The sudden death of a 55-year-old delivery worker on the streets of Hangzhou this week has shone the spotlight on tough conditions for China’s millions of takeout riders. [...]

While official statistics haven’t been made available, a keyword search for “sudden death of delivery riders” in Chinese pulls up a slew of media reports dating back to January 2021, involving riders of various ages. But working excessive hours appeared to be a common factor in all of the reports. [...]

Former delivery rider Lu Qiankun said Yuan’s death wasn’t an isolated case. “The sudden death of delivery riders is a common occurrence,” [...]

Falls from traffic accidents are also a major hazard for riders, particularly in icy weather [...]

The Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau Traffic Police Corps reported in 2017 that one delivery rider was being killed or injured every 2-3 days in the city, at a time when the number of riders was nowhere near its current level.

A fellow delivery rider from Hangzhou [said] “The biggest issue in this industry is that there’s no welfare protection,” [...] The next biggest problem is the low income. [...] Part of the problem is the oversupply of willing workers. [...]

Two days after Yuan’s death in Hangzhou, photos of delivery riders calling for collective bargaining and “China’s Martin Luther King” to stand up for gig economy workers started circulating on social media.

“We want our own union, our own spokesperson, and an eight-hour working day instead of 300 hours a month,” read a sign held up by a Meituan rider in one photo.

Part of the problem is that labor unions in China must all operate under the aegis of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Independent unions seldom come into being, and are usually ruthlessly suppressed by the authorities, activists say.

Another issue is that riders are often recruited and hired by third-party agencies, so there is no direct relationship to the delivery platform at all. Such companies are supposed to arrange for riders to pay into social security funds and insurance policies, but many do not. [...]