TECH WORKER BY DAY, DELIVERY RIDER BY NIGHT
We reconnected in late November and I asked if I could shadow him while he made his rounds.
I hopped on my bicycle and tried to keep up with him, chatting as we zigzagged through the streets of Katong.
Under a mid-afternoon shower, I found out that the Singaporean permanent resident holds a full-time job as an artificial intelligence specialist at Google.
His “moonlighting”, which he started in February last year, began with a desire to be more active outside of work, given his sedentary day job.
Deciding that he also wanted to combine this activity with “doing good” led him to donate all that he earned from the deliveries to various charities.
Between February and December last year, Mr AitBachir was able to raise about S$7,000 out of the S$10,000 goal he had initially set for himself.
He topped up the shortfall from his own savings, and then some more, but declined to reveal how much he eventually donated to charities last year.
This year, he hopes to raise S$10,000 entirely from doing deliveries.
While he declined to disclose his salary, the Joo Chiat resident told me that he is a “high-earning tech worker”, and that this – coupled with his background as an expatriate – made him concerned that he would become rather “disconnected” from local communities here.
“Even though I’ve been fortunate, delivering with Grab keeps me grounded,” said Mr AitBachir, who has been in Singapore since 2009.
Through his part-time work, he values being able to foster interactions with communities around him, which include locals and the elderly living in the heartlands, as well as other food delivery riders.
“When I do deliveries, I become a frontline worker (of sorts) and I really connect with a part of Singapore that I might otherwise not be connected to by my natural lifestyle.”
His delivery work has served as a “good icebreaker” for all his social interactions, said Mr AitBachir, adding that he also receives encouragement at times from the customers he delivers to.
And while some of his friends initially poked fun at his side endeavour, they became supportive after finding out his motivations for doing so.
“When my friends and colleagues discovered that I was doing deliveries on the weekend, they started by making jokes, asking if I was not making enough money with my regular job. But when I explain why I am doing so, I received a lot of encouragement,” he said.
Noting how physically challenging and gruelling the role of a rider can be, Mr AitBachir said doing gig work has also helped him to “reconnect with the value of money”.
“You do realise the amount of work that you need to (put in to) earn S$20, S$25. When you have a very high salary, you might not realise that you spend very quickly if you go out – a few hundred dollars in the restaurant, on drinks, or on a taxi (on a weekend).”
Weaving between traffic on the road as we cycled together in the rain – which, shortly after, gave way to a warm late afternoon sun – I began to catch a glimpse of what he meant.
As we rushed between locations to ensure the food was delivered on time and intact, I urged him to go ahead at some point so that I would not be a burden and affect his platform rating.
On average, Mr AitBachir devotes about ten hours in total across the weekend to doing these deliveries and even does it on weekday nights if work and family life permits.
He typically raises between S$700 and S$1,000 a month, which he alternates between donating to charities focused on environmental conservation and fighting poverty.
When doing deliveries, he also leaves a note in his Grab app stating that he is working for a charitable cause.
If customers give him a tip, he also matches the tip and donates all of it.
