glad they made that option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another driver in The Bronx, who asked not to be identified, said the visibility matters especially in lower-income neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not making people aware that they can tip, most people aren\u2019t going to, especially in the Bronx,\u201d the driver said. \u201cIt\u2019s not Westchester. So that\u2019s just how it is. This is a great thing New York City did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uber Eats and DoorDash previously sued the city in an attempt to block the law, arguing that displaying tip prompts upfront could discourage customers from placing orders. A judge rejected that argument last week, clearing the way for the law to take effect.<\/p>\n
Under the new rule, customers will now see tipping options clearly displayed before placing an order, instead of after delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work for tips,\u201d another driver said. \u201cYou go outside, you see the bad day, I have a family. You need to put the food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worker advocacy group Los Deliveristas Unidos said the timing of the law could not be more important.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s extreme snow conditions show exactly why the new tipping transparency law matters so much,\u201d the group said in a statement. \u201cEvery delivery is harder and more dangerous. Delivery workers are taking real risks and deserve to be compensated fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group also said delivery workers have lost more than $550 million in income due to tipping options being hidden on apps.<\/p>\n
As winter weather continues to impact the city, delivery drivers say they hope the new law leads to safer conditions and fairer pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As snow and sleet blanketed New York City, food delivery drivers across the Bronx and Brooklyn continued working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-113712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-the-bronx","13":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","14":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}