Five years ago Giles Thorne, a City analyst, took to his bike to deliver food for Deliveroo as part of his efforts to understand the gig economy. Now, thanks in part to the wonders of remote working, Thorne has been able to simulate riding for the company from the comfort of his own home.
In a note to clients on Wednesday, the Jefferies equity analyst said he had swapped making actual deliveries for Deliveroo with simply monitoring orders on the company’s app for his latest research into earnings per hour on delivery.
“In the previous work, doing the actual delivery gave me sight of the basket, which meant I could establish unit revenue and costs, and therefore, profit contribution,” Thorne wrote.
“But what I realised
