Late night booze deliveries facing tough crackdown
It may stop people from drink-driving and be a great convenience to many but VicHealth says booze delivery services should be banned from doing late night drops. But not everyone is convinced it’s a great idea.
VIC News
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Alcohol delivery services could be banned from dropping off booze to Victorian homes overnight, in a push from a peak health body to rein in industry “cowboys”.
VicHealth is calling for a two-hour delay between alcohol purchase and delivery, and a ban on on-demand deliveries between 10pm and 10am.
Its survey of 1700 people has shown that a third of those using the services of operators like Uber Eats, BWS Online, Dan Murphys Delivery and Tipple received alcohol without having their IDs checked.
It found that 71 per cent of weekly users reported regularly getting orders delivered when drunk, and 40 per cent said they would have stopped drinking if the delivery was unavailable.
Almost half of people who used a service reported having memory loss after drinking, compared with less than a quarter of people who did not use on-demand delivery.
VicHealth CEO Dr Sandro Demaio said the harm from on-demand alcohol delivery was a real worry.
“This research for the first time shows a link of concern between ordering on-demand alcohol products online and harms like memory loss and injury,” she said.
“Something is really wrong when a business is allowed to sell someone a bottle of hard alcohol when they’re already drunk, and deliver it to their door in 15 minutes.”
Dr Demaio said alcohol delivery services were acting like cowboys in Victoria, and it was time to rein them in.
“To reduce harm we want to see a minimum time of two hours between ordering and receiving alcohol, IDs must be checked and under no circumstances should alcohol be left unattended,” she said.
However, Julie Ryan, chief executive of industry body Retail Drinks Australia, said VicHealth’s survey was problematic, especially as it covered the peak of the coronavirus pandemic which had unusual purchasing patterns.
“They take unverifiable data such as survey responses of a tiny sample size, and then amplify subsets of those statistics to present overly alarmist views,” she said.
“Policy reform requires evidence that can be independently verified and peer tested.”
Ms Ryan said the retailers referred to in VicHealth’s study had signed up to the Retail Drinks Online Alcohol Sale and Delivery Code of Conduct.
An Uber Eats spokeswoman said the company’s community guidelines made clear that delivery partners must follow the law.
“The Uber Eats app prompts delivery partners to check ID, and confirm the date of birth and sobriety of an individual in-app before delivering alcohol,” she said.
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