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COMMENTARY: Our contributor Abel Ang reflects on Singapore's reliance on food delivery riders, and how we can show them our appreciation in tangible ways.

Abel Ang is the chief executive of a medical technology company and an adjunct associate professor at Nanyang Business School.

Food delivery represents how far civilization has come. Eating without moving, the evolutionary work of our species is complete.

In the words of the eponymous song from the Oliver Twist Musical from 1968, “Food, glorious food! Eat right through the menu.”

The wonder of modern technology and food delivery applications lets me do all that – without having to leave the comfort of my home. What to do when I am hankering for fried chicken, bubble tea, or pizza; but it’s too hot to go outside? Fire up the food delivery app, and voila, instant gratification.

The app magically summons the “invisible heroes” of our modern age. From the tens of thousands of drivers, riders and delivery runners, a chosen delivery professional is selected to bring my favorite foods and beverages, to satisfy my wildest cravings.

The phrase “food delivery” makes my knees go weak, so I will use the 12 letters that make up the phrase to capture what I’ve learnt about the business and convey my deep respect for the many that serve in the industry each day.

FOOD DELIVERY

Food. Naturally, there is no food delivery without the food. Like a burger without the patty. Or milkshakes without ice cream. There is a smorgasbord of options: Italian, Indian, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Malay food – all within my delivery area. Happiness-inducing food is coddled and nestled in the safety of the thermal carrier, like a new mother’s arms – until it is ready to be delivered, into the clutches of the hungry patron.

Options. A big reason why delivery professionals come to work each day is the ability to manage their own time. Their work gives them the flexibility to plan their working hours as they can structure their schedule around other commitments. As they are paid each day, they have the option to spend the rest of the time with their family and friends when they have worked enough.

Online training. To indulge my curiosity about the process to become a delivery professional, I took the online training to be a delivery rider some years ago. At the time, I endured an innocuous 30 minute video training followed by 10 questions, which I narrowly passed (passing grade is nine correct answers). It was basically a half hour spent on reminders to smile, be professional, and to observe food hygiene.

Delivery gear. This was a discovery for me: I did not know that the delivery gear had to be purchased. Starter packs start at more than S$60 for the thermal carrier bags and T-shirts. You would think that the Unicorn valuation food delivery companies would help pay for their delivery folks to be walking advertisements around Singapore!

Delivering through the elements. Delivery professionals brave the wind, sun and the elements so that we don’t have to. Satisfying hunger, cravings and urges. Time and time again.

Employment implications. As much as I love food delivery, I worry about its implications on the tens of thousands of delivery riders that ply the trade. What happens when autonomous vehicles or drones deliver the food instead? For some, their stint as a delivery professional is temporary, just to get some cash in between jobs, or while waiting for National Service to start. What about those who rely solely upon the trade to feed their families?

Lei. That is the name of a food delivery rider from Hangzhou, who won a Chinese poetry competition on national TV in China. He defeated a Master of Literature from Peking University. Self-taught, Lei has memorized thousands of poems. The depth of human potential in this delivery population is most definitely untapped. What will our Singaporean version of Lei be able to do?

Intimate relationship. Mamahuhu, a Shanghai based comedy group, created a YouTube music video (MV) titled “Ode to Take Out.” The dramatic undertones of this sometimes dark yet catchy video point to the intimate relationship between delivery riders and customers. Some say food is the way to a man’s heart? There is a line in the MV that goes: “I want to thank you all for being strong, without you, I would just be a dude who had to actually go out for stuff. My breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, you get the idea...”

Vehicle of choice. Electric bicycle or a certified electric scooter. Who can forget GrabFood rider Muhammad Riau Alfian’s life-saving efforts at a lorry crash in Jurong? Noticing that fuel had spilled onto the road, this brave Singaporean showed heaps of derring-do, breaking the window of the lorry and pulling the driver to safety without concern for his own well-being. This wasn’t the only incident where the former auxiliary police officer had helped strangers too. Did anyone say “depth of human potential”?

Exhaustion. The pandemic has made food delivery an essential service. The increased volume of deliveries has seen many delivery riders push themselves to the edge of human endurance, to make a few extra dollars. While there are no statistics for how often this happens, there are numerous posts on riders who have collapsed on the road or near their delivery locations out of sheer exhaustion. Food delivery can be a rain or shine, 24 by 7, 365 days a year vocation – and it takes its brutal toll on the riders.

Ramadan. Delivery professionals work through fasting, public and religious holidays. Who can forget the 2018 video of McDonald’s delivery man fasting during Ramadan? He wakes up before dawn with his family to have a light meal before the day starts. When a fellow delivery rider offers him food at lunch while he’s fasting, he says “it’s cool, man” instead of being insulted. The video ends sweetly with a patron offering him a box of McNuggets to buka puasa (break fast), and calls on all to share the spirit of Ramadan. For me, that’s not just the spirit of Ramadan but the spirit of Singapore.

Yes. Thank you. To these unsung heroes — thank you for what you do each day to make our bad hair mornings, working lunches, lazy dinners and mid-night munchies that much easier to gobble through.

Showing appreciation in tangible ways

Delivery professionals risk life, limb, and lungs for our convenience.

As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, food delivery orders have also increased as people may choose to stay at home more often. They are the unsung heroes that make all this possible — by braving the traffic, elements, and food stall inefficiencies, and often with a smile.

While we lack a tipping culture here in Singapore, and there is a delivery fee with each order, I feel that it is always nice to acknowledge the effort that the delivery professionals have gone through to bring the food to us by rounding up the bill to the nearest dollar or two, and paying the tip in cash.

Take for instance this customer who tipped the food delivery rider S$30 after watching him perform a moonwalk to hang food on their gate.

Or how a woman in Singapore tipped her food delivery personnel S$5 even though the bag containing her food “burst” and fell to the ground. Instead of blaming the rider, the customer even said that “it’s okay”, acknowledging that their job is “very tough”.

Small gestures of kindness like this can make a real difference to the morale of food delivery professionals, and shows our appreciation in a very tangible way.

Riau, who was nominated for Singaporean of the year in 2019, said. “I would like to see more Singaporeans help one another…during National Day Parade we always sing ‘one people, one nation, one Singapore.’ It takes each and every Singaporean to build a better Singapore.”

Isn’t that all it takes for us food delivery junkies and food delivery heroes to make Singapore better? Or in the words of this year’s National Day song, “we did it before, and we’ll do it again” - one order at a time.

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Top photo via  Zye Hensem /Facebook, Petrina Ng/Facebook.