January 1, 2026
Hot takes, cold fries
A confession from a mainstream food delivery app engineer
Whistleblower says “Priority” is fake, drivers ranked by despair — comments erupt
TLDR: A supposed insider alleges fake “Priority” perks and a hidden “Desperation Score” starving drivers of good orders, plus fees funding anti-union efforts. Comments split between calling it spam and duplicate drama, app-specific pushback, and grim acceptance that gig economy tricks are standard — and everyone’s paying for it.
An alleged engineer just dropped a spicy confession: the food app’s “Priority Delivery” button is a placebo, drivers get shadow-tagged with a “Desperation Score,” and that feel-good “Benefits” fee funds anti-union lawyers. Cue the internet riot. Some are shouting Hunger Games for couriers, others are yelling fake and reaching for receipts.
Skeptics swing hard: subdavis calls it “probably spam,” pointing to the poster’s blast across subreddits and removals link. Another user flags it as a duplicate seen on Hacker News link. Meanwhile, app-specific defenders jump in: chmod775 says Wolt’s “Priority” is pitched differently, and tracerbulletx claims on Uber Eats it means you won’t get bundled with a second order — not “speed you up,” but still a real change.
Then there’s the bleak brigade: forthwall shrugs that this is the inevitable end state of gig apps—drivers become invisible, tips get gamed, and customers fund the grind. The memes are flying: “Desperation Score = Doom Meter,” “Benefit Fee = Buy Our Lobbyists,” and “Boolean Flag: now with placebo.” The community split is loud: half crying scam and exploitation, half saying welcome to capitalism, and a third chugging popcorn, tracking whether this whistle actually blows or just whistles in the wind.
Key Points
- •The poster alleges “Priority Delivery” is an upsell flag ignored by dispatch logic and does not speed delivery.
- •They claim an A/B test intentionally delayed non-priority orders to make priority orders appear faster, increasing profits by degrading standard service.
- •A hidden “Desperation Score” purportedly tags drivers and steers high-paying orders away from those deemed more desperate.
- •A fee labeled as “Regulatory Response” or “Driver Benefits” is alleged to fund lobbying against driver unions via an internal cost center.
- •Predictive modeling allegedly lowers base pay for orders when customers are predicted to tip more, shifting compensation from company to customer.