Deliverers at the defunct grocery delivery service MilkRun have opened up about the company’s desperate efforts to stay afloat in the run-up to its closure.
MilkRun CEO and founder Dany Milham wrote to the company’s approximately 400 employees last Tuesday to inform them that the company would close on Friday, becoming the latest in a long line of home delivery companies to go under. go.
For many of its employees, the decision to close the business came as no shock, after they claimed to have witnessed desperate efforts to keep the business afloat as it tried to maintain its high standards – but ultimately resulted in cost cutting, food wastage and outages. delivery times.
Two MilkRun delivery drivers, both of whom wished to remain anonymous, revealed to Daily Mail Australia what it was like to work for the company that promised to deliver groceries to their doorstep within 10 minutes.
“The message from management was ‘we’re fine,’ but on Tuesday we get the email saying, ‘Friday we close, find another job,'” delivery driver Jake (not his real name) said.
MilkRun riders have revealed the company was desperately trying to draw a fine line between cost-cutting measures and customer satisfaction leading up to Friday’s shutdown
In the email to staff, Mr Milham blamed worsening economic and capital conditions following a corporate restructuring in February.
“When I first got the email I honestly kind of laughed at it because I thought ‘oh this came sooner than I expected’ but I wasn’t shocked at all,” Dee (not his real life) told me. name) to Daily Mail Australia.
The restructuring led to the layoff of approximately 20 percent of MilkRun’s staff and the dissolution of the “senior rider” job title that played an important mediating role between management and riders.
“They were angry, angry even — some of them only trusted MilkRun as their only merit,” Jake said of the riders’ reaction to the restructuring.
“They were told to either step out of their roles or leave all together.”
Jake and Dee both worked for separate MilkRun ‘hubs’ in inner Sydney, enticed by the company’s policy of making them employees rather than contractors.
Unlike many delivery companies, MilkRun hired staff on full-time, part-time or temporary contracts to provide safe work.
“In other places you’re your own boss, at MilkRun you’re not a boss, you’re an employee of someone,” Jake said.
Delivery drivers are becoming ‘skeptical’ of the company after a restructuring in February that saw respected senior riders among the 20 per cent of staff laid off
The restructuring also closed numerous “hubs” where orders were packed, increasing the distance riders had to travel to deliver orders and increasing delivery times.
Dee had become quite skeptical and less prone to “blindly following and believing” MilkRun’s business model after its restructuring in February.
“They said they had a runway for about a year, but closed that early,” he said.
“Everyone I worked with was under pressure to make sure the customer got the order on time,” Jake said of the company’s post-February changes.
“We were just trying to make the best of it for the customer, but how were you able to do that? It’s impossible.
“Customers expected the order to be there within 10 minutes, but there was no notification to customers that it could take up to 30 minutes.
“You could also pick up a lot of orders, but you only picked up one.”
One of the selling points of the MilkRun model was the ability to get groceries to customers in under 10 minutes, but after the restructuring in February, this took up to half an hour or more.
While Jake and others he worked with felt the pressure to act in more pressing circumstances, Dee and the team around him felt the exact opposite.
“We prefer doing the longer rides… it means you were on and off your bike less often, it was quieter I think,” Dee said.
“However, I understand that there are some people who don’t want to drive for long periods of time.”
Two delivery drivers, Jake and Dee (not their names), both saw pallets of food discarded or taken by staff before its expiration date for “aesthetic” reasons (Photo: Unusable bread at a Sydney City hub)
Both Dee and Jake witnessed the company trying to draw a fine line between cost-cutting measures and customer satisfaction.
“The fact that people aren’t allowed to pick their own stuff makes them kind of picky about it, which can be annoying,” Dee said.
“They definitely went to great lengths to give people the best (production) they could, we had to get rid of stock that they thought was unusable or would be out of date in three days.
“Some of the big ones were bananas and avocados – if the banana had even a small brown spot on the outside of the skin, the decision was ‘this isn’t good enough for customers.’
“I suppose it was an aesthetic decision, but I think it was kind of valid because I think we’ve had a few complaints in the past about products that weren’t perfect.
“The food would be given to staff to take home or thrown away.
“I didn’t have to buy meat for a month because we had so much food in the freezer,” Jake said.
“We promised the customers that the food was fresh, and it was, but if the food looked damaged, it wouldn’t go in.”
In addition, if the customer was not satisfied with the quality of the food, an identical order had to be sent to them without the possibility of returning the original delivery.
“We’d have to redeliver orders and if it wasn’t to the customer’s satisfaction they’d have to keep both products because we couldn’t take a product back because it’s impossible to know if it’s been tampered with,” Dee said.
“We never really knew if customers were trying to get free food just by complaining, but management should listen to the customer anyway.”
With experienced riders axed and hubs closed, delivery times for customers ballooned from the original promise of 10 minutes to over half an hour
To help shorten delivery times, MilkRun recently introduced delivery drivers who can complete orders on mopeds or in cars, expanding the company’s e-bike workforce.
According to Jake, the company had even hired new staff over the past few months and even last week who could drive both vehicles.
“I was doing my last delivery when I saw one of the drivers and she started with them a few months ago and that was her only job, and now she’s rushing to another job,” he said.
“She drove a van for them.”
The company had also changed the way riders were allocated deliveries during the restructuring.
“Before February, all orders to riders were given by older riders, but they were made redundant,” said Dee.
“After that, we would assign orders to ourselves, but last month we got assigned orders from someone at MilkRun HQ headquarters.”
Many riders could end up taking up to five separate orders on one outing, with delivery times for customers at the end of a series of deliveries that could take up to an hour.
Company founder Dany Milham (pictured, right) sent an email to his 400 employees on Tuesday informing them that they would receive economic and emotional support during the closing process
Jake and Dee have both been looking at new jobs for the past two days after hearing the news.
“I was lucky enough to walk past a Domino’s and see that they hire delivery guys,” Jake said.
“I told them I worked for MilkRun and they are speeding up the process to get me a job.”
MilkRun also provides economic and emotional support to staff who were laid off on Tuesday.
“I want to assure you all that as part of this process everyone will receive their full legal rights, as well as additional ex gratia payments and ongoing support, including counseling and relocation services,” Mr Milham’s email reads.
The pay is rumored to be about four weeks’ wages in lieu of notice, an additional $10 per hour for services after Tuesday’s announcement, and an ex gratia payment of $750.
“We have always been committed to doing things the right way, and by winding down the business while still having sufficient cash balances, we can ensure that our people and suppliers are paid in full,” continued Mr Milham.
The company’s coverage spanned 50 suburbs in Sydney’s CBD, inner-western, eastern suburbs and just north of the Harbor Bridge.
It also covered 26 suburbs in Melbourne’s CBD, inner north and south.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to MilkRun for comment.