Bolt Courier in Tallinn Suspended for Five Days Over a Photograph
A Tallinn student working as a food delivery courier on the Bolt platform was blocked for five days on suspicion of eating a customer's order. His account was restored after the case went viral on social media.
A student in Tallinn, Estonia, who works as a food delivery courier on the Bolt platform, was suspended from work for five days. The reason was a photo sent by a customer showing the courier eating, and the suspicion that he had consumed someone else's order. Bolt is an Estonia-founded company that also offers food delivery. The courier's mother, Ekaterina, told the story to Zerkalo, the Russian-language news programme of ERR, Estonia's public broadcaster.
What happened
According to Ekaterina, her son arrived to collect an order, but the restaurant said it had already been picked up. Support confirmed the order had been collected, and while it remained assigned to him as undelivered, he could not accept the next one. He asked support to remove it and waited about an hour and a half. During that time he got hungry, ordered food for himself and was eating it. A customer then arrived who apparently had not received the food, photographed him and sent the picture to Bolt. His account was blocked.
The courier sent support a bank statement, but was told a receipt was needed. The account was blocked on 25 August. Ekaterina learned of it on 19 August and posted about it on Facebook; the post spread widely and Bolt itself joined the comments. The account was unblocked on the morning of 31 August. Ekaterina says her son lost roughly 200 euros in income.
The company's explanation
In a written statement, Bolt said every courier is important to it, but that it takes reports of possible misuse of its service seriously because it encounters various kinds of fraud. In such cases the account is temporarily blocked while circumstances are checked. The company acknowledged the inconvenience and apologised. The courier's account currently has no restrictions.
The report's author notes that these problems might be addressed by a new platform work law, which the Riigikogu, Estonia's parliament, is due to adopt by Christmas.
