Orders pile up after delivery riders allegedly avoid Elias Mall McDonald's outlet known for being slow

Why your warm food is cold and your cold drinks have been diluted by melted ice.

Belmont Lay | July 01, 2022, 01:46 PM

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More than a dozen orders of packed food were left sitting on service tables in the McDonald's outlet at Elias Mall on June 24.

Two photos of the uncollected meals made for a compelling sight and were put up in the GrabFood Delivery Driver Singapore Facebook group last Friday.

It sparked a lively discussion on the possible reasons the food were left untouched.

The post has since been deleted after AsiaOne wrote about it.

Food delivery personnel avoid McDonald's outlet

According to the comments section of the post, people who claim to be food delivery personnel say they feel McDonald's does not prioritise their orders as dine-in and takeaway food are usually prepared and served before theirs.

The implication is that this causes a backlog of food delivery personnel having to wait to pick up their orders, while others get served first.

At least one food delivery personnel said she believes that this particular outlet in Pasir Ris has a reputation of being "slow in preparing" food meant for delivery, "so riders don't want to go there earlier and wait".

Food delivery personnel urge others to boycott McDonald's

The experience of long waiting times at McDonald's outlets appear to be widespread among food delivery personnel.

The discussion saw at least one person complain that McDonald's should be boycotted by those doing food delivery like him, as he summed up the experience as "really wasting time waiting for it".

McDonald's response

In response to AsiaOne's queries, McDonald's Singapore said they are aware of the incident at Elias Mall on June 24 and attributed it to "wet weather", which resulted in the collection of delivery items to be "delayed".

All delivery orders on that day were picked up and cleared within 20 minutes of order being ready, they explained.

"Delivery is a popular option with our customers and we remain committed to getting all food orders safely delivered to them,” they added.

Background

According to three food delivery riders on the ground that Mothership.sg spoke to, the experience of long waiting times for delivery orders at McDonald's outlets have been encountered by all of them before.

Most of these food delivery personnel can recall specific outlets in various estates in Singapore that appear to fare worst when it comes to waiting times.

They also added that long waiting times appear to be specific to certain outlets, suggesting that the issue could be due to how each outlet is run.

This is due to how some outlets have been able to handle a large volume of orders and limit the waiting time of food delivery personnel, while other outlets appear to struggle to meet demand during peak periods and will take a far longer than expected time.

On their end, food delivery personnel have the option of cancelling orders, which they do if they are not willing to wait, but they can end up penalised for it as it affects their cancellation rating.

The cancellation rating needs to be maintained above a certain figure to be eligible for incentives or to continue using a food delivery app to earn a living.

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