How This 26-Year-Old Chose Happiness By Leaving Her Desk Job To Become A Food Delivery Rider



Food Delivery Rider In Singapore

Picture this: You’re unemployed. The hunt for a new job is going unsuccessfully. Bills are piling up. Faced with few alternatives, you sign up to be a food delivery rider in Singapore. It’s tough, often unpleasant, work but it puts food on the table.

To many, this is the most common narrative of how people end up as food delivery riders. 2020 has only reinforced the position of doing food delivery as a ‘no choice’ job. As COVID-19 caused job losses to spike and Singapore to enter her worst recession in 55 years, the food delivery industry boomed, with hordes flocking to sign up for and collect food delivery gear.

But for 26-year-old Sandy Lee, her journey to being a food delivery rider did not follow this trajectory. She willingly quit her comfortable, stable corporate sales job to be a part-time food delivery rider. We sat down with her to find out why she swapped office wear for a bright pink Foodpanda T-shirt.

Leaving a corporate job


Wake up, work, come home, sleep, repeat. For 6 years, this was Sandy’s life. The monotony of the routine and incessant office politics, coupled with having little time for herself and family, wore her out. Stressed, anxious and burnt out, she left her job in 2017 to take a break.

To supplement her income during this period, she took on a series of ad-hoc jobs. She was a concert events runner, an extra for Mediacorp dramas and Crazy Rich Asians, a pet sitter and a pub singer at live music venues.

One day, she saw an ‘auntie’ doing food delivery and thought, “If auntie can do [it], [it] shouldn’t be a problem for me right?” So, Sandy decided to give being a Foodpanda food delivery rider a go.

On average, Sandy takes home $2,000 a month and works 5 days a week. Usually, she works from 11am to 1pm and 5pm to 8pm. These time slots are when Foodpanda offers peak period rider incentives. On Fridays, Sandy gives herself “a break from the sun”, and only does evening and late-night orders.

After being deskbound for so long, the ability to control her schedule was liberating. But being a food delivery rider offered Sandy flexibility in more ways than one. Now, how much she earns is directly proportional to her hustle.

“The money is there. Let’s say I really need the money today, then I’ll work longer hours lor. You can solely depend on food delivery as a full-time job or treat it as a means to supplement your main income.”

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