Page 17 - Voice and representation of platform driver in VietNam
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CHAPTER 2: Defining the relationship of platforms and drivers    11





                                                              As  much  as  87  percent  of  platform  workers  in  the
                 This is something we have seen across the world.   survey are aware of the grievance channels provided by
             Supposedly the drivers are told that if they reach a   platform companies. However, as reflected in interviews
             target of 10 customers within a certain amount of   with  platform  companies  and  drivers/riders,  these
             hours or days they will receive a bonus of a particular   channels are intended to inform the drivers/riders about
             amount, but what happens is they reach the eighth   the companies’ policies rather than offering a gateway
             customer easily, the ninth one takes a lot of time and   for two-way dialogue and grievance-handling. Even in
             then they never reach the last.                  the case of team leaders, the airing and documenting
                                                              of workers’ opinions is not expected. The manager of
                                                              a platform company explained: “The team leaders are
            2.3. Channels for communication and grievance-    experienced riders who understand our policies and
            handling                                          why we adopt these policies. Their role is to transfer
                                                              this understanding to the team members”.  In other
                                                                                                  36
            The  ride-hailing  and  delivery  platforms  in  this
            survey commonly operate four main channels for    words, the team leaders’ responsibility is to persuade
            communicating  with  and  receiving  grievances  from   the riders to accept the company’s policies rather than
            their driver-partners:                            representing the riders’ voice.
            1.  Hotlines via the  apps:  drivers  can  call  platforms’
                support centres via the apps. The workers at these
                call  centres  are  provided  with  basic  information
                about the companies’ rules and regulations. More
                complicated queries must be noted and forwarded
                to other departments.

            2.  Facebook fanpages: these fanpages offer a forum
                for drivers, but it is not necessary a support centre
                as the administrators do not normally respond to
                questions posted on these pages.

            3.  Offline  gatherings:  platform  companies  organise
                periodic  offline  gatherings  with  driver-partners
                and  respond  to  their  questions.  In  2020,  these
                gatherings  were  organised  online  instead  due  to
                the pandemic.

            4.  Team leaders:  platforms  appoint  experienced
                drivers to act as team leaders, each covering several
                hundred drivers in a certain geographical area. The
                team  leaders  are  responsible  for  communicating
                the  platform’s  policies  to  the  members  and
                receiving grievances, if any, from the drivers.






















            36   Interview conducted by the researcher, March 2021.






                                                                         Voice and representation of platform drivers in Vietnam
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