Two lines of dirt-encrusted, ramshackle caravans stretch along both sides of a road close to the motorway that winds its way into the heart of Bristol. Rats dart between water-filled concrete sluices to rubbish-flecked mounds of vegetation. Drug users stumble out of the nearby underpass while lorries thunder overhead.

This is the grim encampment where about 30 Brazilian delivery riders working for large companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats are forced to live to make ends meet.

Celia Campos, 45, has been living in a caravan next to the sluices for a year. “We left Brazil in search of something better,” she says in quickfire Portuguese. “But most of us can’t make those dreams come true. We come back in a worse state than when we left.”

It has become much harder for riders to make a living from food deliveries as they claim their earnings have not kept pace with price rises.

While the national living wage is £11.44 an hour, food delivery companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats do not formally employ their riders. Instead, they are gig economy workers, paid for each individual delivery. That means workers can end up earning far less than the minimum wage.

Campos works long hours for both companies and in July says she worked 333 hours, earning the equivalent of £6.27 an hour. Her payment records show she was paid as little as £1.20 for some deliveries by Uber Eats. “We spend as much time on the streets as possible. I work from 8am until I get tired… usually midnight,” she says. “Delivery work is not good any more. You have to be a slave to earn enough.”

She cannot afford soaring rents in Bristol, which have been rising faster than anywhere else in the country and in turn have caused the number of vehicle dwellers to climb in the West Country city.

The harsh living conditions, long hours and low pay lead to mental health problems in the encampment. “I was depressed for a year. It was horrible,” says Campos. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. If you work, work, work and have no life… that’s where depression comes from.”

Deliveroo, which recently fought off a seven-year legal challenge to secure more rights for gig economy riders, posted its first profit this month, reporting net earnings of £1.3m in the first half of 2024.

Uber, which provides taxis and food deliveries, saw its UK pre-tax profits increase from £5m in 2021 to £32m in 2022, with the delivery side of the UK business pulling in £700m in revenues.

The Labour government has promised a new employment rights bill that will ban zero-hour contracts and make sick pay available from day one. But a plan to bring in a single status for all employees, which would give gig economy workers the same rights as employed staff, has been replaced with a pledge to consult on a simpler employment framework.

Some Labour MPs have raised concerns about the links between the party and Deliveroo, as the company has sponsored a series of Labour events. Deliveroo’s chief executive, Will Shu, was invited to a drinks party hosted by Keir Starmer last month. Shu appears in a video recorded at the event and shared on the prime minister’s official X account.

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

The riders look out for each other, as they say they receive little support from the platforms they log into every day. They protect mopeds, fix each other’s punctures and raise money for injured or sick workers. One compares the kerbside community to a union or “sindicato” and another to a favela – a working-class shantytown in Brazil.

Some still feel vulnerable to street violence. Lorena is scared anti-immigrant protesters may burn their homes. “We feel threatened,” she says.

Her neighbour Lucas, 25, is resting in his dilapidated caravan. The window seams are covered with black gaffer tape and the back is covered in tarpaulin. His double bed takes up most of the living space, which measures just five by two metres.

Black mould covers the walls above his small camping stove, which is dangerous when used in enclosed spaces. “There is no comfort here [in the caravan]. There is a bed to sleep in and that’s it… sometimes I get demotivated,” he says.

On the other side of the road, another rider is getting ready to go out on his moped. Freitas, 32, is a qualified pharmacist in Brazil but delivers takeaways in the UK. Figures on his Uber Eats app show he was paid on average £3.43 a delivery. “I studied for five years. I wouldn’t like to tell my family what’s going on here,” he says.

He is desperate to move because his caravan has no power, no heating and nowhere to cook. The windows leak over his bed when it rains. “It is a struggle to live like this. You have to wrap yourself in a blanket at night,” he explains. “Many of the people who stay here end up having mental problems because they live in a small cube.”

Heather Mack, deputy leader of Bristol city council, says: “Most of us seek to treat others the way that we would like to be treated, yet shamefully this is not what we see from firms like Deliveroo and Uber Eats in our city. Those who work for a living should earn a living which can provide them with the essentials that we all need: safety, sanitation and food.”

Mack also called on the government to end the “cruel hostile environment” policy to give migrants a route to legal work.

The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) – which led the unsuccessful legal campaign to secure employment rights for riders – said the Bristol encampment was “emblematic of the misery mass-produced by the gig economy”. Maritza Castillo Calle, IWGB vice-president, accused delivery companies of slashing riders’ pay to push up their bottom line. “We must make no mistake that Deliveroo posted its first-ever profit last week as a direct result of its workers facing new depths of deprivation,” she says.

Deliveroo said it was “very concerned” about riders living in unsuitable conditions and would contact Bristol city council. A spokesperson added: “Deliveroo offers the flexible work riders tell us they want, attractive earning opportunities and protections including free insurance, sickness cover, financial support when riders become new parents and a range of training opportunities.”

Uber said Uber Eats offered a flexible way for thousands of couriers to earn money: “Couriers can access a range of protections, including on-trip insurance, when they work with us, and we regularly engage with couriers to look at how we can improve their experience.”

Back in Bristol, Campos climbs on to her scooter. She is exhausted from the long hours she put in last night but says she needs to work again. “You have to make a lot of deliveries if you are getting paid one or two or three pounds for each drop-off … the owners of these companies do not think about us riders, who make them their money – they only think of themselves.”