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A food delivery worker rides a scooter to deliver orders in Seoul, Jan. 24. Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

A 32-year-old delivery worker surnamed Lee said that working as a delivery driver has been a source of income for people like him who do not have permanent jobs. "But after the government decided to lift most of the quarantine measures in the country, we became worried that we might lost our jobs due to fewer people ordering food online."

During the last two years of the pandemic, demand for food delivery skyrocketed as people were restricted from dining in restaurants or drinking at bars after a certain hour. Food delivery firms have hired a significant number of part-time delivery workers.

Now that restaurants and bars are allowed to stay open 24 hours a day, many delivery drivers think that the demand for online orders will decrease drastically.

"I already saw news that people are coming back to eat out and drink until late. The weather is getting nicer, so people will no longer stay home and order delivery food to eat at home," another food delivery worker surnamed Do said.

Local food delivery services Baedal Minjok and Coupang Eats changed their commission fee systems in February and March, respectively, which resulted in increased delivery costs. These changes drove many customers and restaurant owners to choose take-out services instead of getting food delivered.

"I see fewer and fewer delivery requests coming in these days. I think I took one order every 30 to 40 minutes yesterday. Last year, I did not have time to rest," Do said.

Still, other believe that the demand for online food delivery will continue as people have become used to ordering food online.

"We may see a slight decrease in the number of food deliveries for a while. But because customers have already experienced the convenience of having food delivered to their homes and the quality of such services has improved so much in the past two years, its demand will not decline drastically when looking at it in the long term," a local delivery food firm official said.

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