Food delivery rider

I’m 21 this year and I’m currently waiting to apply for a place in polytechnic. Right after I ORD, I applied to become a delivery rider at foodpanda to earn some extra income while waiting for school to start. So as of today I have been working for over a year! But I only started working more consistently since July this year. And also I thought you know, I have my own bike, so why not just make full use of it by working as a food delivery rider.

So working at foodpanda what I would do is that I will work alternately. Monday Wednesdays Fridays and then weekends I don’t touch lah. Why ah? Because it is damn tiring ah. I actually have minimum hours for those days, of 5 hours minimum each day. I would either take one full shift which is 5 hour plus and extend or split them into two different shifts. This really depends on what I did the day before and if I feel like it I will either take full shifts or just split shifts and take lesser shifts. 

So every two weeks the booking opens and you can book your future shifts for the next two weeks. For Foodpanda it is really to maintain the amount of riders on the road. For Grab it can be as many riders as they want on the road at a time.  So that’s why I prefer foodpanda over Grab. But there are pros and cons to this. Because there are fixed shifts, I just force myself to tahan (Malay: endure) and power through that shift since I already booked it. If I choose to just not do the shift-or what they call a “No Show”- for three times, my account will get suspended for a period of time. And that will stop my chances for earning more money during that suspension so I don’t want to risk that and I will try my best to commit to every shift that I have booked. No such thing as valid reason or send Medical Certificate or what. If you cannot come for the shift, then you either have to give your shift to someone else or else you will be considered a “No Show”. Do that 3 times and you will be suspended. 

When I first applied for this job I thought okay, let me work around my area. Cause that only makes sense right? Like work around your area, save cost on petrol and don't need to travel. So I live in Yishun and the shifts that you apply for also depend on regions ah. So when I first started out I applied for shifts around the Yishun/Sembawang region. I remember during my first few shifts I got an order from Sembawang Shopping Centre and when I reached there, my anxiety levels were off the roof because I didn’t know where to park. Should I go to the normal parking or park at the side of the road? And there will always be groups of people together from different delivery companies, and I don’t know if there’s any tension between the different delivery companies so I park far away to avoid anything. 

Actually I thought there would be arguments between riders from different companies especially because you know there are a lot of delivery companies out there, but it is usually arguments between the riders and the traffic police. When you first apply for foodpanda, they will add you into a foodpanda riders telegram group depending on your region. Then at first when I entered the chat, I kept seeing people send messages like “Hey, hey there is a green man at Sembawang Shopping Centre, there is a green man”. Then I thought the green man refers to the Grab riders because they wear green mah. Then over time I realised “green man” refers to the traffic police, because they wear the green vest. All of the riders are scared of them, especially when riders want to take orders from the mall. I always see mall riders kena saman (Malay: fined). First offence is warning, then second offence is $30 if the riders don’t park properly. This thing is super common ah so in the telegram group I will see people messaging like “Eh TP come liao”, then you see a bunch of riders just running towards their bikes and leaving. That’s why if you notice, everywhere when riders park our bikes illegally, there will always be just someone, just sitting there and lepak-ing (Malay: sitting around). Not because they are taking a break or not working, but because they are looking out for the traffic police and have that important duty to alert other riders in the telegram group if they see one.

Then also the telegram group has a lot of people one, usually in the thousands depending on the region. The foodpanda admin will appoint one regular delivery rider to be the admin of the group. Most of the time those admins are the crazy people who work everyday. I have seen someone send their weekly pay - oh so we are paid weekly every Wednesday based on the amount of orders we successfully delivered in that week. So in that one week there was this admin of the Yishun group that sent a screenshot of his weekly pay and he earned $2000 in that one week! Then people replied saying like “bro your one week pay is like my one month pay bro”. Which is so true. For me, I count my earnings per hour like I usually get $20-$30 per hour so that's about $300 ish every week if I were to be consistent in my scheduling and shifts. Ya, but will never hit $2000 la that one crazy. Plus $300 to me is already quite decent. 

But now I don’t work as much because the heat is crazy. You think that being a delivery rider is like simple work. Many think that all you need is just a bag to keep your food and a mode of transportation and you’re good to go. But no, there’s a lot of other layers to it. Before the start of a shift I need to prepare at least one 1.5 litres water bottle, a good phone that will not lag or overheat easily, enough portable chargers to last me my shift because I will always be on my phone checking orders and the routes, and of course a good physical body.

A good physical body is important to tahan carrying heavy food, tahan dehydration because sometimes you don’t even have time to drink water and also to tahan rain and heat. Rain especially because when you ride your bike under the rain it actually hurts. It is really painful when the raindrop hits you and you feel that uneasy “stinging” sensation”. I always hear people who make fun of those delivery riders who wear gloves, sleeves, full head mask and full helmet with goggles but actually those people are people that are not to be messed with because they are prepared for anything.

There’s so much to do and to prepare before being a delivery rider and before starting a shift. These days I can’t even bear to start a shift because the moment I leave the car park, my phone will overheat. And without my phone how can I accept orders? When this happens I will just u-turn and go home to rest. No point going about the day. 

But the thing that I find the most annoying these few days is that because it is just so damn hot, there are not enough delivery riders on the road. So, foodpanda will prompt riders, especially those who have not worked in a while, to start working again. They will send like this kind of SMS that starts with “We have missed you! Come and work again to earn even greater incentives” What they do is that they will up your incentive by awarding extra $25 if we complete 35 orders and so on. All this to just motivate you to go out and work even though you don’t want to. I usually don’t get swayed by these incentives. When it is hot, it is hot. No amount of money can cover the extreme heat I will feel during my shift. Also want to work but phone overheat and cannot use, so how do I think about working to begin with? They always send these kind of things la to make us work more. But when people work too much like that $2000 per week guy, confirm he works more than 10 hours per day non-stop but confirm foodpanda won’t ask them to stop. Money for both sides mah, but how about their physical and mental health? Hahaha.

Any accidents on the road when delivering food? Too many. I always have close encounters with life or death situations. Singapore riders and drivers are all very reckless la. There was one time I was doing deliveries around Ang Mo Kio Hub. I was jamming to good music, singing songs and all. Then I go into the carpark, I see the car in front of me waiting for a lorry in front of him to go into the parking lot. This is just a normal sight, so I just waited patiently behind him. Suddenly the car just reversed gear, full speed towards me. Then I honked at him but he reversed until he hit the front of my bike and I fell. But after that we just did a private settlement because I didn’t want to involve the insurance company because damn leceh (Malay: troublesome). But there was severe front damage to my motorbike and he agreed to pay a thousand dollars for the repair works on the front of my bike. Usually these accident plans foodpanda will cover, with insurance for every rider but only if you are hospitalised. But damage to your bike all, foodpanda will not cover. Fun fact, foodpanda is the only delivery company that does not check the insurance for your vehicle. So you can use any vehicle even though you don’t have insurance or the right to own it.

Actually, every time when I do delivery, I prefer not to do delivery to condominiums. It’s always so scary to do delivery to condominiums whether it be in the day or the night. Even Though there is security, it is only outside. Once you go past the security and reach the basement of the car park, there is just silence, because 90% of the time you are alone. When you park your bike and go to the intercom to call for the customer, the customer usually won’t even say anything and just let you in. At the lift lobby it’s just dead silent and then you wait for the lift alone. Once you’re in the lift, usually the condo will have mirrors inside. And because condominiums usually have a lot of floors like up till level 40, you will usually just be in the lift staring at yourself in the mirror with the food in your hand. Quite scary and depressing if I say so myself. Then once you alight, the lights at each floor are motion censored so if it is at night, the entire floor will just be pitch black. There were many instances where I had to turn on my flashlight to see where I’m walking. Also, because of COVID and the contactless delivery, you will just hang the food by the customer’s doorknob and make your way back down. There’s really no human connection or interaction and the ulu (Malay: remote) feeling of the condominiums just add to the loneliness and the fear factor to doing deliveries there. I hate doing deliveries to condominiums and would much rather do for HDBs.

To be honest, this contactless delivery thing really sucks because I love customer interaction. Before working as a food delivery rider, I used to work part time as a cashier at Borders and as a sales associate at Samsung and I realised I love talking to the customers. It is really sad that we can’t have this customer interaction as often anymore. But because of the pandemic this interaction is through different ways like through the provision of free sanitizer, masks, drinks and snacks at the front of the customers’ doorstep or at the top of their shoe cabinet.

There was one time I felt really bad because I was sending an order and when I took out the food from the bag, I accidentally dropped the plastic bag of soup. Then I just bopian (Hokkien: can’t do anything about it) went up the lift and was just prepared to get scolded by the customer. But when I reached the customers’ house and told her that I accidentally dropped her plastic bag of soup, she replied saying “It’s ok, it’s ok! It’s just soup, come and take one of the free stuff I have here”, then wah, she give me free item, she so nice, but I dropped her soup. Usually these free items come from those who live in HDB flats. Then I also noticed that most people who give me tips are from Malay families and those who give free items are usually from Chinese families. I always feel so appreciative towards them and I think that because of the pandemic, we are becoming more seen and appreciated and I really am grateful for that.

There was one time there was a glitch in the Foodpanda system and there was this customer who ordered his dish 2 hours ago but have yet to receive it. This is because sometimes foodpanda will give me a “stack” order where I get multiple orders from the same restaurant. Usually, the application will give me the addresses of customers according to who sent out their orders first. Unfortunately, because of the glitch, the customer who initially ordered first got his address pushed to the back of six other customers. Throughout the entire incident, the customer kept on messaging me like “Where is the food?” “I wait how long already?” I just felt so bad because there is nothing I can do about it because I need to deliver the other orders first before I am able to deliver his order, due to the glitch. When I reached his house, I saw from afar that he had his hands on his waist and I knew deep in my heart that I was going to get torn apart. When i reached his doorstep I explained to him that there was a glitch and I couldn’t do anything about it and this kind uncle replied with “bro, relax don’t worry, it is foodpanda’s fault la” and then he proceeded to talk shit about foodpanda and not only that, he gave me a tip. A tip even though his food arrived cold and he had to wait 2 hours for the cold food. I felt so appreciated at that point knowing that people understand how our system works and that we as riders, do not have the power to control whatever order the application gives us. We do not have much power and are simply the middleman who accepts orders, collects them and delivers it to the customer. The rest of the responsibility goes to the actual application and the restaurant vendor that prepares the food!

Surprisingly, throughout the one year of working in foodpanda, I have not encountered any bad customers or what you would call “customers from hell”. I have been blessed with such understanding and kind customers and I hope this stays. Even now, people hold the door for us in malls, or even when I’m in the lift they will let me go in first and hold the lift door for me before going in and I can also feel as though customers look at us with more respect. Last time before the pandemic, the customers were still very nice la but sometimes you can just feel that they are looking down at us. But now different, they respect us more.

Beyond the customers, the community we have here is also very cheerful and positive. Everytime I’m on the road, I see other delivery riders saying hi to one another and cheering each other on. Or even on the telegram group where the riders will say like “eh I saw you at XX restaurant! Nice seeing you bro”. It’s like a family already. Many people depend on this job full-time so the support they have from other riders is definitely needed to push through the long shifts.

Because of such nice customers, the welcoming community and of course the decent money, I feel more motivated to continue working as a food delivery rider but definitely only on a part-time basis because this work is ultimately still tiring. I really would not recommend anyone to do this full-time or have this as their only source of income especially if they have other better job options out there. I really feel that this job takes a toll on your physical and mental health, and the weather these days is also not helping. Those power riders with $2000 a week, definitely admirable la but just imagine how much he had to go through and I don’t think one can sustain like that for long periods of time. Also to add to that this job no CPF, so you need to be very self-directed when it comes to saving for your retirement. 

However,  for other people who do not have much of an option, especially disabled workers and those who can only travel around on their Personal Mobility Devices (PMD), food delivery is really the best and if not, the only option they have to earn an income. Other jobs require a lot of other certification or ease of moving and some other jobs also got discrimination and what not but food delivery job it is really whether you can deliver food. If you can, then there’s your money. Of course there are other things in between, but more or less, these kinds of jobs are best suited for people with disabilities. However, for myself, I would not do this full time because I have other options, I am physically able to do other jobs and I am still a student so other doors of job opportunities have yet to be opened.

I guess what I want to say to Singaporeans or other people who are not working as riders themselves is to be a bit more vocal in your appreciation towards riders. Say thank you through text or if possible, through the intercom. Actually, food delivery rider jobs are more of a “loner” job. I mean yes there is a community, but you are mostly doing the deliveries alone and interacting with customers alone. Just that extra human connection and interaction is always very much appreciated and I think other riders would be thankful for that extra “thank you”.

Singapore, 2021