How Can Food Delivery People’s Working Conditions Be Improved?
Arecent investigative report by a Chinese monthly magazine, Renwu, gave an insight into the working conditions of China’s food delivery people, circulating widely on social media.
It revealed how food delivery drivers are pushed by companies to deliver food in an increasingly short timeframe, all at the behest of algorithms that often turn a blind eye to real-life situations including traffic conditions and regularly send them on dangerous routes (against traffic, down footpaths and on highways), and penalize them if meals are even one second late.
The system constantly assesses a driver’s on-time performance and assigns a ranking, which affects whether he is assigned more work. As a result delivery people are constantly risking their life to deliver meals on time, resulting in
