Protecting a different kind of hero

It is time for the major players in the food delivery business to share a portion of the profits with the delivery riders.

IT’S pouring at 11pm in Bangsar, and a delivery rider on a battered motorbike scoots bet­ween cars. He’s already clocked 11 hours today. His phone pings another order: RM8 base pay for a 7km trip. After petrol, maintenance and the risk of a skid on flooded roads, what’s left? Maybe RM4 in his pocket.

This is not an isolated story.

Across the country, tens of thousands of app-based food and parcel delivery riders – the backbone of GrabFood, Foodpanda, Shopee­Food and more – are the visible face of the gig economy. They keep our nasi lemak hot and our groceries arriving before we finish scrolling.

Yet, studies and rider testimony show the same grim reality: after fuel, bike repairs, phone data and the occasional accident, many full-timers take home between RM2,000 and RM2,500 a month.

Some months, after a slow week or a burst tyre, it dips lower.

Now, contrast that with the companies whose platforms they power.

Grab, which commands 67% of Malaysia’s food-delivery market, reported group revenue of RM14.5bil for 2025, its highest ever. Foodpanda’s parent, Deli­very Hero, is also turning the corner into sustained profitability across Asia. ShopeeFood is growing fast. In plain language, the platforms are thriving.

The online food-delivery market in Malaysia is projected to continue expanding at double- digit rates. Yet, the people who actually move the food from kitchen to doorstep – the ones who bear the rain, the traffic and the medical bills if they fall – are still scraping by on paltry pay that hasn’t kept pace with the rising cost of living.

It is now estimated that more than 50% of Malaysians order one to three times a month using a food delivery app.

There is no official national statistic for the exact number of food delivery riders (also called p-hailing riders or couriers) in Malaysia, as many work flexibly across platforms, with some full-time and many as side gigs.

But a conservative estimate puts this number somewhere bet­ween 80,000 and 90,000. It was brought home forcibly to me how much we depend on delivery ­riders for our daily needs during this Hari Raya holiday season.

I tried ordering lunch for my mother-in-law, and despite the restaurant accepting the order from my app, no delivery rider accepted. She finally received her lunch three hours later.

This is not surprising, as many app users reported cancellations or delayed deliveries during this period due to a severe shortage of p-hailing riders.

While most of us received paid holidays during Hari Raya, these delivery riders were not paid. For them, there are only two options – work, even on a public holiday, and get paid or spend Raya with your loved ones, but without income.

Many of us complain about these riders and their reckless manoeuvres on busy roads. There can be no excuse for breaking traffic laws, but people forget that they speed from one location to the next because the more jobs they take, the more they get paid. There are no off days for them, no sick days and definitely no paid leave.

And for this, there’s a price to be paid.

The Star reported that between 2018 and 2021, there were 1,242 accidents involving food delivery riders, and 112 ended in deaths.

It must be said that the government is trying its best to regulate the industry. A Socso insurance scheme for them was introduced in 2021. The Gig Workers Bill 2025 intends to provide better protection for them, including the creation of a Gig Workers Tribunal to settle disputes and the mandatory registration of riders.

The recently launched i-Saraan Plus is a voluntary EPF contribution initiative which allows these riders to receive special incentives from the government to enhance their retirement security, subject to applicable terms and conditions.

But more can still be done for this segment of our workforce.

In the United States, courts in California and Wisconsin have ruled that certain delivery drivers and couriers are employees, not independent contractors. These rulings focus on the reality of the work relationship rather than the signed contract, granting drivers rights to minimum wage, expense reimbursement and overtime.

Grab and its peers have created genuine economic value: they support hundreds of thousands of earning opportunities nationwide, help small restaurants reach new customers and generate billions in GDP spillover.

But value creation should not come at the expense of value extraction from the most vulnerable link in the chain. Riders are not “independent contractors” in the true sense; they are de facto employees without the protections. They cannot negotiate rates. They are penalised by algorithms for rejecting low-pay orders. They absorb all the capital costs (bike, helmet and raincoat) and all the downside risk (accidents, theft and bad weather). Meanwhile, the platforms enjoy massive scale advantages and massive profits.

It is time for the major players in the food delivery business to share a portion of the profits they make with the delivery riders. If deliveries are generating hund­reds of millions in profit, a few percentage points redirected as higher base pay or quarterly bonuses would not bankrupt anyone.

Studies from other markets show that better-paid riders are safer, more professional and less likely to multi-app or cut corners in traffic.

The riders have delivered for us. Now it’s the companies’ turn to deliver for them.