Breaking barriers: Tripartite partners aim to improve conditions for delivery riders

From a lack of proper parking areas to being denied entry on private properties, delivery workers face a wide range of challenges when they are out making their delivery runs.

Tripartite partners are working together to address such issues. Workers, businesses and development representatives came together on 26 June 2024 at the URA Centre to deliberate and co-create solutions to these challenges.

Organised by the Multi-stakeholder Workgroup on Last-Mile Delivery, the focus group discussion (FGD) involved some 50 attendees, including representatives from developments, unions, industry associations, and partner agencies.

It was the first FGD organised by the workgroup.

National Development Minister Desmond Lee, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat and NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng hosted the event.

Speaking to the attendees, Mr Ng shared that he was heartened by the strong mutual trust between tripartite partners in Singapore, which has enabled all parties to come together to create a more inclusive society.

“Today, I hope that we will have a fruitful session from a tripartite approach, where all of us can do our best to serve the public interest,” he said.

The multi-stakeholder workgroup was formed in November 2023 and is co-chaired by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

NTUC U FSE Director Jean See taking part in the focus group discussions.

Delivery riders’ woes

Ng Gan Poh, 33, has been a delivery rider for the last eight years and is a member of the National Delivery Champions Association (NDCA) Executive Committee.

He shared that delivery riders frequently face challenges parking their vehicles when making their deliveries.

“The parking spaces can be quite far from the delivery points, sometimes up to 400 or 500 metres away. So we often end up parking our bikes on the double yellow lines to make the delivery time, but we end up coping a fine for doing so,” he said in Mandarin.

He added that such challenges are a daily affair, and he hopes it would be one of the issues the FGD can address.

Mohammad Shaffiee Abdullah, who uses a power-assisted bike to make his deliveries, shared that several delivery riders used to have issues with a restaurant that would take up to an hour to prepare its customers’ orders.

“This affected our take-home income as we could not take on more jobs while waiting,” he said.

He said the issue was raised to NDCA, and the association worked with the restaurant to introduce a “proper workflow” to lessen delivery riders’ wait times and smoothen the overall process.

Mr Shaffiee hopes more solutions to issues can be achieved through the workgroup.

“It is important for delivery partners to come together as a collective voice. I am glad that NDCA and the tripartite workgroup is always looking out for us [delivery riders],” he said.

NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Yeo Wan Ling engaging delivery workers at the event.

NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Yeo Wan Ling attended the FGD and said she was delighted that it was created to gather the views of different stakeholders.

She said: “Our delivery riders face many issues on the ground, many of which involve constituency- and community-type challenges.

“We believe that this multi-agency approach will bear fruit, and we hope that this would provide a safer and more protected workspace for our delivery riders within the constituency.”

As the advisor to NDCA, Ms Yeo added that the association is looking forward to leveraging such discussions to reach out to more condominium and mall operators.