Platform economies, food delivery workers, and urban consumption behavior.
A strike by over 40,000 riders failed to paralyse New Year’s deliveries, and Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal even mocked the riders on X. Indian riders working roughly 15 hours a day with no contracts are being organised by newly formed worker associations, fighting for safety and income protections.
Behind 30-minute delivery, former JD 7Fresh picker He Siqi worked 31 days. He ran 30,000 steps daily, earned just 30 paise per item, had nine minutes per order, faced scolding and fines when late, and sometimes paid his own delivery fee for a supplementary delivery.
Social worker He Siqi spent a month as a picker at JD Qixian—real-time PDA countdowns, monitoring-screen pressure, fines for mistakes. Behind “30-minute delivery” are bodies sprinting without rest between shelves.
No weather allowance, and fines for not clocking in – the platform’s “tiered reward” scheme pushes risk onto riders. On downpour days there is no circuit breaker; the city’s convenience never pauses, only a person’s safety does.
Delivery riders take orders in the rain while facing fines and the risk of accidents. A debate over responsibility among consumers, platforms and workers also asks whether platform gig work has become a safety net for the unemployed.
In Beijing’s downpours and heat, Meituan, Ele.me and JD.com riders are pushed to keep showing up by order assignment, fines and subsidy rules, with pain in their feet, water-damaged phones and losses and risks largely borne by themselves.
Riders eat only two meals a day, stomach problems are rife, and a South Korean study found gig workers eating fewer than three meals face over three times the depression risk of others. Under algorithmic scheduling and livelihood pressures, food-delivery labour runs at the cost of depleting health.
An ordinary employee at a McDonald’s in Shanghai’s Jing’an District earns 19 yuan per hour, rising to 21 yuan only after 1,000 hours. When takeaway orders surge, riders are pressed by the platform, staff are pressed by orders, and leftovers are thrown away after closing.
From food delivery containers and courier parcels to mooncake gift boxes, people document the layers of plastic wound around everyday life and share tips on reuse, bringing your own containers, and finding recycling points to cut back on plastic.
Renso, a Chinese woman on a Working Holiday Visa, delivers food on foot for Uber Eats in Melbourne – over 80 orders and 1,200+ AUD in her first month. No fixed deadlines, no docked pay, no impatient customers: this laid-back rhythm gradually cured her anxiety.
