Bit (Or very little) today has to do with today’s delivery sector, before the government approved the Legislative change that forced that Thousands of dealers stop being autonomous to swell the template of the platforms with which they operate. The known as ‘Rider Law’ He has marked the last years of the sector and has left a deep mark on both the service and in the hospitality. So deep, in fact, that in the middle of 2025 there are still voices that They question their effectiveness And they warn that it is harming Riders, websites, restaurants and customers.
A “lose-lose ‘by quadruple”, They regret.
What happened? That despite the over four years that have elapsed since its approval in Spain, The impact that he has had the measure at the community level and that his guidelines have been pending little by little Among companies, the ‘Rider Law’ still does not get rid of the controversy.
A quick search arrives on Google to find news more or less recent than They question their effectsbut perhaps who has summarized its impact on the sector is Alejandro Hermo, CEO of the Hamburgueserías chain Goiko. Recently the manager, a voice with A certain weight In the guild, He exhibited on LinkedIn The blow that (in his opinion) is advising him the legislative change: “Delivery has been very complicated for a few months, impacting customers and restaurants.”
What exactly has he said? More or less, that any past time was better. “We have gone from having a delivery system that worked as a clock, giving good service to customers and restaurants, to have a rigid, expensive and inefficient system that makes it almost impossible to cover with enough riders the peak hours, causing the restaurants to appear without service available or/and that the orders are late (if they arrive),” he laments in Your post The Goiko CEO.
Is there more? Yes. Hermo assume that adapting to “such a drastic model” will require a certain “time”, but is also convinced that the service will never recover its “previous level.” “What is happening after the forced change of a model of autonomous Riders to 100% hired Riders is a ‘Lose-Lose’ by quadruple,” insists the manager before exposing why, in his opinion, the law harms both the distributors and the platforms, the restaurants and the clients themselves.
Hermo warns that, when reconverting in wage earners, the first (the Riders) have seen how they diminished their income and the freedom to self -manage. Moreover, the manager is convinced that the change has “hindered” that they can access the most occasional the most occasional riders, those who only accepted orders to complete their economy, such as students. As for platforms such as Glovo or Justeat, Hermo warns that the increase in operational costs has subtracted flexibility to cover the ‘peak hours’.
How does restaurants affect? In 2023, during An interview With the EFE agency, the businessman already warned that although the ‘Rider Law’ focuses mainly on platforms and hoteliers are only “a secondary actor”, in the long run they would end up being affected. Now confirm it.
“Restaurants lose business and profitability,” summarizes its publication of LinkedIn, in which it slides that the legislative change has resulted for them in a less flexible and more expensive delivery service. “Thinking about our sector, we cannot afford at this time another torpedo in the flotation line of the restoration,” he remarks.
The consequences for customers are from their obvious point of view: a less efficient delivery. “The service worsens because there are fewer restaurants available, it takes longer and reaches a worse condition. And it will eventually be more expensive per order to pay the model change party.”
What does it propose? That platforms, distributors and administration “feel and be heard” to find a consensual exit. “The solution is not white or black, there must be intermediate points that approach the demands of both parties and serve as inspiration for other countries.” For Hermo the Delivery is only One more example of the new business model that do not have to be guided by the inherited guidelines of the twentieth century. “With their pros and cons, but they are less flexible than today is demanded.”
Is it the only one to complain? No. And that’s why his reflection is even more interesting. Beyond the debate that accompanied the approval and entry into force of the ‘Rider Law’, in 2021, the discussion around the pros and cons of the measure have been maintained over the last four years. In August The newspaper asked To the spokeswoman for the RidersxDerechos Trade Union Platform, Núria Soto, if the collective is better today at work level than a five years. His answer was clear: “Yes, although it depends on who you ask.”
“Riders have more rights, but also less income. And those without work permission who distributed renting accounts have been excluded from regularizations and have lost their source of income,” Soto warned. There are deeders that are even more blunt And they regret that the ‘Rider Law’ has sunk them even more in the “precariousness” that promised to free them. They have even been published academic studies that confirm how legislative change has had some unwanted effects, such as worsening of salaries or destruction of employment.
Why that complaint now? The law is 2021, but it makes sense that the sector continues to pronounce today. After all, a good part of the Riders They were still not hired until not so long. This year however Glovo gave A key step by deciding that all their distributors become salaried. The decision was made after a few complex years, marked by large fines and The scrutiny of the authorities, and not without suspicion. “We will hire 20,000 workers, but they will gain less than as self -employed,” He warned in February Your CEO.
According to The newspaperin August almost 70% of the packages that were distributed in Spain they did it through a delivery man with an employment contract. Today the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, remembered Uber Eats that the Government is willing to take it to the courts by criminal proceedings if it does not comply with the law on distributors. “We have already done it with another company,” he slipped.
Images | Glovo
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