Going viral last week was the “lugaw” incident at a barangay checkpoint where one lady tanod official lectured a hapless food deliveryman on what are considered “essential” food items. The incident became the talk of the town, meriting even the attention of Malacañang, in virtual unison on how this pinoy porridge is very much an essential comfort food for us Filipinos. The incident, however, should also lead our attention to the plight of our delivery service men that has now become a part of our daily lives in the Covid world we are in.
We are now seeing tremendous growth in the delivery business simply because most of us are staying home, with an estimated 300 percent increase on deliveries since the pandemic started. From grocery items to food orders, Filipinos have steadily shifted to making their purchases online. Hence, we will see the demand for more deliverymen to be employed in this industry. And the work pay of a deliveryman is not bad. For making 12 to 15 deliveries per day, a deliveryman makes roughly around P20,000 month—and can make more depending on how many hours he can devote on the road. This makes a good pivot employment alternative, given the increasing loss of jobs in the other traditional industries.
However, the life of a deliveryman is not without risks and dangers. Road accidents involving deliveries have increased over these past months. And such accidents, given the structural nature of motorcycles or bicycles, are seldom minor with most of them either serious or fatal. Risk of exposure to the elements, most especially to Covid infection, is also real. And there are those remote incidents of cancellation of orders where deliverymen are then charged for such cancellations. On the other hand, consumers complain of non-deliveries and incidents of crime with the perpetrators pretending to be deliverymen. And the lugaw incident seems to be not the first one and definitely not the last, with tanods, policemen and other enforcers on the road, unsure of regulations to apply to our two-wheeled transport workers. And as this means of livelihood will remain and continue to grow, it should then be high time for the government to come out with policies to regulate as well as protect all stakeholders in this delivery chain.
To accelerate this, an inter-agency type of effort is needed to oversee this and professionalize this industry. From how it is now, it will most likely include concerns that can be addressed by the transport, health and trade departments. But given the lugaw experience, it merits the inclusion of the local governments as well. The second need would be the writing up of a governing instrument, a sort of a “magna carta” that would protect as well as regulate the profession. Training and corresponding certification would be required leading to a minimum set of standards on the quality of delivery service. Such dispensation of service would then be monitored and enforced with those failing to do so as being reprimanded or worse suspended or blacklisted. Having this in place would then justify enhancing compensation and other benefits for those rendering deliveries. Primary would be health benefits to include coverage for illnesses such as Covid infection, which they may have gotten in their line of duty, or equally important, accident insurance for any job-related accidents on the road. Also important is the protection of their commissions that should not be at the whim of the service companies. It may also be good if the government can allocate or come out with a financing program specially geared to address the purchase or upgrade of their two-wheeled vehicles.
We may have all expressed our outcry at that lugaw incident, and rightly so. But it should not end in that apology by the barangay officials. It should lead government in rethinking the delivery sector of our society; a sector that we do not seem to notice as they go by whizzing through our roads, but nevertheless literally our lifeline of food and other essentials into our homes in this time of the pandemic.
Thomas “Tim” Orbos is currently a transport policy advisor for an international organization and worked in government on transport and urban development matters. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University and the MIT Sloan School of Management. He can be reached via e-mail—tmo45@georgetown.edu /thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu