A good place to start would be definitions of self-employment.
Yep, 100% this.
Delivery companies are getting away with far too much simply by not giving their riders proper employee status - as well as preventing them from unionising, which ought to be illegal.
I’m sure it’s not a new problem but the massive boom in delivery riders since the pandemic partly driven by the availability of affordable (but illegal) e-bikes has made it a much more conspicuous problem.
To correct a couple of inaccuracies.
Employed status would be a double edged sword, I don't think any of the riders I know want it, it's a crap way to make a living and the one redeeming feature is the flexibility. When Just Eat tried it, it failed, they couldn't keep the staff. What's being campaigned for is Limb (b) worker status, which gives some of the benefits of employment whilst remaining self-employed. It isn't going to happen, from a suppliers POV they may as well employ them. The EU is planning some legislation, we'll see what happens there.
There's nothing to stop riders being unionised, there's a choice of two, IWGB and GMB
There's also this idea that a faster bike will make you more money, it isn't really true, on average a delivery takes 25 min from acceptance to completion, the only bit you could speed up is the 1.5 miles (on average) to the drop. There are ways to make more money, sometimes illegal and usually against the ToC's, multiple cycle accounts and using a car is pretty common, that's a lot of driving without the appropriate insurance. I've been delivering for five years, three by bike and two by E-Bike (A legal one) it's less fun now than when I started, time to move on.