Getting started

There's a real ladder here, and most riders start lower on it than they expect to end up. Roughly, in order:

One phone, genuinely dedicated. Not a spare device alongside a personal one — the number Bolt has on file needs to live in the same phone running the app, because customers, support, and the no-show procedure all call that number directly. A separate "just for the app" phone means the SIM has to migrate every shift, which defeats the point. Beyond the phone itself:

1. Strong battery. GPS and mobile data run continuously for the whole shift, and both drain it fast.
2. A real GPS chip. This is the location fix — it tells the app where you are. Every phone claims it; cheap ones can take far longer to get a lock, or lose it between tall buildings.
3. A working magnetometer — the actual sensor behind "the compass." GPS alone tells the app where you are, not which way you're facing; that's the magnetometer's job, and it matters more than it sounds — see the block-vs-house note above. With a working one, the position pointer itself turns to show your real heading as you and the scooter turn; without it, the pointer stays fixed and you're working out the right direction by trial and error at every unfamiliar entrance.
4. Waterproof from day one, not "waterproof once a case is added."
5. Drop-proof, as much as that's ever really possible. It comes out of a pocket or a mount dozens of times a shift — reinforced glass on the screen (Gorilla Glass or equivalent) matters more here than on a phone that mostly sits on a desk.
6. A bright screen, readable in direct sun, so an address doesn't need shading with a hand to read.
7. Speakers loud enough to hear an order alert over traffic and a helmet — missing the new-order bell means missing the order.
8. A good charging cable, the right length. Cheap ones fray and stop charging reliably right when a shift depends on them; too short and it can't reach the mount, too long and it's a loose loop snagging on your hands or the bike all day. Worth spending a bit more here — this is the one cable that's actually load-bearing.

   

9. A "hot" USB port on the scooter itself, if renting one — power that stays live with the ignition off. Some cut power the moment the key switches off, right when you're parked waiting on a pickup and the phone needs it most. Worth asking before you sign, not after.

   Even better: a powerbank hard-wired into the scooter's own electrical system, sitting between the bike and the phone. It stays topped up whenever the scooter's system is live, and keeps feeding the phone steadily even through a momentary cutout at the USB port — the buffer absorbs the gap instead of the phone feeling it.

10. A flashlight button you can reach in one tap. Once it's dark, everything gets harder — not just reading a gate buzzer. Streets themselves are badly lit at night, so watching your footing matters as much as reading a door number. Set up a torch toggle on the lock screen or in quick settings before your first night shift, not during it — it beats fumbling for a flashlight app at someone's front gate.

    This isn't only a night problem, either: many stairwells have no windows and no working light fixture at all — they're dark at any hour. A flashlight is standard equipment for a block delivery, not just an evening one.

    Some rugged phones go further — the Samsung Galaxy XCover7 has a dedicated physical button that can be set to launch the flashlight instantly, no unlocking needed. Worth knowing before buying one for this specifically: its screen turns strongly reflective in direct sun, close to a mirror — the same sun-readability problem from earlier, on a phone that otherwise looks built for this job.

ONCE IT'S NOT ALL NEW ANYMORE

Pro tips

Many customers in Craiova pay the rider in cash at the door. By this rider's count it is about one delivery in three. If you refuse them, you give up a third of the work, you fall foul of the app, and you are soon out. So before the first shift, understand exactly how the cash moves.

One cash order, step by step

The example uses round numbers: a 60 RON order and a 15 RON delivery fee.

What happens to the debt

The one-in-three share is this rider's own count over four weeks of shifts, not a Bolt figure. The 350 RON ceiling, the pay-at-pickup rule and the posting delay are from the same account, described in detail on On the road.

Cash you collect from customers is Bolt’s money and shows in the courier app as a negative balance. Restaurants can ask you to pay part of it at pickup, and you can pay the rest by card in the app (Menu > Balance > Pay debt). Below is what one courier actually saw over three weeks — real balances at the moment each event happened, converted at the BNR rate of 07.10.2026 (1 EUR = 5.3501 RON, 1 USD = 4.7801 RON, 1 GBP = 6.3236 RON).

Romania only. No data yet for other countries — this table will grow as more is observed.

What this tells you

• There is no single fixed amount. Warning e-mails came at 214.73, 263.89 and 298.24 RON, while cash orders kept coming at 359.19 and even 413.44 RON.
• The pause on cash orders lifts within minutes once you pay the balance in the app.
• The e-mail gives 14 days to pay and says unpaid balances may lead to cash orders being restricted and the debt being passed to a collection agency.
• Practical rule: pay the balance in the app at the end of every working day. Then you never lose cash orders, which are often the better-paying ones.

Everything above is about what the work earns. This is about whether it reaches you — because there is a layer sitting between you and the app, and that layer is where the money can quietly disappear. Written from direct experience, September 2026. No company or person is named here: the structure itself creates the problem, and once you can see it, you can protect yourself.

In Romania you don't work for the platform. The platform contracts with fleets — intermediary companies that onboard couriers and handle the money. The fleet in turn often works through a subcontractor, and the subcontractor is the one that recruits you and may be the name on your contract. So the money passes the platform, the fleet and the subcontractor before it reaches you. The name in your app and the name on your contract can differ, and when something goes wrong each can point at the other.

• Your contract may name the fleet, or the subcontractor.
• Your app shows Bolt's brand.
• Bolt support will not chase the fleet for you — contractually, it is not theirs.
• When the money stops, each can point at the other.

The way it should be: the rider signs up with the platform directly, and the platform pays the rider. Every company in between is one more place the money can stop.

Can a rider deal with the platform directly? 36 countries at a glance

Score: 3 direct, no middleman needed · 2 direct possible, middlemen common alongside · 1 mostly through a middleman · 0 only through a middleman. Ranked best first. * read from who carries the duties in the law or ruling, not stated in so many words.

#	Country	Direct?	Score
1	🇦🇺 AustraliaElsewhere	✅ Yes *	3
	The first minimum standards order for platform delivery workers took effect in August 2026 (interim): a pay floor and duties on the platforms.
1	🇦🇹 AustriaEU	✅ Yes	3
	Foodora and Wolt work with riders directly on free-service contracts; Lieferando moved from employing riders to the same model in 2025.
1	🇨🇦 Canada (Ontario)Elsewhere	✅ Yes *	3
	Since July 2025 platforms must pay delivery workers at least minimum wage per assignment and may not deduct from their earnings or tips.
1	🇩🇰 DenmarkEU	✅ Yes	3
	Just Eat employs its couriers directly under a collective agreement; Wolt counts as the employer of its courier partners for residence purposes (2023).
1	🇪🇪 EstoniaEU	✅ Yes	3
	Bolt treats couriers as independent providers working on its platform directly; they have no employment contracts.
1	🇫🇮 FinlandEU	✅ Yes	3
	Wolt couriers contract with Wolt directly; the Supreme Administrative Court ruled them employees in May 2025.
1	🇮🇹 ItalyEU	✅ Yes	3
	Glovo riders ruled employees (Turin, 2023); food delivery riders ruled subordinate workers by the Supreme Court (Oct 2025).
1	🇳🇱 NetherlandsEU	✅ Yes	3
	The Supreme Court ruled Deliveroo couriers employees (Mar 2023) and that Deliveroo must pay their pensions (Nov 2023).
1	🇳🇴 NorwayEurope, outside the EU	✅ Yes	3
	Foodora employs couriers under a collective agreement and also uses freelancers; an appeal court classed Wolt couriers as independent contractors (Feb 2026).
1	🇺🇸 USAElsewhere	✅ Yes *	3
	Federal rules on the employment status of platform workers were amended in January 2024.
1	🇬🇧 United KingdomEurope, outside the EU	✅ Yes *	3
	The Supreme Court upheld Deliveroo riders' self-employed status against a union claim (Nov 2023).
12	🇭🇷 CroatiaEU	◐ Both	2
	Couriers work through their own company, a student contract, or a fleet-manager company; Wolt is building its own employed courier teams.
12	🇩🇪 GermanyEU	◐ Both	2
	Lieferando employs riders on mini-job contracts and Wolt contracts directly, but subcontractors are used too; a ban on subcontracting in delivery was being considered (Dec 2025).
12	🇵🇹 PortugalEU	◐ Both	2
	The Supreme Court recognised a Glovo courier as an employee (Jul 2025); umbrella companies are also used.
12	🇪🇸 SpainEU	◐ Both	2
	The Riders' Law made food delivery riders employees; Glovo hires riders directly since Dec 2024, but subcontracting stayed allowed.
12	🇸🇪 SwedenEU	◐ Both	2
	Bolt's couriers are employed by other companies or self-employed (court, Jan 2025); a Foodora worker was ruled employed by a third party (2024).
12	🇨🇭 SwitzerlandEurope, outside the EU	◐ Both	2
	Uber Eats couriers were ruled employees (2022); courier firms supplying riders through the app must hold a staff-leasing licence (2025).
18	🇨🇾 CyprusEU	❌ Mostly no	1
	Most couriers work for fleet-management contractors; only a small number are self-employed partners. Wolt signed a collective agreement in 2024.
18	🇬🇷 GreeceEU	❌ Mostly no	1
	Couriers for efood and Wolt struck in November 2025 for direct employment instead of subcontracting.
18	🇲🇹 MaltaEU	❌ Mostly no	1
	Bolt Food has taken couriers only through work agencies since January 2023; Wolt still takes self-employed couriers.
18	🇵🇱 PolandEU	❌ Mostly no	1
	Fleet partners act as the official employers of couriers for Wolt, Uber and Glovo; the platforms run the work, the partners hold the contracts.
22	🇷🇴 RomaniaEU	❌ No	0
	Platforms work only through intermediary companies and are not registered here as employers; the rider signs with the intermediary.

Full 50-country ranking: where it is easiest to start, by passport →

No score yet — 14 countries without a clear source

• 🇧🇪 Belgium — A law compensates platform workers after workplace accidents (2025). Nothing found on intermediaries.
• 🇧🇬 Bulgaria — no source found yet
• 🇨🇿 Czechia — A student survey found most couriers self-employed. Nothing found on intermediaries.
• 🇫🇷 France — A minimum hourly wage for platform delivery riders was agreed in 2023. Nothing found on intermediaries.
• 🇭🇺 Hungary — The Supreme Court ruled a platform worker self-employed (May 2024). Nothing found on intermediaries.
• 🇮🇸 Iceland — no source found yet
• 🇮🇪 Ireland — Consultation on the EU Platform Work Directive launched (Oct 2025).
• 🇱🇻 Latvia — no source found yet
• 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein — no source found yet
• 🇱🇹 Lithuania — A platform workers' trade union was formed (2025).
• 🇱🇺 Luxembourg — A platform won the first court ruling on platform workers' employment status (May 2025).
• 🇳🇿 New Zealand — no source found yet
• 🇸🇰 Slovakia — no source found yet
• 🇸🇮 Slovenia — no source found yet

The score shows how directly a rider can sell their own work: a small indication of how open the market is to one person working for themselves, not a full measure of economic freedom. Countries score high both where riders are free contractors (Estonia, Austria) and where courts made them employees of the platform (Italy, the Netherlands). Sources: the Eurofound platform economy database, national courts and press, as dated in each row; checked 30 September 2026. The EU Platform Work Directive, due in national law by 2 December 2026, will move the EU rows.

What can go wrong

• The money doesn't arrive. You get a payment date, it passes, you're told it will be processed today, it isn't. A different person says the same thing. Then nobody answers.
• No way to reach them. The support email on the fleet's own site can bounce as non-existent, the phone go to nobody, the WhatsApp line go quiet. Each email opens a new ticket instead of continuing the last, so nobody owns your case.
• The platform will not help. Support will tell you, politely and repeatedly, that fleet-managed payouts aren't their responsibility. That is contractually true — which means the company whose brand you wear is not the company you can chase for your pay.
• You carry the company's cash. On cash orders you hold money belonging to the platform. You can be owed a thousand lei by the fleet while holding several hundred of the platform's cash. Separate obligations — one does not cancel the other.

Get these in writing before you sign

An email or WhatsApp message is fine. A verbal answer is worth nothing.

• Full legal name and CUI — not the brand on the WhatsApp profile. Look it up free on the Romanian company registers: when it was set up, how many employees, what turnover. A company registered months ago with no employees and almost no turnover isn't necessarily dishonest, but it has nothing to lose.
• The exact commission and any weekly fee, and whether that fee still applies in a week you don't work.
• The payment schedule — which days are covered, and exactly when they are paid.
• What happens if they pay late. The answer tells you a lot, whatever it is.
• The full contract to read before signing, not at the meeting. If you're told you can read it when you arrive, that is your answer.
• Who releases your courier account if you leave, and on what notice. It can be held hostage by a fleet you want to leave.

Warning signs worth taking seriously

• Documents demanded before any contract exists — ID, passport, a selfie holding it, your CNP, your bank details. A complete identity package handed to a company you cannot yet identify.
• Nobody will name the company. Brand names, first names, a logo, a phone number — no legal entity, no CUI.
• Messages deleted from the chat, particularly just before a contract is sent.
• A cash deposit for equipment, with no receipt.
• Equipment from a competing platform handed to you for the platform you're joining.
• Questions answered with a different answer. Ask about notice, get told the pay is good. Count how many of your actual questions were answered.
• A different person every time. Three replies in a day and none knows what the last promised means there is no case ownership, and there won't be when it matters.

Protect yourself from day one

• Screenshot everything, daily — orders with times and amounts, your balance, every promise with the name and timestamp of whoever made it. Thirty seconds a day, and the whole difference between a claim and a grievance.
• Keep your own count. Date, time, pickup, fee, in a note app or spreadsheet. Apps change what they show; your own record doesn't.
• Never let two weeks build up unpaid. The first missed payment is the signal. Riding into week two doubles your exposure for no reason.
• Watch your fixed costs. The weekly rental falls due whether or not anyone pays you — that bill, not the unpaid invoice, is usually what hurts.
• Write down what you've spent. Equipment, rent, fuel, top-ups. It matters as much as earnings when working out if the job is worth it, and you'd need it anyway if it ever went to court.

If you are already not being paid

Keep it short and unemotional, and put everything in writing. Send one clear written demand to the address named in your contract as the official channel for notices — that is the one that legally counts. State the period, the number of deliveries, the amount, the agreed payment date, and give a deadline. Ask for the payment order reference and value date, not for reassurance: "it was sent" is not an answer, a bank reference is. Copy the platform in — they won't pay you, but a dated record in their system removes the fleet's ability to claim nobody told anyone.

Beyond that, Romania has a fast-track court procedure for undisputed money debts that needs no lawyer and costs a small fixed fee, and legal aid exists if your income is low. There is also a labour inspectorate that takes an interest when work is dressed up as a partnership to avoid employment obligations. Which is worth using depends on the amount and your patience — but the paperwork you kept from day one is what makes any of them possible.