Lockdown-fuelled demand for take-out meals has brought throngs of new delivery riders onto streets around the world, but in Australia the boom has also seen tragedy with a spate of road deaths highlighting the plight of couriers.
As many industries ground to a halt last year, millions lost their jobs and others were asked to work from home, 43-year-old Xiaojun Chen was among the legions of couriers who rushed out on the job.
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The work was hard, the hours were long, and most of Chen's pay went back home to China -- but he was driven by a dream to send his 15-year-old daughter to university.
Food riders doubled the time they spent zipping around Australia's streets in April and May last year as lockdowns were in force, according to data from one delivery service, Deliveroo.
Then on September 29, Chen collided with a bus while delivering food in Sydney. He later passed away in hospital -- one of five couriers to die on Australian roads in just three months of 2020.
"My husband loved his life, looked forward to the future, and was kindhearted," his wife Lihong Wei told AFP through tears.
His loss left Wei shaken and unsure how she would support elderly parents and two children alone.Chen's firm Hungry Panda paid for his funeral expenses and for his widow to fly to Australia, but his status as a contractor rather than a full-time employee has made further help unclear.
"He has been working for Panda all this time, and he has been working so hard, so why is he not entitled to those benefits that every personnel is entitled to?" Wei told a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry.
A Hungry Panda spokesman told AFP that, although it was not legally required to, the company was still discussing compensation over Chen's death and was working to improve safety for riders through equipment and training.