This weekend I ordered some pastries via Glovo from a bakery five minutes from where I was staying. A simple order that I was told would take 15 minutes.

Instead, I waited more than an hour.

Watching the delivery on the map was almost comical. The driver picked up the order and then, instead of heading towards me, he drove across town. He stopped at another restaurant and waited there for 30 minutes.

Only then did he finally start heading my way – by which point the pastries had spent the better part of an hour travelling Marbella.

It’s certainly not the end of the world, but it is a sign that the Glovo system is broken.

Delivery model broken

In recent weeks, the company itself has admitted problems with its delivery model.

Glovo has announced plans to cut services in dozens of Spanish towns and launch layoffs that could affect up to 750 riders.

At the same time, users across Spain are noticing slower deliveries, strange routes and orders being stacked together in ways that make little sense.

The result is exactly what many customers are now experiencing: cold food, long waits and a delivery map that looks like a taxi driver who has lost his sat nav.

But the problem runs deeper than inconvenience.

Questionable labour practices

For years, Glovo and similar platforms have faced serious criticism over how they treat the people actually doing the work: the riders.

Labour unions, courts and government inspectors have repeatedly accused delivery apps of exploiting workers by classifying them as self-employed when, in reality, they operate much like employees.

Spain even introduced the so-called ‘Rider Law’ to force companies to recognise delivery drivers as workers rather than freelancers.

Despite this, the sector remains full of controversy. Unions have reported cases of riders renting accounts, working extreme hours or earning very little once costs such as petrol and vehicle maintenance are taken into account.

In other words, the entire model has been built on squeezing workers while promising customers instant convenience. Now the cracks are starting to show.

If there are fewer riders available, orders get bundled together. If the pay is poor, experienced drivers leave. And if the system becomes chaotic, the customer ends up staring at their phone wondering why a five-minute trip has turned into an hour-long city tour.

Jacked up prices

What you may or may not have realised is that many restaurants hike the prices of menu items on the Glovo app.

It means you are paying significantly more for the same dish than if you visited the restaurant.

This is partly because apps like Glovo and Uber Eats charge a commission per order that can be as high as 30% – a cost that is passed onto the consumer.

Not so convenient

Food delivery apps were supposed to make life easier. But when a simple order turns into a logistical nightmare, you start to wonder whether they’re solving a problem that never really existed.

Throw in the fact that it costs you significantly more and you start to see that maybe the solution is simpler: just go to the restaurant or pick it up yourself.

Your items will be fresher and you won’t be supporting a business model that has spent years under fire for how it treats the people pedalling your food across the city.

So, perhaps it is time to delete the Glovo app – at least until they can get it together.