An evening with Marius, rider number 14

Marius has ridden for WoodyWood for three years. He is permanent staff, with an hourly wage, sick pay and an e-bike the company maintains. “That is why I switched,” he says. “I want to know what I earn before I leave the house.”

His shift starts at five. The app does not send him around at random — it groups orders heading the same way, and it knows which kitchens are fast tonight and which are running behind.

The busiest hour is between seven and eight. Tonight he takes nineteen deliveries in that window, most within a two-kilometre radius. His record from kitchen to door is four minutes and twenty seconds.

The staircase he remembers? Sixth floor, broken lift, an older man who had ordered soup. “He was waiting in the doorway. Said he hadn’t had a hot meal in two days. I still think about it.”