Glovo riders grievances
Glovo riders are among the hardest working people in our cities, yet many of them are being quietly crushed by a system that depends on their struggle while rewarding them the least.
Every day, riders wake up before sunrise and spend 10–14 hours navigating traffic, dangerous roads, heavy rain, impatient customers, fuel costs, police harassment, bike breakdowns, and constant physical exhaustion — all to deliver convenience to people who barely think about the human behind the app notification.
Yet despite carrying the entire operation on their backs, many riders are paid amounts that are shockingly low once real expenses are considered.
A delivery may look profitable on paper, but reality is different:
Fuel prices keep rising.
Motorbike maintenance is expensive.
Some riders rent bikes daily.
Mobile data bundles are mandatory.
Protective gear costs money.
Accidents can destroy livelihoods overnight.
After deductions, many riders are left with extremely small earnings despite working longer hours than most office workers.
What makes the situation worse is the imbalance of power.
The app controls visibility, order allocation, penalties, customer ratings, incentives, and rider prioritization through algorithms that riders do not fully understand and cannot challenge. A rider can work the entire day and still fail to hit a sustainable income target because demand dropped, the app reduced rates, or too much time was spent waiting for orders.
This is not true “flexibility.”
It is digital labor controlled by invisible systems.
Customers enjoy fast deliveries.
Restaurants increase reach.
The company expands.
But the rider — the person absorbing the risk — remains financially vulnerable.
And society has normalized it.
We praise “hustle culture” while ignoring the exploitation underneath it. We celebrate convenience while another human being risks their safety in traffic for amounts that sometimes cannot even cover a proper meal, fuel refill, and savings at the same time.
Riders are not asking for luxury.
They are asking for dignity.
Fairer pay per distance.
Transparency in payment calculations.
Better accident support.
Reasonable commission structures.
Human treatment.
Because no business model should thrive by exhausting the very people who keep it alive.