‘Really squeezed’: Why drivers in the world’s largest food delivery market are having meltdowns

Beijing/Hong Kong CNN —

A takeout delivery rider suddenly loses it in the middle of the road, smashing his cellphone on the pavement after getting a negative review from a customer.

Another delivery worker gets on his knees to apologize to a cop who pulled him over for running a red light, before jumping up, forcefully pushing over his motorbike and sprinting across a road without regard to traffic.

In yet another incident, crowds of angry drivers gather outside an apartment complex, demanding justice for a fellow delivery driver said to be bullied by security guards there.

They’re among the many episodes of explosive confrontations across China involving delivery workers widely circulated on Chinese social media, showing people stretched to the breaking point.

The $200 billion industry, the world’s largest by revenue and volume of orders, more than doubled during three years of Covid-19 lockdowns and once provided a solid income for casual workers. But not anymore.

As China’s economy grapples with a raft of setbacks, from a protracted property crisis to a lack of consumer spending, delivery workers are taking a beating.

Those challenges were thrown into stark relief on Friday, when the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced China’s economy moderated further in the third quarter, weighed down by weak consumption and a crisis in the property market.

Gross domestic product grew by 4.6% in the three-month period from July to September, compared with a year ago. That was just slightly higher than the expectations of economists polled by Reuters, who had predicted expansion of 4.5%.

“They are working long hours, really being squeezed,” said Jenny Chan, associate sociology professor at Polytechnic University of