A 2015 report based on traffic data from NYC’s OpenData portal revealed that 77.5 percent of bicycle crashes resulted in an injury, and recent years have seen NYC cyclist deaths increase despite efforts to improve safety. In NYC, bicycle delivery is a fast, cheap form of transportation that is steadily growing, but it’s also the most dangerous. Service providers, including delivery drivers, account for nearly half of these transportation deaths. According to the 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the transportation industry accounts for 40 percent of all fatal occupational injuries, making it the second most dangerous occupation (construction ranks #1). Amidst all of this tasty tech innovation and marketing, there’s hardly any mention of who bridges the gap between the food app and the front door: the delivery people who brave the traffic, weather, and potholes to bring us our food.ĭelivery is no joke. Too often, the foundational elements of online food delivery-the labor of food prep and the trek getting it into your mouth-remain invisible at best and exploited at worst. And they need to earn a living, just like us. The clever marketing behind this growing empire of app-based delivery enables you, bold eater, to #SkipTheLine ! It reassures you this is easier than eating itself.īut until drones fly above Midtown traffic carrying our pad kee mao and guac-loaded burritos to our desks, every delivery still relies on a real human being to bring us the goods. This is all great, right? Delicious food you order from a sexy app gets magically delivered to your home, work, or wherever you are. Amazon and Google are using their god-like search engines to feed shoppers with a single click, while UberRUSH uses its growing fleet of drivers and bikers to deliver for ChowNow, UberEATS and others, like Ando. This summer, the New York Times will partner with Chef’d to roll out meal kits paired with NYT Cooking recipes. Online food delivery options are multiplying like freelancers in Bushwick and just about everyone’s taking a stab at it: chef David Chang’s new delivery site, Ando, currently exclusive to Midtown East, is already waitlisted.

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