When heavy rain hits Vancouver, Al Hafiz Mohamed Abdalla sees a chance to earn more. The 25-year-old e-bike courier said a delivery offering $3 on a dry day can pay $6 in the rain when fewer riders are willing to work.
“When the rain is coming down, people are going inside. That’s my chance,” Abdalla said.
That opportunity comes with risks. A recent University of Victoria study found that financial pressure could keep food couriers riding through dangerous weather, even when they feared injury. The study is based on interviews with 50 couriers and focuses on riders using bikes, e-bikes and other vehicles that offer little protection from the weather.
“The hazards that workers faced were not just hypothetical,” said Anelyse Weiler, the study’s co-author. A Toronto courier described falling onto a snowy road after hitting an opening car door and recalled other falls in rain and snow that he feared could have been fatal in heavier traffic.
App-based platforms such as UberEats and DoorDash in Canada heavily rely on new immigrants and international students facing barriers to traditional employment, creating a workforce increasingly forced to absorb the shocks of a changing climate, Weiler said.
Immigrants made up 57.5 per cent of app-based ride-hailing and delivery workers in Canada in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.
For Abdalla, who arrived as a refugee seven months ago, stopping means losing income before he has another job to replace it. After his first month shivering in New Brunswick, he searched online for a city where he could work year-round and chose Vancouver.
He had worked as an electrician and in kitchens in Sudan but employers here wanted Canadian credentials or experience, he said. After unsuccessful applications, he spent his savings on an e-bike and began delivering through Uber Eats.
Heavy rain has soaked his clothes and damaged paper food bags before he could slip them into his waterproof carrier. One customer shouted at him when an order arrived soggy, he said.
Abdalla fits deliveries around English classes, sometimes missing his own lunch to catch the lunchtime rush before heading out again in the evening. He said he works every day of the week, including up to 10 hours a day on weekends and earns $900 to $1,200 in a good month from deliveries.
Abdalla checks the Uber Eats app on a phone mounted to his e-bike.
Weiler said workers are facing more intense extreme weather from climate change and, this year, a supercharged El Niño, just as rising living costs make it harder to give up a shift.
“Those two crises in tandem put working class people at significant risks,” she said.
Gaps in worker protection
Weiler’s team previously studied agricultural workers facing extreme heat and environmental injustice. In looking at delivery drivers, they wanted to understand what cold, rain and ice meant for couriers working on Canadian streets.
A 2024 federal immigration department review found that financial support for resettled refugees had failed to keep up with living costs, especially housing. Most surveyed refugees who worked in their first year said they needed the earnings to cover basic needs. Yet working brought its own difficulties: 34 per cent reported that it made language services harder to access. Ottawa has since raised some payments to reflect inflation and provincial assistance rates.
A food courier checks his phone while seated on an e-bike outside a Donair Dude restaurant in Vancouver.
Weiler said language barriers and unrecognized foreign qualifications can trap newcomers in gig work. For temporary residents hoping to secure permanent residence, uncertainty about their future in Canada has added pressure to keep earning.
BC introduced protections after the study’s 2022–23 interviews, including workers’ compensation coverage and a minimum wage now set at $21.89 an hour. But that guarantee covers only the time between accepting an assignment and completing it.
Workers can spend hours waiting for an order without pay, making it harder to turn down work during heavy rain or snow when an offer finally arrives, Weiler said.
BC closed a public survey on Sept. 1 as part of its review of whether the protections are improving working conditions.
Vancouver’s cycling infrastructure does not spare riders from wet roads or poor visibility. Weiler called for connected bike routes that physically separate them from motor traffic. “Paint on streets is not an effective way to protect people,” she said.
A food delivery courier rides an e-bike past restaurants in downtown Vancouver.
Heat can also make a shift dangerous. Pamela Charron, executive director of the Worker Solidarity Network, said workers had told the organization they feared retaliation for asking for drinking water or breaks during extreme heat. BC already requires employers to assess heat risks and protect workers, but the network wants clear temperature thresholds for extra precautions and is also calling for paid sick days for app-based workers.
Abdalla sends some of his earnings to his family in Sudan. With his first year of government support ending in a few months, he worries about covering his own bills as he continues applying for other jobs.
“I want to work all year. I don’t want to stay at home,” he said.
Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer.
Copyright 2026, Canada’s National Observer. All rights reserved.
Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer.