During the 6 week lockdown, essential services like restaurants were allowed to operate with the condition with take-away only. With available delivery options from Grab and Food Panda, people in the country could order their meal over the app and have them delivered right to their doorstep.

With MCO tightly enforced across the nation, the streets were mostly busy with these riders criss-crossing bringing food to customers, sometime making 5 trips a day. Riders are either using their own bikes or GrabCar drivers turned food delivery providers. A large portion of the riders belong large eHailing company’s like Grab and Food Panda, there are however smaller operation and individuals. Recently there were incidents where Covid 19 cases were detected among the riders, this prompted the government to insist them all be screened and tested for coronavirus. There are thousands of riders plying the streets making delivery and helping the companies earn substantial revenue when the rest of the industry remains in coma.

So, when Grab and Food Panda questioned who will be footing the bill for the screening and mentioning the riders wont be able to afford, it came as a surprise for these tech giants to even say that. The nerve for this private entity with billions in investment funds and could possibly think of having the public to pay for its commissioned riders testing. The ehailing provider should have taken preemptive measures to ensure the health of its riders, and ran regular tests and screening before commencing service. Also reports have emerged how some of the riders are peddling drugs and are involved in multiple illegal activity under the pretense of delivering food. The grey area of ehailing service crops up here again with these providers claiming innocent and not responsible for the actions of their riders and drivers.

Its heartening to know, the Government will not be absorbing the fees for the tests and will insist ehailing service providers to undertake this task like any corporate organisation. They should not allow any delay and have these companies to get their riders tested immediately as the private clinics and hospitals are capable of handling the volume. Users should also insist that they will only take food delivered to them by certified screened riders.