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Letter: Burnaby needs to crack down on food delivery drivers ‘abandoning’ idling cars

Drivers looking to save time to make money on deliveries are causing safety issues, says resident.
illegal parking food delivery
A food-app delivery driver parked illegally in Burnaby.

Editor:

Much has been written about the dangers of food delivery drivers through apps like Skip the Dishes and DoorDash.

Drivers make more money with the more deliveries that they are able to complete.

That means these drivers are racing to and from their deliveries and restaurants. This puts all of us at risk from crashes.

I’ve lost count of how many of these drivers I’ve seen racing into restaurants and apartment buildings in a manic pace to drop off their food. I’ve had some of them yell at me for not letting them onto the elevator because of COVID distancing. They freak out because they are worried about not doing enough deliveries to make a living wage.

I respect that, but not at the expense of safety.

One big issue I’ve seen with some of these drivers is leaving their vehicles running while they race into a building or apartment to deliver or pick up food. Sometimes these vehicles are illegally parked on the road or double-parked and blocking traffic.

They are just abandoning their vehicles while are idling. This brings up both safety issues and environmental issues.

The City of Burnaby or police need to crack down on these drivers before somebody gets hurt. Imagine if the driver, in their mad rush, didn’t properly put the vehicle into park and it rolled into some pedestrian.

C. Francis, Burnaby