Food delivery apps are booming worldwide. In Brazil’s cities, the sight of zooming motorbikes and bicycles with delivery boxes bearing the logos of major apps has become a common part of the urban landscape.
Indeed, as a consequence of the ubiquity of these drivers, small-time criminals have even taken to using fake delivery boxes to allow them to blend into the crowd and commit crimes such as theft, armed robbery, or even murder. While much attention has been paid to this criminal phenomenon, the violent dangers faced by genuine delivery workers have gone largely overlooked.
The city of Rio de Janeiro, for instance, has become a hotspot for violence against gig workers — particularly couriers for iFood, Brazil’s biggest food delivery app with an estimated 80 percent share of the food delivery market.
One recent case drew nationwide attention to the problem. An off-duty police officer in Rio de Janeiro got into an argument with a delivery driver after the customer demanded the courier bring his order upstairs to his front door — as opposed to the entrance of his apartment building, which is standard practice. Irate, the customer pursued the delivery driver and shot him in his left femoral artery.
The off-duty officer initially claimed self-defense — stating that Nilton Barromeu, the delivery driver, had tried to take the shooter’s weapon. Eyewitnesses, however, told the press that Mr. Barromeu had his back turned at the time of the shooting. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition due to heavy blood loss, but is now stable and recovering.
“I’d never heard of a colleague getting shot at,” Luan Souza, a 30-year-old friend of Mr. Barromeu and also a delivery app worker, tells The Brazilian Report. “Of course, I’ve seen many altercations and discussions due to this everlasting tension about whether delivery drivers have to go upstairs or the customer downstairs, but nothing like this.”
After the shooting, dozens of delivery drivers from around the city held a protest outside the police officer’s apartment building, vandalizing the gates and setting off fireworks in the direction of the assailant’s window. The police were...
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