Food delivery drivers, the job is taking its toll: 63 hours a week and earnings below minimum wage

In Paris as in Bordeaux, they weave between cars, their backs bent and their eyes glued to the app. A study published Tuesday, March 31, by Doctors of the World, with the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and the French National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), puts numbers to what many suspect without seeing it: an extraordinary intensity of work among home meal delivery drivers.

The study is based on 1,004 interviews conducted between January and July 2025, often in the street or in community centers, with each interview lasting approximately 44 minutes. The results show that eight out of ten delivery drivers report working at least six days a week, for an average of 63 hours per week. Their bodies take a beating, with pain suggestive of musculoskeletal disorders, primarily in the back but also in the shoulders and joints.

Pain, accidents, skipped meals: the other side of the story

Pain, accidents, skipped meals: the dark side of the reality. Nothing glamorous either when it comes to basic needs. Access to restrooms during delivery shifts is described as limited, and the study links this constraint to health effects: 32% of respondents reported regular urinary problems in the month preceding the survey. On the road, the statistics are striking: 59% say they have already had at least one accident while working, and among cyclists, 78% report having been injured. A fall, a jolt, a slide, then back on the saddle, because the meter keeps running and the algorithm doesn't take a break.

The crux of the matter remains money, and here again the contrast is stark. The delivery drivers surveyed reported an average gross monthly earnings of €1,480, for an average hourly wage of less than €6, while the gross minimum wage is €12,02 per hour—a gap that speaks volumes about the economic model. According to the study, 93% have no other paid work, and 56% say they went at least one day without a proper meal in the past year due to lack of money. Between the touted flexibility and the precariousness experienced, this snapshot quietly but insistently reignites the question of the social framework of a job that has become commonplace on our streets.