TTwo rows of dirty, dilapidated caravans line either side of a road near the motorway that winds into central Bristol. Rats scurry between water-filled concrete sluices and rubbish-strewn heaps of plants. Drug users stumble out of the nearby underpass as lorries rumble overhead.

This is the grim camp where about 30 Brazilian delivery drivers working for major companies like Deliveroo and Uber Eats must live to make ends meet.

Celia Campos, 45, has been living in a trailer next to the locks for a year. “We left Brazil looking for something better,” she says in rapid Portuguese. “But most of us cannot make those dreams come true. We come back worse than when we left.”

It has become much more difficult for drivers to make a living from food delivery, as they claim their earnings have not kept pace with price increases.

While the national minimum wage is £11.44 an hour, food delivery companies like Deliveroo and Uber Eats do not officially employ their drivers. Instead, they are gig economy workers who are paid for each individual delivery. This means workers can end up earning far less than the minimum wage.

Campos works long hours for both companies and in July, she says, she worked 333 hours and earned the equivalent of £6.27 an hour. Her pay records show she was paid as little as £1.20 for some Uber Eats deliveries. “We spend as much time on the road as possible. I work from 8am until I get tired… usually until midnight,” she says. “Delivery work is no longer good. You have to be a slave to earn enough.”

She cannot afford the soaring rents in Bristol, which are rising faster than anywhere else in the country and have led to an increase in the number of people driving in the western city.

The harsh living conditions, long working hours and low pay lead to psychological problems in the camp. “I was depressed for a year. It was terrible,” says Campos. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. When you work, work, work and have no life… then depression sets in.”

Deliveroo, which recently won a seven-year legal battle to enforce more rights for drivers in the gig economy, posted its first profit this month, reporting net profit of £1.3 million for the first half of 2024.

Uber, which provides taxis and food deliveries, saw its UK pre-tax profit increase from £5 million in 2021 to £32 million in 2022, with the delivery arm of its UK business generating revenue of £700 million.

The Labour government has promised a new workers’ rights bill that would ban zero-hours contracts and allow sick pay from day one. However, a plan to introduce a single status for all workers, giving gig economy workers the same rights as employees, has been replaced by a promise to consult on a simpler employment framework.

Some Labour MPs have raised concerns about links between the party and Deliveroo, given the company’s sponsorship of a number of Labour events. Deliveroo’s CEO Will Shu was invited to a cocktail party hosted by Keir Starmer last month. Shu can be seen in a video taken at the event and shared on the Prime Minister’s official X account.

Another of the three women living in the trailers is preparing to start work for Uber Eats. Lorena, 28, has been living in a trailer for a year and a half. She says she earns £600 a week working 12 hours every day – the equivalent of £7.14 an hour. “When I first arrived here, it wasn’t that bad, but now it’s become inhumane,” she says.

The drivers look out for each other, saying they receive little support from the platforms they log into daily. They protect mopeds, fix each other’s flat tires and raise money for injured or sick workers. One compares the roadside community to a union or “sindicato” and another to a Favela – a workers’ settlement in Brazil.

Some still feel exposed to violence on the streets. Lorena is afraid that their houses will be burned down by anti-immigrant protesters. “We feel threatened,” she says.

Her neighbor Lucas, 25, is resting in his dilapidated trailer. The window joints are taped with black gaffer tape, the back is covered with a tarpaulin. His double bed takes up most of the living space, which measures just five by two meters.

Black mold covers the walls above his small camping stove, which is dangerous in enclosed spaces. “There is no comfort here (in the trailer). There is a bed to sleep in and that’s it… sometimes I lose motivation,” he says.

Across the road, another driver is getting ready to drive off on his moped. Freitas, 32, trained as a pharmacist in Brazil but delivers takeaway food in the UK. Figures from his Uber Eats app show he earns an average of £3.43 per delivery. “I studied for five years. I don’t want to tell my family what’s going on here,” he says.

He is desperate to move because his trailer has no electricity, no heating and no cooking facilities. When it rains, the windows above his bed leak. “Living like this is hard. You have to wrap yourself in a blanket at night,” he explains. “Many of the people who stay here develop psychological problems because they live in a small cube.”

Heather Mack, deputy leader of Bristol City Council, said: “Most of us try to treat others as we would like to be treated, but shamefully we don’t see that from companies like Deliveroo and Uber Eats in our city. Those who work for a living should earn a living that provides them with the essentials we all need: safety, hygiene and food.”

Mack also called on the government to end the “cruel hostile environment” policy to provide migrants with a path to legal work.

The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which led the unsuccessful legal campaign to secure the drivers’ labour rights, said the Bristol camp was “emblematic of the misery that the gig economy is creating on a mass scale”. Maritza Castillo Calle, vice president of the IWGB, accused delivery companies of cutting drivers’ salaries to increase their profits. “We must not make the mistake of Deliveroo posting its first profit in its history last week as a direct result of the new hardships its workers are facing,” she said.

Deliveroo said it was “very concerned” about the unsuitable living conditions of riders and would be engaging with Bristol City Council. A spokesperson added: “Deliveroo offers the flexible working conditions riders want, attractive earning opportunities and protections including free insurance, health cover, financial support when riders become new parents and a range of training opportunities.”

Uber said Uber Eats offers thousands of couriers a flexible way to earn money: “When working with us, couriers have access to a range of protections, including travel insurance, and we regularly talk to couriers to see how we can improve their experience.”

Back in Bristol, Campos gets on her scooter. She’s exhausted from the long hours of the previous night, but says she has to get back to work. “You have to make a lot of deliveries when you get one, two or three pounds for each delivery… the owners of these companies don’t think about us drivers who they use to make their money – they only think about themselves.”