Your Delivery Is on Its Way

19 min.

Your Delivery Is on Its Way

05.08.22

Courier drivers in Tbilisi are emerging from their traditional role as the faceless figures behind order apps to become a forceful collective for social change. 

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the necessity of delivery drivers, encouraging thousands to enter the industry. However, when demand for courier work was at its height, delivery companies slashed bonus systems and incentives, dealing drivers a financial blow. What began as drivers’ fight for stronger labor rights quickly grew into a collective movement, with couriers taking an active role in the country’s most noteworthy social and political issues. Five young couriers provide first-hand insight into the formation of this unique protest culture and the solidarity that fuels it.