Meal delivery logistics and the agencies of distribution in urban economies of food provision in the UK

Abstract

Newcastle-upon-Tyne has recently seen an expansion in takeaway prepared food thanks to the meal delivery service provided through companies such as Deliveroo. These companies have what they call a “technology platform” that enables customers in certain urban areas to order and purchase a meal which is delivered to their location, usually within thirty minutes. Although a seemingly mundane moment of consumption, the processes underpinning this act compose a distinctly urban manifestation of the broader logistical logics of contemporary capitalism. Delivering a prepared meal from a restaurant to its nearby site of ingestion in the city is symptomatic of the role of logistics in valuation, through achieving the right place at the right time for a given commodity. Such logistics require the emergence of new urban infrastructure and the reconfiguration of existing components through the combination of the technology platform, the restaurant collection point and rider-deliverybox-vehicle assemblage. Building from this infrastructure, Deliveroo are able to extend their operations into food production and supply, whilst also re-organising socio-spatial divisions of labour in food provisioning. Distribution is therefore no neutral mediator between production and consumption, but rather has far-reaching effects, altering existing and generating new spatial practices composing urban economies of food provision.