SEATTLE — It has been just over two weeks since Seattle City Council started requiring food delivery app companies to provide delivery drivers minimum pay based on the time worked and miles traveled for each offer.
But Seattleites are starting to notice the high fees that are being tacked on to their order, and they are not happy about it. Two Seattle residents told KING 5 Monday that they have decided to delete their food delivery apps as a personal form of protest.
Seattle residents like Kendyl Pettit are getting whipped with new charges on food delivery apps.
"Yeah, so Friday, I went on my app," said Pettit. "Friday is like the light at the end of the tunnel. Like I don't have to cook... I'm going to order delivery. So I went and ordered my classic order."
She opened her app to find a warning screen about a "regulatory response fee," as Doordash calls it. The app urges consumers to blame Seattle’s local government.
"It was three items of, you know, Thai takeout food for $122, without the delivery tip," recalled Pettit.
She said she was shocked.
"I actually put the phone down and told my partner we're not getting delivery food tonight," she said.
Why the fee? Seattle City Council passed legislation to help provide a livable wage for full-time app-based delivery drivers like Wei Lin.
"The Seattle ordinance helps so much," Lin told KING 5.
He said he loves it because he’s making more now with each delivery.
Still, restaurant owners have concerns.
"Additional fees like this could potentially harm our businesses," said Jaclyn Wagner, the director of operations at Bok a Bok Fried Chicken.
Apps DoorDash have explicitly expressed that they agree.
DoorDash said in a statement, “Unfortunately, we expect this will lead to lost revenue for local businesses and fewer earning opportunities for the very workers the regulations are supposed to help.”
But again, what about the consumer?
Maha Balouch shared her recent experience on the Uber Eats app.
"My eyes were bulging out of my skull," she said, laughing. "What is this?!"
She continued, "I ordered like a $12 sandwich. But then the $12 grew to $32."
She wonders what elderly residents or others who are more reliant on delivery services must feel like.
She added, "I just deleted the app. I exited out of the app and just deleted it."
Pettit echoed that concern.
"Right down the street here is a home for people with disabilities and I know they get delivery all the time," said Pettit, who lives in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.
She worries that fees like this make Seattle even less livable for many.
"I'm a program manager at Microsoft. I consider myself probably some of the wealthiest people in the city," Pettit said. "If I am struggling to afford living here and eating here and having these basic things, you know, it's just a shame because I can only imagine what other folks are going through. So yeah, I won't be eating delivery.”
The idea behind the regulation was to allow delivery drivers to make the equivalent of Seattle's minimum wage or more.
Neither of the Seattle council members who originally championed it, Lisa Herbold and Andrew Lewis, are still in office.
Mayor Bruce Harrell lauded the city's efforts to empower local gig workers in a press release earlier this month.