Heat transference, as you may have learned in school, is the movement of thermal energy from one object to another through conduction, convection, or radiation. As it turns out, there’s another way that heat can be transferred from one object to another: food delivery services.
When you order a bowl of hot and sour soup from a Chinese restaurant, for example, the delivery driver transfers heat from the restaurant’s kitchen to your home with such speed and efficiency, you barely have to spend a minute at the microwave.
But the heat transfer I’m mostly referring to is this: on extremely hot days, when you decide to stay inside your cool home and use a food delivery app, you are transferring your heat exposure to the delivery person.
Not many people think about this, of course, but a recent study in the journal Nature Cities underscores this transfer of heat exposure from consumers to delivery drivers (or riders). The researchers, based in China and the UK, analyzed food delivery service data across 100 Chinese cities from 2017 to 2023 and found that lunchtime orders increased by almost 13 percent when the temperature rose from 68 degrees Fahrenheit to 95 degrees. The lunch orders shot up by 21 percent when the temperature hit 104. People were reluctant to cook at home, and they were even more reluctant to get cooked in the sun.
It isn’t surprising that the heat prompts people to use food delivery services. Those with money can always get other people to do unpleasant work, whether it’s driving in torrid weather (or frigid temperatures) to pick up food or slogging to harvest crops while enduring both heat and ICE. But it’s still important to think about the conditions you’re exposing other people to when you opt for convenience.
Many delivery drivers around the world do not have adequate health coverage, yet they’re often at risk for heat exhaustion and other weather-related conditions. Just imagine how the average consumer would feel if they received a call informing them that a delivery driver fainted while bringing a chicken sandwich and Coke to their place.
Consumer: “Oh no! Are they all right?”
Delivery service manager: “Yes, they’ll be fine, but they have to spend the night in a hospital getting IV fluid treatment for dehydration.”
Consumer: “I meant my chicken sandwich and Coke. Are they all right?”
Manager: “Yes, they’re fine. Do you want to visit them in the hospital?”
Thankfully the average consumer isn’t quite as callous as that. But we can all be a little more considerate to delivery drivers. If it’s a particularly hot day, consider giving your delivery driver a particularly good tip. You may also offer the delivery driver a cold drink or other refreshment. If you do not want to make contact, just leave it outside your front door with a note that says, “Thank you for taking the heat for me.”
