With the Circuit Breaker (CB), most businesses in Singapore are suffering terribly.
There are some, however, who thrives in such an environment.
Basically e-commerce businesses like Shopee, Qoo10 and food delivery platforms.
As people are now staying home more, they turn to online means to get the items that they need.
By the way, this isn’t us pulling figures out of our backsides. Qoo10 and Shopee previously reported an increase of up to 65% for their sales and traffic volume.
Similarly, food delivery services are also getting a lot of orders with the ban on dine-in at F&B outlets.
Unfortunately, while food orders have shot up, food delivery riders aren’t actually reaping the benefits.
Food Delivery Riders Are Earning Less Now As There Are Too Many Riders
The folks at TNP were presumedly curious about what’s going on in the food delivery industry so they went around asking food delivery riders about their situation.
In a surprising turn of events, they found out that 81% of food delivery riders actually earned lesser than before the CB kicked into play.
38-year-old GrabFood rider Jack Lim said:
“It is a huge misconception that we are getting more money now with the increased demand for food deliveries.
“There are more orders, but there are also a lot more riders as more people are getting retrenched due to Covid-19.”
Too Many Competition Now
More people are getting retrenched due to Covid-19, according to some of the food delivery riders spoken to, and some of them will become food delivery riders themselves to eke out a living.
Mr Lim says that nowadays, his daily takings have dropped from $100 a day to $20 a day, making it tough for him to provide for his family.
That’s an 80% drop.
Another food delivery rider, 57-year-old Abdul Azziz, said his earnings started dropping last month.
Also, private-hire vehicle (PHV) drivers from Grab are now picking up food delivery orders too since there are lesser passengers on the roads to ferry.
Grab had launched a pilot programme last year which allows PHV drivers to make on-demand food and parcel deliveries during off-peak commuting hours.
Thousands of them have signed up for the programme, Grab says.
At Foodpanda, delivery riders have to sign up for a shift in an area before they can start delivering food.
With the influx of more people, Foodpanda delivery riders are now finding it hard to book a shift to work.
Food Delivery Companies Are Now Trying To Help
All of the food delivery companies spoken to by TNP says that earnings are mainly dependant on the individual riders themselves.
However, GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo have initiatives that will help riders earn more.
For GrabFood, they have rolled out a Group Order function which allows orders in the same area to be consolidated together. This, they say, will let the riders make more deliveries within an hour.
As for Deliveroo, they have given their riders a guide on when and where is the best time to work for the most earnings.
Foodpanda is now working with Enterprise Singapore (ESG) to get more restaurants to go digital. They have also allowed riders to sign up for shifts a week earlier although it doesn’t seem to have helped much.
With more restaurants going digital, it means more jobs for the riders.
For those who have lost their jobs due to Covid-19, or suffered a drop of more than 30% in their income, you can apply for the Temporary Relief Fund which will give you $500 within 3 working days to tide you over.
Just make sure to only apply if you need it because authorities are now coming down hard on people who misuse the funds.
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All because a guy decided to scam the government and brag about it online.