One customer reportedly 'stepped over' a Deliveroo driver who collapsed on a busy street in East London last night (23 February).
Instead of assisting the unconscious driver, the customer apparently asked him questions about his order.
Captured by a bystander, the incident has since been shared to Twitter.
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James Farrar, who is the general secretary of the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU), happened to be walking down Alie Street in East London around midnight last night, when he noticed a Deliveroo driver had collapsed on the street outside of a luxury flat building.
Farrar quickly rushed over to the driver, who has only been identified as Mohamed, alongside a handful of other bystanders who kept him warm as he was going in and out of consciousness.
As the group waited for the emergency services to arrive at the scene, the customer who was waiting on the delivery came outside to look for their food.
In a Twitter thread, he explained: "At first, Mohamed seemed over heated so we took down his hood.
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"Then he became cold and the bar brought out a foil recovery blanket. It was absurd that he could not be brought inside the Meranti [the flat building] so I asked again and they agreed he could enter.
"While Mohammed was collapsed outside, the Deliveroo delivery recipients descended to the lobby and came outside in search of their order.
"A passing Deliveroo rider retrieved the order and gave it them and shipped Mohammed's app as delivered," he concluded.
Speaking to The Mirror, Farrar further explained: "People came down to enquire about their food and he had the app open on his phone.
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"Another delivery driver came by and he took the app and it was just pinging for this delivery.
"He swiped it was delivered for Mohamed and gave the people their food," he continued.
Totally outraged by the response of the customers, Farrar questioned if the recipients even had any 'humanity'.
He said: "And they wanted to have a conversation about what might have been missing and I said 'are you joking? Do you have no humanity?'
"And they were like 'oh ok' and stepped over him and went upstairs with their food."
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Farrar dubbed the incident 'horrendous'.
He told the news outlet that the situation was the 'brutal reality' of exploitation of these fast delivery services.
"It's a level of dissonance that is quite bizarre." he said.
He also claimed that when he tried to contact Deliveroo about the incident, he was sent to a chatbot to speak to before giving a feedback survey.
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Farrar said that he is in contact with Mohamed's family, where he remains seriously ill in the hospital.
Founded in 2015, the ADCU is currently the UK's largest trade union for licensed private hire drivers and couriers, with a mission to campaign for fair pay, better working conditions and the rights for workers.
A Deliveroo spokesperson told LADbible: "We were all deeply concerned by this incident and have spoken to the rider’s family to offer our support.
"Riders are at the very heart of our business and their safety and well-being is our absolute priority."
LADbible has also reached out to the ADCU for comment.
Topics: Food And Drink, UK News, London
Rhiannon Ingle