 A member of the Youth Community Union holds a sign, which reads “The 30-minute pizza delivery system kills delivery men,” in front of the headquarters of Domino’s Pizza in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Civic groups have demanded pizza chains remove their 30-minute delivery offer. / Yonhap |
Calls growing for removal of 30-minute rule
By Park Si-soo
Speed is everything for pizza delivery men. To deliver pizzas as fast as possible, they ride their motorbikes recklessly, often risking their lives.
These young fast-food delivery men, dubbed “the lawless of the road,” run red lights, speed on pavements and ignore many other traffic rules, causing countless delivery-related car accidents.
Yet delivery bike riders are not solely to blame for such “stunt driving.” Rather, they are victims of the policy of fast-food franchises that force their workers to deliver as quickly as possible.
Leading pizza chains promise their customers that they will get pizzas “hot and fresh” in less than 30 minutes after they make an order.
This 30 minutes delivery rule has put the lives of these young delivery men — mostly part-time workers — on the line. If they fail to meet the deadline, they are allegedly penalized.
Civic groups are calling for pizza chains to scrap the offer.
A group of labor activists staged a rally in front of Domino’s Pizza headquarters in Seoul, Tuesday, calling for the removal of its 30-minute delivery time.
They submitted a petition signed by 800 consumers, calling for the removal of the policy to Domino’s management.
Kim Young-kyumg, president of Youth Community Union, who participated in the rally said many other pizza and other food brands have adopted similar policies. “This is an act risking their employees’ lives,” Kim told The Korea Times.
Park Chang-seok, one of the petitioners, said, “We are willing to wait for more than 30 minutes, if it can save a life.”
The 30-minute delivery system caught public attention after a 24-year-old Pizza Hut employee collided head-on with a taxi in Doksan-dong, southwestern Seoul, on his way to deliver a pizza using a motorbike on Dec. 12.
According to police and witnesses, the delivery man, surnamed Choi, ran a red light before colliding with the taxi. He was immediately taken to a hospital, but declared dead from severe brain damage. Choi was a college student and did the job part-time to make money for tuition.
Distraught family and colleagues of the victim claimed the 30 minutes rule was largely attributable to the tragic accident. Domino’s has run the policy since 1973 with the slogan “You Got 30 Minutes,” which guarantees customers receive their pizza within 30 minutes of placing an order, or they would receive the pizzas at discounted prices or for free.
Domino’s reportedly cuts the salary of delivery driver by the same amount as the discounted price due to late delivery.
Pizza Hut doesn’t run the time-limit policy officially. But its union says under the company’s delivery system, called CHAMPS, delivery drivers could be penalized if they fail to deliver within 30 minutes of a customer placing an order.
The management of Pizza Hut denies running the policy. “We have never set a time-limit for delivery,” a Pizza Hut spokesman said.
Kim Young-won, head of unionized employees at Pizza Hut, refutes that its personnel evaluation system gives negative assessment to late delivery drivers.
In 2006, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work released a report urging employers not to press their delivery drivers to speed to make it on time.
In 2009 alone, 1,380 accidents involving bike-riding delivery men took place in South Korea, up from 1,192 in 2008 and 990 in 2007, according to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.
More than 80 percent of the victims in 2009 occurred when they were delivering pizza, fried chicken and Chinese food — the three most popular food items for home delivery in Korea, it said.
‘목숨 걸고’ 달리는 피자배달부
피자배달부에게 속도는 생명이다. 가능한 빨리 배달하기 위해 교통신호를 위반하거나, 보도 위로 주행하는 것 같은 “무모한 질주”도 감행한다.
그들로 인해 많은 교통사고가 발생하는 것도 사실이다.
하지만 그 책임이 전적으로 배달부에게만 있는 것은 아니다. 빠른 배달을 독촉하는 피자회사도 책임이 있다는 것이 전문가들의 주장이다.
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