Living expenses: Blood, sweat for a food delivery driver in Seoul

Living expenses: Blood, sweat for a food delivery driver in Seoul. Despite rising gasoline costs and stagnant pay rates, a driver and labour rights activist is fighting the precarity that is emerging as a result.

Living expenses: Blood, sweat for a food delivery driver in Seoul

South Korea's Seoul The first thing Park Jung-hoon does each weekday morning is carry cases of bottled water out of a freezer. As he brings the bottles out of his basement office and loads them onto the back of his motorcycle, they immediately become coated in condensation due to the extreme humidity and temperatures that are close to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Then, he leads them to coolers placed all across Seoul, where other food delivery drivers can stop and get a cold beverage.

As more individuals choose to stay inside their air-conditioned offices and residences rather than go out for meals, food orders have increased in South Korea as the country experiences one of the hottest summers on record. Drivers must navigate crowded streets while making deliveries, frequently climbing stairs while carrying sacks of food, all while wearing helmets and other safety gear.

While the ice water can offer a momentary reprieve, drivers face a more formidable foe than the sweltering heat: in March, during the early stages of the Ukraine conflict, gasoline prices hit an eight-year high of 1,904 Korean won ($1.40) per litre, and in early July, they were 2,117 won ($1.60), up from 1,628 won ($1.20) at the same time the previous year.

Fees for drivers range from 2,500 won ($1.88) to 7,000 won ($5.30) each delivery. An algorithm that takes into account the distance, the time of day, and the weather determines the cost for each delivery. For instance, when it rains and traffic is backed up, drivers can earn more money, but businesses haven't raised rates to reflect the recent increase in gas prices.

According to Park, drivers are taking home less money as fuel prices have increased. He no longer looks forward to filling up his motorcycle. My mouth trembled when the petrol station employee asked me how many litres I wanted to add. After refuelling, I noticed some gas falling to the ground, but I didn't think it was just gas. It was my sweat, blood, and tears, the 37-year-old claims.

Park emphasises that the increased cost of living and rising gasoline prices for drivers affect both personal finances and public safety.

When employees die, nothing occurs.

Drivers rush and, figuratively speaking, literally cut corners to save time as a result of rising gasoline prices, which force them to work harder for the same pay. Given that they are paid per delivery, many drivers will drive more quickly to complete more deliveries in a given day. Some people choose to eat quick cuisine like rice balls purchased from convenience stores rather than sitting down for formal dinners because they are seeking to save time and money. Some people drink less fluids to avoid lengthy restroom breaks.

According to Park, these elements increase the danger of city driving. The streets have turned into a battleground, said Park, who also runs Rider Union, a group of over 1,000 food delivery drivers, including both full-time and part-time workers as well as students and entrepreneurs.

According to Park, he has observed drivers who have been in accidents continue to make deliveries after being hurt since they have no other way to pay their costs. Due to the fact that delivery drivers and other gig economy workers are not considered employees of the businesses they deliver for under South Korean law, they are not entitled to a legal minimum pay, paid holidays, or accident insurance from their employers.

The food delivery sector in South Korea has experienced spectacular expansion in recent years as a result of a convergence of factors. In 2021, the food delivery market had a value of 25.6 trillion won ($19 billion), up from 17.3 trillion won ($13 billion) in 2018 and 9.7 trillion won ($7 billion) in 2019.

According to Park, drivers are not receiving their fair share of this expansion. On a July morning when the temperature had surpassed 30C by 10am, Park, a soft-spoken and unassuming man wearing a white polo shirt and khakis, explains, When we're doing deliveries, if the food spills, the customers and corporations get so unhappy, but when workers drop blood, nothing happens.

Rising energy costs are just one aspect of South Korea's larger cost-of-living dilemma, which is making life much riskier for professions like food delivery drivers. In June, inflation reached a 24-year high as food and housing costs increased beyond the means of many people.

In a cabinet meeting early in July, President Yoon Suk-yeol stated that the government is focusing on ways to reduce household costs for basics like energy and food, notably by waiving or lowering import duties.

When the economy worsens, ordinary people and vulnerable groups are the ones who are struck most, Yoon said, calling the mission a matter of life and death.

Busan, a significant port city on South Korea's southeast coast, is where Park, the author of Inequality in Busan, was born into a working-class family. He grew up in Beomil-dong, a low-income district of congested alleyways close to the city's sizable commercial port. Economically it was hard, but other than that it was a wonderful place to live, recalls Park, who has pleasant recollections of the tight-knit neighbourhood.

From his low-lying neighbourhood, he observed as glass and concrete skyscrapers grew over the skyline and the bustling port took over more and more of the waterfront, driving fishers and revellers farther down the coast. This is when he first noticed the stark inequity in his country.

I developed a strong image of the asset inequality in our nation, where some individuals may profit from their possessions while the others must strive to amass assets via labour. And that's a lot harder, Park says while chatting in the basement office of Rider Union.

He used to seek solace in books about injustice and turmoil when he was younger. Jo Jung-historical rae's trilogy Taebaek Mountain Range, which is set during Japan's colonial conquest of Korea, left a particularly lasting influence. The narrative describes the bitter fight between peasants and landowners at a time when a sizable part of rural workers in Korea were forced to cultivate rice for export to Japan.

These tales contributed to his motivation to advocate for employees. At the university, he majored in politics and became involved in campus causes, speaking out for students with disabilities and participating in student debates. He accepted a job as a delivery driver for McDonald's after graduating and relocating to Seoul because it came with health insurance and because the flexible working hours permitted him to participate in protests and other types of activism.

increasing delivery costs

Park's activity has grown to occupy more of his attention over the years. He works weekdays in Rider Union's office on a side street in western Seoul and delivers on weekends for several food delivery services. Meetings with delivery drivers who come to voice complaints and seek counsel over disputes with their companies dominate his days.

Early in July, he hosted Ryu Ho-jeong, a well-known left-wing politician and the youngest MP in the nation at 29 years old. She is advocating for legislation that would provide these employees with stronger rights, such as legislation that would guarantee higher delivery fees and set up a hotline that drivers may call to report mistreatment. In a message posted on her Facebook page after their meeting, Ryu added, In the end, platform employees are the workers that make our neighbourhoods run.

In light of the rising cost of living and the difficult nature of their jobs, Park and Ryu are both urging businesses to guarantee drivers minimum delivery fees.

The rising expense of living is making more obvious signs of how labour is essential for South Korean society to function. Earlier past summer, truck drivers throughout the country went on strike against rising gas costs. The truckers are paid per delivery, just like delivery drivers, and their net income is subject to changes in energy prices.

The strike, which directly impacted some of the biggest corporations in the nation including steelmaker POSCO and significant manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company, dominated headlines for days. It threatened to lead to shortages of items on shop shelves. The strike cost businesses $1.2bn in losses in less than a week. The truckers' strike ultimately succeeded in getting the government to agree to their demands for guaranteed minimum freight rates after several days off the roads.

rights of drivers

Park isn't currently considering such a widespread strike because he feels uneasy using such combative methods. He has a difficult job organising food delivery drivers because many of them work for multiple companies. The first issue for Park is frequently persuading these employees that they have common interests because they typically spend the majority of their working hours alone, using their iPhones to find their next employment, and rarely engaging with other drivers.

It comes down to knowledge and persuasion, he claims. Many platform workers don't have the time to understand about their legal rights and how they could be strengthened.

For instance, delivery drivers are now qualified for national employment insurance as of January of this year, but according to Park, some workers are still ignorant that they are eligible for such assistance.

Park anticipates the end of the humid summer when at least his morning errand of bringing ice water won't be required. But he is aware that as soon as the heat is over, winter will arrive with its icy winds and slick streets. He dreads receiving sushi orders in the summer, and in the winter, he must be ready for client complaints if the meal is delivered cold. Pizza is a perennial problem since, regardless of the weather, it is awkward to transport through narrow spaces like hallways in buildings and difficult to maintain flat.

Park and his wife, a former union official who is currently employed as a house cleaner, wed earlier this year, and he claims they are debating whether to start a family. He concerns that he won't have enough time for childcare responsibilities because of his demanding job schedule. The pair is taking into account increased living expenses because South Korea is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise children.

For the time being, he will continue to strive to organise drivers in the hopes that the rising cost of living will raise more people's awareness of the predicament of platform employees. He claims that his delight comes from being a part of the movement.

This piece is a part of a series of portraits examining how people all across the world are being impacted by the global cost of living problem.

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