New work group to get hawkers onto digital platforms
It aims to help them tap delivery platforms to ensure they are sustainable in the long run
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Staff of food delivery platform WhyQ organising orders placed on the app before handing them to delivery riders at Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre on Tuesday. WhyQ is one of the partners in a work group formed to help hawkers by offering them education and support in using online platforms.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
To tackle the pain points faced by hawkers looking to go digital, a new work group has been formed, with three key areas identified for possible solutions.
These include offering education and support to hawkers to help them get onto online platforms, coming up with a sustainable business model for delivery platforms, and increasing the demand for delivery of hawker food through online platforms.
The work group, known as the SG Together Alliance for Action - Online Ordering for Hawkers, held its first round of discussions yesterday.
It aims to help hawkers tap food delivery platforms to ensure they are sustainable in the long run.
Partners in the work group include 10 members from food delivery platforms Bungkus, Deliveroo, Foodpanda, Grab, Oddle and WhyQ; 10 hawker representatives; representatives from Instagram page WheretoDabao and the Telegram bot SaveTheHawkersBot; and Straits Times associate editor Chua Mui Hoong.
Ms Chua had published an opinion piece on June 4 titled "Hawkers United - But Where's The Coordination?", in which she urged the regulatory agencies and big food delivery players to provide long-term support for hawkers to go digital.
The work group is chaired by the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and the Ministry of Communications and Information.
Speaking to reporters yesterday after the virtual dialogue, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor said the first round of discussions had been fruitful.
She said challenges that hawkers face include the lack of technological savviness, their struggle to handle both online and offline orders, not knowing how to market their food online, and the affordability of onboarding and commission fees on food delivery platforms.
The work group will focus on three areas in the coming months. The first will be in supporting hawkers, said Minister of State for Communications and Information and National Development Tan Kiat How.
This could mean helping those who are less familiar with technology or may need extra assistance to take online orders, for instance.
He said better organisation is required within hawker centres to coordinate delivery orders, such as by using a hybrid model, where someone is physically present at the hawker centre to coordinate customer orders placed via an app.
He added that bundling orders from different stores is also necessary, and can reduce delivery costs when done well and efficiently.
To ensure that the current business model is sustainable, he said, it is important to think about commissions charged by food delivery platforms, which include the fees paid to delivery riders.
Hawkers must also receive their payouts immediately so that they can pay for supplies, he said, and the price of the food charged to the consumer must be sustainable.
The work group also has to think of ways to increase demand for hawker food deliveries, he said.
This can be done by raising awareness of the food delivery platforms and hawker stalls on these platforms, and by marketing to the surrounding workplaces and housing estates, for example.
Halal food delivery app Bungkus has seen two to three times more hawker sign-ups amid this heightened alert period, said the company's chief operating officer, Mr Baru Walia. More than a third of its 300 merchants are hawker stalls.
As its merchant base in a niche market is smaller, Bungkus can provide more personalised service, he said. For instance, merchants who are less tech-savvy can contact Bungkus staff via WhatsApp.
"The merchants can notify us instantly if they missed out on any orders, or if their store is closed for the day, for instance," said Mr Baru.
"They know that we will assist them and guide them through it, so they know there's nothing to fear with technology."
