In Indonesia, there are two groups of motorcycle couriers waiting for McDonald's deliveries via Gojek, the South Asian iFood service: the first group, in front of the store, jostling shoulder to shoulder for space on the sidewalk. The second group, however, is miles away – crowded together only by GPS. The Ojols, as the local delivery drivers are called, use clandestine apps to make their delivery easier. difficult life in delivery minimally more bearable.

To survive the fierce competition and the grueling streets of navigation, the Ojols ended up fostering a “grey market” of app stores, using illegal apps to have more control over deliveries. Tuyuls, as these apps are called, are developed by delivery people with programming experience, and they become popular through word of mouth. The GPS bypasser, for example, had more than 500 thousand downloads.

Part of the demand for Tuyuls arises not only from the workers’ needs, but also from the company’s neglect. Serving as a sort of “road technician,” the delivery programmers initially helped other Ojols with basic cell phone functions, ranging from formatting and clean installation to assistance with the delivery app. Gradually, the programmers solved Gojek’s usability issues, such as a digital magnifying glass for drivers who had difficulty reading orders.

The demand eventually led them to create their own toolkit for the job. What’s more, the delivery community itself created guides on how to root an Android device to install these apps and bypass Gojek’s detection systems. In other words, to ride the streets, an Ojol also needs to be an advanced smartphone user – and they created an entire community for this.

Clandestine apps lead to war between delivery people and companies

As expected, Gojek does not approve of its delivery drivers using illegal apps to circumvent its delivery systems. The company uses GPS positioning algorithms to assign orders to Ojols, and fraud detection could lead to the drivers being removed from the platform.

However, delivery drivers claim that the Tuyuls are more of a help than a hindrance to the company. Delivery points in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, for example, end up accumulating large groups of Ojols in front of public transport stations, causing a disturbance for everyone there. Several waiting areas also leave delivery drivers homeless due to the constant local rains.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. VICE Motherboard

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