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A survey which was conducted yielded conclusions that Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) Drivers and also food delivery personnel who are delivering for Food Delivery application companies work about 60 hours a week and that is a norm.
The survey, which was done by the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies found that nearly 29% of drivers of the 1,000 people surveyed worked more than 59 hours a week.
One quarter of the respondents worked for GoJek exclusively, while others also drove for Grab.
Many turn to driving or riding after losing jobs
Many in Singapore turn to driving a PHV or delivering food after they have lost their jobs and thereafter find it hard to get out of this industry.
Labour laws in Singapore only allows employees to work 44 hours a week and anything more than that would require overtime benefits but as these workers are not considered full time staff, they are not protected by this labour law.
Legislative changes are already being considered to provide protection for these workers who have contributed to the success of these ride hailing and food delivery apps like Grab, GoJek, FoodPanda and Deliveroo since the start of the pandemic.
Long hours worked to hit incentives
Workers are also often pressurised to hit the incentives given to them and without these incentives, it is hard to get a decent income at the end of the week or month.
To hit these incentives, drivers often have to slog for 14 to 15 hours a day.
Companies would often encourage the workers to hit the incentives and in order to hit these incentives, the companies also expect the workers to follow certain rules and criteria which is set by the companies such as not cancelling jobs and accepting all jobs to a certain percentage.
Many would leave if they were other job opportunities
Almost half of the respondents have expressed their intention to leave should they find a job opportunity outside and only 31 percent said they could land a job related to their previous job scope or their education level easily.
However, spending 60 hours a week behind the wheels already takes up a lot of time for skills building and career building and those with more qualifications slowly will find that they are falling behind their peers.
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