When it’s hot outside, you don’t feel like stepping out, so you pull out your phone to order lunch and a cold drink. But while you wait indoors, someone else is riding through that heat to bring it to you.

As Malaysia gets hotter, delivery riders are spending long hours on the road under increasingly challenging conditions. A KiniTV survey of 51 delivery riders in the Klang Valley found that 90% percent felt working conditions had become hotter in recent years, while many reported symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and fatigue.

This report examines the hidden cost of delivery work: how rising temperatures affect riders’ health and safety, why the promise of “flexibility” does not always make it easy to stop working, and whether existing protections are adequate.