Rider earnings have collapsed — and the data is now public
For years, platforms could dispute anecdotes about low rider pay. That ended in June 2025 when Oxford University published a study of 1.5 million actual Uber trips.
Oxford University analysis of 1.5 million Uber trips found average driver earnings of ~71p per trip after platform deductions and costs, with effective commission averaging ~29% and exceeding 50% on premium trips.
Source: University of Oxford, June 2025 — full reference at va-ya.co.uk/sources
SA delivery riders went on strike demanding a minimum of R6/km. VAYA's standard rate is R7/km — beating the strike demand by 17% as the baseline, not a concession.
Source: SA e-hailing strike coverage — va-ya.co.uk/sources
An Australian food truck owner published his weekly Uber Eats breakdown: 41 orders totalling $1,117.50 in revenue. After $335 commission plus GST and $603 in ad spend, he kept $145 — roughly 87% of his revenue gone to the platform.
Source: Yahoo Finance Australia, January 2026
Commission rates are rising, not falling
The direction of travel matters. When competition shrinks, commissions climb — and it just happened, on the record.
Menulog shut down in November 2025 after 20 years, leaving Australia with just two marketplaces: Uber Eats and DoorDash. Four months later, Uber Eats raised its Lite-tier commission from 15% to 20%, added a 5% surcharge on Uber One orders for Plus-tier restaurants (taking them to 30%), and raised negotiated custom rates by 3%.
With near-mandatory sponsored listings on top, Australian restaurants on marketplace plans now face an effective rate north of 30% per delivery order.
Source: Uber Eats AU merchant pricing, March 2026 rate change; industry analysis May 2026
A restaurant doing $40,000/month in delivery on Uber Eats Marketplace hands over roughly $12,000 in commission every month — $144,000 a year. The same restaurant on a flat subscription keeps virtually all of it.
Source: industry cost analysis, May 2026 — va-ya.co.uk/sources
Restaurants have run out of patience
We didn't take the industry's word for it. We walked into 26 restaurants across Cape Town's Southern Suburbs and asked — without ever mentioning VAYA.
Cape Town restaurants marking up menus. Australian owners publishing their fee breakdowns. UK riders organising through the IWGB. This is not one market's complaint — it's the same structural problem surfacing on three continents at once.
Price competition on commission has already failed
Bolt Food — backed by billions — tried to undercut Uber Eats in South Africa on the same commission model at a lower rate. It pulled out of the country entirely. Competing on commission percentage doesn't work. Removing commission does.
Source: Bolt Food SA market exit — va-ya.co.uk/sources
Uber Eats cannot remove commission without destroying shareholder returns. To match a subscription model, an incumbent would need to run at zero commission for six to twelve months. Their shareholders will not allow it. This is not a strategic choice — it is a structural impossibility.
The cost of building has collapsed
A four-app platform with dispatch and AI menu import — customer app, rider app, restaurant app, admin — can now be built for around £40,000 with an AI-assisted development team. Three years ago the same build cost £400,000 or more.
The platforms that dominate today were built when the barrier to entry was ten times higher. That barrier has collapsed — and the incumbents' scale advantage no longer protects their business model, only their marketing budget.
Safety is the crisis the incumbents haven't solved
In South Africa, the human cost of the current model is documented and severe — and every gap being exploited is a design flaw VAYA was built to close.
Thirteen e-hailing drivers were killed in a two-week period in August 2025, most in execution-style attacks. At least 85 people died in Gauteng taxi-related violence between April and December 2025. South Africa has been described as the most dangerous country in the world for e-hailing drivers.
Sources: E-hailing Partners Council / SAPS briefings, Aug 2025; Rational Standard, Jul 2026; Hypertext, Feb 2026
Criminals create fake rider profiles or hijack existing accounts to lure drivers to isolated locations — police issued warnings about hotspots where a booking is the trap. Real-time ID checks were added by incumbents, but gaps persist: minors as young as 13 have been arrested for hijackings arranged through the apps.
Source: PrimeTime News / SAPS data, Nov 2025
Fake "Uber" drivers operating at South African airports have scammed travellers — a R420 trip charged as R4,200 — prompting calls for formally demarcated, verified pickup zones at terminals.
Source: TopAuto / Cape Talk, Jun 2026
Biometric identity verification on every account — no fake profiles, no shared logins. Geofenced zone dispatch that excludes known hijack hotspots by design. Dense-zone operations meaning short, local trips — not lures to isolated locations. And Safe Mobility Hub pickup points: the demarcated, verified collection zones the industry is calling for, built into the platform from day one.
These are not features added after a tragedy. They are the founding architecture — designed by someone who did the job.
Worker anger. Restaurant revolt. Rising commissions.
Failed price wars. Collapsed build costs.
And a safety crisis nobody has answered.
Six forces converging at once, documented across three continents. This window will not stay open. VAYA is built to go through it.