56-year-old grandma rides PMA around Yishun delivering GrabFood to support her family, here’s how she does it

When I arrive at Northpoint City, I see Ong Ai Leen already waiting, seated casually on her Personal Mobility Aid (PMA) at a parking spot.

Decked in a familiar green, with maroon tights, the 56-year-old is a full-time delivery rider for Grab, and officially joined the platform during the pandemic.

As a single mother and widower, Ong now supports her family with her job, supplementing the income of her eldest son, who has taken on the mantle of chief breadwinner in the family.

Over a cup of coffee, she shared with me about the job’s joys and struggles, taking me on a behind-the-scenes look into her day-to-day “joy rides”.

Worked odd jobs for 10+ years

Ong was a full-time housewife for more than 10 years, until her husband passed away in 2011.

Ong then became the sole breadwinner of the family, and came out to work to support her three children, then aged 10 to 16 respectively.

Over almost 10 years, Ong worked in roles ranging from a polyclinic assistant, to bookshop aunty, and even a stint at a printing and stationery shop.

However, as a working mother, her job options were limited.

“I needed to have a lot of free time to be able to attend to my children's needs, such as taking time off for their parent-teacher meetings.”

Becoming a Grab delivery rider during the pandemic

Ong said that she was initially “quite apprehensive” to join Grab, and almost passed on the opportunity in 2020.

Despite having heard of the app before, she felt that she lacked the IT-savviness and navigational skills to become a delivery rider.

She credits her decision to eventually do so to her son-in-law, who encouraged her to take a leap of faith and try it out.

After signing up with the platform in September 2020, Ong explained that she found the job to be well-suited to her needs.

“And that’s why I stuck with it, because of all the free time that I can have, and flexi time is the number one plus point for me.

Unlike my previous jobs where I needed to seek permission to apply for time off, with Grab, I no longer need to. Now, I can choose whether I’d like to work during the day or not, as and when I like, which is a huge draw for me.”

Rainy weather and delivery challenges

The first order of the day comes in soon after Ong comes online.

At the restaurant, we waited for the order to be prepared by the GrabFood merchant.

We picked it up and off we went.

Delivering on rainy days is an issue that affects Ong more, because of her knee problem.

“The roads can be slippery on my PMA, and I’m unable to walk for long distances. So the main issue is when we deliver to some places, like private estates, and have to park outside whilst trying to ensure the food does not get too wet. It’s not easy.”

To protect the food she delivers from becoming soaked, Ong shares that she often brings along extra plastic bags, to pack the orders in.

When delivering during mild to moderate rainy weather conditions, Ong also takes care to ride her PMA extra slowly.

Generally, most customers are understanding of the challenges faced by riders in such conditions.

“It also helps when the security guards at condos let us go down to the carparks”, Ong quips.

A community

According to Ong, Grab has helped to tide her family through a difficult period of little to no income – when Ong and her family all tested positive for Covid-19 last year.

The entire family was placed on a quarantine order for 10 days then, and were not able to leave the house.

A Covid-19 support payout from Grab helped the family to afford their daily food deliveries during this period, which amounted to more than S$700.

When a friend got into an accident and sustained a minor injury, she was also able to claim from the “Prolonged Medical Leave and Personal Accident Insurance” offered by Grab, Ong adds.

“We can always contact the Grab help centre to check if we can make a claim for any accident, and they are quite prompt in getting back to us”.

In adapting to the day-to-day challenges of the role, Ong attributes much of her comfort with the job to her delivery rider friends in the area.

According to Ong, most of them first met at the parking area at the McDonald’s outlet in Chong Pang.

Ong elaborates:

“When I first moved into the role, these riders were the ones who gave me tips on where to park my PMA, as well as tips on shortcuts through the estate. It’s thanks to them for guiding me along.”

Ong adds that a friend of hers once volunteered to accompany her upon hearing that Ong had received a stack order (where a rider is assigned two orders simultaneously before going out to deliver each one), but was considering to decline the request as she had a low phone battery.

The friend ended up following Ong to ensure she did not lose her way while she completed her deliveries, before sending her home.

Even now, if any of her friends see her on the road looking lost, Ong adds that they still check in with her, and ask if she is okay.

“The delivery riders in Yishun are really like a small community. They go all-out [to help], which is very touching.”

Flexi time as the priority

Ong points out that the attractiveness of the job stems primarily from the flexible time it entails.

“For example, if my daughter says ‘mummy, let’s meet for lunch’, my job allows me to just mark my status as offline, and meet up with my daughter, at any time,” Ong shares.

For Ong, being able to spend quality time with her family has held even greater significance after the passing of her husband, as she explains succinctly: “Money can earn back, but not time spent with the family.”

In fact, if her current role had been available back in 2011, Ong adds that she would have opted for it then, because having the time to look after her kids has always been the priority. However, Grab had not been available as a platform back then.

“Now it [the job] still helps me to spend time with my family, but mostly on the weekends. It’s what I’m thankful for, like my daughter will usually bring over the grandkids, and we will have small parties at my place.”

Ong added that because her job is “own time own target (OTOT)”, she intends to take a long break of around six weeks from mid-May, to care for her heavily pregnant daughter, and her new grandchild.

“Initially she didn’t want me to help [with her confinement], because of my job. But, I told her, it’s important for me to take care of you. Pregnancy isn’t easy, so I want to support her and be there for her too.”

Getting to explore the Yishun estate

Beyond the flexible working hours, Ong also enjoys being able to spend time with her sons.

Her eldest son often tags along to help Ong on grocery runs, and her youngest – now 20 years old – accompanies Ong to lunch more often.

Ong added that getting to spend time together with her 20-year-old son has meant a lot to her this year, as he is about to start National Service.

“So, I’m grateful that I’m able to bring him to eat lunch in the area, and go about the estate.”

Ong shares that her job has also pushed her to go out more, to explore her block and the larger Yishun estate.

“[It’s] quite fun lah, that I get to see my estate,” she muses.

“Sometimes, I take it that I’m going for a joy ride lor!”

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of being a GrabFood delivery rider, you can click here.

All images via Lean Jinghui.

This sponsored article by Grab brought the writer around the Yishun estate.