追逐自由的省時戰？數位中介食物外送的勞動體制

A Time-Saving War for Freedom? The Labor Regime of Digital-mediated Foods Delivery

由便利需求與數位科技推動的食物外送平台服務，塑造出食物地景與運送勞動的新面貌。外送工作看似享有勞動時間與計件薪酬的自由及彈性，實則充斥著趕件的時間壓力與移動風險。本文以「數位黑箱」、「虛擬自由」、「移動異化」等概念，探討數位中介之運送勞動體制的特質。作者以台北都會區兩間食物配送平台foodpanda和Uber Eats的外送員為對象，通過訪談平台業務、外送員和工會成員，觀察網路社群討論，並實際參與外送工作，探討前述論題。作者主張科技中介食物配送過程的便利，立足於平台業者的計件制及數位黑箱調控，令外送員在複雜勞動環境中從事血汗勞動。看似自由的外送工作，實為科技中介與資本積累塑造的幻象。勞動風險並非個人行動所致，而是勞動體制的產物。最後，作者檢視通過個人抵抗與集體抗爭而協商勞動體制的可能。

Food delivery platform services driven by consumers’need for convenience and digital technology have shaped new dimensions through which people reconsider foodscape and delivery labor. Delivery workers seem to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working hours and piece-rate pay, but in fact, they are confronted with time pressure and movement risks. Focusing on the delivery workers of two food delivery platforms foodpanda and Uber Eats in the Taipei metropolitan area, this article uses concepts such as“digital black box”,“virtual freedom”and“mobile alienation”to explore the characteristics of the delivery labor system of digital intermediaries. Through interviews with the platform clerks, delivery workers and union members, as well as observation of online community discussions and actual participation in delivery work, the authors argue that the couriers are in fact engaged in the condition of sweated labor in a complex labor environment where the piece-rate system and the digital black-box regulation by the platform operators are adopted for the convenience of technology-mediated food distribution process. The seeming freedom of delivery work is actually an illusion created by technology intermediary and capital accumulation. Labor risks are not caused by individual actions, but the product of the labor regime. In the latter part of this article, the authors further examine the possibility of negotiating with labor regime through individual and collective resistance.