Amid the growing anger among consumers over the skyrocketing delivery costs, a netizen shared a tip for using a delivery app ‘Package Discount’ and a taxi to get food delivered for just 500 won.
On the 25th, an article titled ‘The delivery food experiment I did 3 days ago’ was posted on an online community.
| Motorcycles are parked on a sidewalk in downtown Seoul on the afternoon of the 2nd. / Photo = Yonhap News |
Author A, who identified himself as a part-time billiard room student, opened the door saying, “I turned on the delivery app to order food, but the delivery fee went up to 4,000 won.” At that time, a customer threw a saying to Mr. A, “For this money, take a taxi and get it.” Mr. A decided to experiment with what the customer said.
He explained, “Actually, only the basic fee is paid from the restaurant to the billiard room.” He explained, “I tried to see if it was possible to send the food to the billiard room by ordering a take-out food and sending a call taxi to the restaurant.”
In other words, it was like taking a taxi and getting food as a quick service. Mr. A set the departure point to a restaurant and the destination to a billiards room through a taxi calling app. After that, he checked the location of the taxi in real time, and when the taxi arrived at the restaurant, he called the restaurant, paid for the food by bank transfer, and asked, “Please put the food in the taxi that arrived in front of you.”
I was able to prevent confusion by explaining to the taxi driver in advance. Mr. A, who was checking the arrival of a taxi with a calling app, paid 3500 won for a taxi in front of the building and received food.
Person A said, “There are also taxi drivers who send small items and documents like quick service, but they said that they would try delivery for the first time,” he said. He also rejoiced, saying, “I got a discount of 3,000 won for a take-out order, so the total delivery cost was only 500 won.”
| Deliverymen on motorcycles are driving on a road in downtown Seoul. / Photo = Yonhap News |
As a result, it was much cheaper to have food delivered via taxi. Mr. A spent 3,500 won for a taxi, but received a 3,000 won discount for take-out orders. It means that I received delivery at an additional cost of 500 won. On the other hand, if you ordered through a delivery app, you had to pay a delivery fee of 4,000 won. Quick delivery using a taxi was 3,500 won cheaper than using a delivery app.
However, the method that Mr. A tested is not illegal, but it is subject to regulation by related ministries such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The Passenger Car Transportation Business Act stipulates that route operators such as express buses can deliver some packages, but taxis are regional operators, not route operators. The government also said, “Until a separate permit clause is issued, it will be difficult to deliver food or packages by taxi.”
Meanwhile, as delivery costs have risen to an average of 4,000 to 5,000 won recently, users are looking for alternatives. Earlier, in one apartment, it became a topic of discussion when residents said that there were cases of ‘tools’ for delivery.
In response, the government began to regulate, announcing that it will implement a ‘delivery fee disclosure system’, which discloses delivery costs by delivery platform on the website of the Consumer Agency once a month. It is a strategy to cut delivery costs through open competition. However, there are voices questioning whether the disclosure system will be effective in a situation where the average delivery fee is already disclosed through the delivery driver app.
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