Commentary: Pressures of platform work in Singapore push drivers and riders to take risks

Platform companies have both the reach and the data to make a significant difference. Some already use algorithms to identify risky riding behaviours and prompt rest breaks, and some inform customers of longer wait times during difficult conditions rather than penalising workers.

More can be done. Soft skills training designed to give workers concrete ways to manage difficult customers and de-escalate impatience deserves more investment, given what our interviews reveal. When a worker feels unable to reassure an agitated customer, the temptation to speed up becomes harder to resist.

Platforms might also consider moving beyond advice to take breaks, toward stronger interventions such as temporary suspensions of job allocation when the algorithm detects that a worker has been on the road for an extended period without rest.

Making break time mandatory and paid when risk thresholds are exceeded would go further still, directly addressing the financial pressure that keeps fatigued workers from stopping.

Finally, there is a role for all of us as patrons. Platform workers operate in an environment shaped, in part, by the expectations of the people they serve. A delay caused by a slow kitchen, heavy rain or a traffic jam is beyond a rider’s control, but whether we penalise them with a low rating is our choice.

Understanding this, and resisting the impulse to press a driver to go faster, can make a small but meaningful difference to the choices workers feel they must make. Your fast food or milk tea can wait.

Victor Seah is Director of Behavioural Insights Centre of Excellence at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.