**1. Introduction**

The COVID-19 pandemic has monumentally changed the landscape of the global economy, including Malaysia's. Many economic sectors that were previously competitive and experiencing growth, such as the tourism, hotel, automotive, and aerospace industries, experienced a sharp decline in fortunes. On the other hand, the pandemic has caused a spike in demand within the food delivery and goods packaging sectors [1]. The estimated market size for online food delivery worldwide is around 107.44 billion U.S. dollars for 2019 and is projected to be 154.34 billion U.S. dollars by 2023. Meanwhile, Malaysia's online food delivery market has also shown exponential growth of 18.6% from 2017 to 2020 [2]. Based on these facts, this research opined that by the year 2022, the food delivery business will become one of the fastest-growing business sectors worldwide, including in developing countries.

In addition, this maturing development trajectory has resulted in the increased usage of the application of online digital technologies within certain industries for maintaining a business entity's competitiveness in the market [3]. Technological applications that utilize the Internet such as smartphones have changed the way society conducts business and individual daily lifestyles. According to Ghajargar et al. [4], demand for home delivery services is rising due to online shopping as this service is having the coverage of large geographic areas. The consumers enjoy these applications and their delivery services because it brings greatest convenience to their daily lives.

Besides, the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO), Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO), and Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) in Malaysia, during the pandemic, also have given opportunities to the food industry moving their traditional approach business to digital delivery services. There is now a huge variety of companies offering food delivery services *via* digital platforms in Malaysia, including Foodpanda, Lalamove, GrabFood, and Halo Delivery, whereby local motorcycle riders are engaged to deliver food and parcel. According to a newspaper article [5], Foodpanda has 30,000 riders working for them around the country. This scenario greatly stimulated the digital market-based economy (gig economy). Gig economy is the manifestation of a trend toward a free market-based digital e-commerce platform that is characterized by short-term and long-term contracts between organizations and individuals with both permanent occupancies and freelancers. This system is also driven by the digital environment and application readiness that directly lead to the generation of job opportunities [5].

Previous studies [6] explained that the gig economy can be divided mainly into two forms, "crowdwork" and "work-on-demand *via* app." "Crowdwork" refers to employment activities that require the performance of a series of tasks through an online platform, while "work-on-demand *via* app" involves work where the performance of tasks is in a traditional mode, for instance, transportation and cleaning services. Delivery services provided by motorcycle riders are part of this category even though some of them might offer their services personally without a middle platform. They deal directly with their clients or users commonly *via* mobile phones. Once hired and completed the job, the payment will be transferred to the bank account. In short, the concept of digital labor or digital gig workforce is a free-market system where the transactions are task-based and the workers work independently without being bound to long-term contracts with any company [7]. Even though gig economy offers many opportunities to gig workers, such as flexible work environment, working in interest areas, and access to global job postings, freelancers face many challenges in the form of less payment, lack of social benefit, and job security [8].

The rapid increase in the number of permanent workers and freelancers operating in the digital e-commerce platform sector has created a need for a more efficient method of management, especially in terms of occupational safety and health (OSH). The freelance deliverers face numerous safety and health hazards when performing deliveries as they are mostly working outdoors, specifically on the road. Based on past studies, food and parcel delivery riders reported experiencing occupational stress, health risk, and burnout [9, 10] that were positively associated with the number of motor vehicle accidents [11].

Therefore, this study is focusing on determining safety and health issues among food and parcel delivery riders in Malaysia. In specific, present study determined what are the occupational safety as well as health hazards faced by the P-hailing riders in Malaysia. The findings of this research should fill the gap in the literature pertaining to OSH in P-hailing sectors that is limited to found worldwide or in

### *Work-Related Safety and Health Issues among Food and Parcel Delivery Riders DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110783*

Malaysia. Moreover, the research result is expected to serve as an initial reference for the government or policymaker to construct an appropriate OSH management and compliance system for P-hailing sector.

Overall, this research explored issues pertaining to OSH among P-hailing freelance riders registered with parcel and food delivery service providers using digital platforms (i.e., Grab, Foodpanda, Lalamove, and Ninja Delivery) in Malaysia. Besides conducting reviews on related literature, several interview sessions were conducted with the riders from all states of Malaysia, as well as executives representing the P-hailing companies to determine the issues. Finally, occupational safety and health hazards related to P-hailing were distinguished and suggestions were proposed for better OSH management and compliance in this sector.
