Joe was riding through a roundabout on So Kwun Po Road in Sheung Shui when an order notification sounded on his phone. The Keeta delivery app had sent another job, and he knew that ignoring it could affect his work. He glanced down at the screen. Within seconds, his motorcycle struck a broken down car ahead of him, leaving him on the road, unable to move.
The 54 year old delivery worker suffered a fractured neck injury and compression of the spinal disc between the third and fourth cervical vertebrae. Although his external injuries were relatively minor, the damage to his spinal cord left him almost completely paralysed.
Five months after the accident in May 2026, Joe has regained limited movement in his middle and ring fingers and can flex his left leg. He also experiences involuntary muscle spasms and unexplained pins and needles. Doctors have warned his wife, Yee, that much of the spinal damage is permanent.
While Joe remains in hospital, his family is still waiting for Keeta's insurance claim to be processed. His case has also exposed a potential gap in Hong Kong's proposed legislation for platform workers: riders injured while waiting between orders could be excluded from statutory compensation.
Labour activists say the proposed rules risk leaving workers with less protection than they currently receive through platform insurance policies. They argue that delivery companies exercise considerable control over how riders work but can still classify them as independent contractors when compensation becomes an issue.
For Joe and Yee, the distinction has immediate consequences. His injury occurred not while he was completing a delivery, but in the interval between jobs, when the app continued to demand his attention.
An order notification with lasting consequences
Joe's accident occurred under Keeta's first to claim dispatch system, which sends an order to multiple riders at once. Workers compete to accept the job, creating pressure to respond quickly, sometimes while riding through traffic.
Delivery workers have repeatedly raised concerns about the system's safety. In May 2025, hundreds of Keeta riders went on strike, demanding fairer pay and an end to the dispatch mechanism, which they said encouraged dangerous behaviour on the road.
Joe's experience has given those concerns a human cost.
Before joining Keeta in 2023, he had spent more than a decade working as a motorcycle delivery rider. During that time, he was employed full time and received the protections available to employees under Hong Kong labour law.
The pressure to keep checking his phone became a feature of his work after he joined the Meituan backed platform, his wife said.
“It's because of the ‘first to claim’ system,” Yee told reporters after visiting him in hospital earlier in October.
The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC), a labour organisation campaigning for delivery workers' rights, wants the dispatch system brought under occupational safety regulations. It argues that companies should not be allowed to operate allocation systems that encourage riders to divert their attention from traffic.
Keeta maintains that couriers should only use their phones when safely parked. In a response to Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), the company said it prioritises delivery workers' safety and would review feedback about its order dispatch mechanism.
“Keeta has strict safety guidelines requiring couriers to view or operate their mobile phones only when safely and appropriately parked,” the company said, adding that it would review and study riders' concerns.
Keeta also said it had contacted Joe's family to offer support and was processing his insurance application according to standard procedures.
Lower delivery rates add to pressure on riders
Safety concerns have intensified as delivery workers' earnings have declined since Keeta entered Hong Kong's food delivery market in November 2023.
During its initial expansion, the company offered comparatively generous payments to riders and discounts to customers. The strategy helped it attract customers and establish a substantial presence in the city.
Since then, however, payments per delivery have fallen by at least a third, according to the account provided by riders.
Chan, another Keeta delivery worker and a friend of Joe's, said riders now have to complete considerably more orders to earn what they made when the platform first launched.
Speaking to reporters in the parking area of a public housing estate in Fanling, where riders gather before starting their shifts, Chan described how the pressure to meet income targets has changed their working lives.
Previously, completing around three deliveries an hour could help riders reach their earnings targets. Under current rates, he said, workers may need to double that volume and extend their shifts beyond 12 hours to earn a comparable amount.
Meeting the targets also means maintaining demanding service standards while working against the clock.
For riders, the combination of lower payments and competitive dispatch creates a difficult choice: accept more orders and spend longer on the road, or risk earning less.
Chan and Joe became friends over their two years working for Keeta. They spent time together outside work, including barbecues and sports.
“I rushed over as soon as other riders told me that he had gotten into an accident,” Chan said, struggling to contain his emotions.
“It was unthinkable that I was eating with him in the daytime and by night, he was on a hospital bed.”
A family facing months of uncertainty
Since the accident, Yee has been balancing her full time job with frequent visits to her husband in hospital. She usually visits in the evenings and at weekends, bringing food and soft snacks that he can manage to chew and swallow.
She also helps reposition his body and move his limbs to reduce the risk of muscle deterioration and other complications associated with prolonged immobility.
Doctors have given her little reason to expect a full recovery.
“Don't count on him being able to walk again, it's impossible,” she said, recounting what she was told after his emergency surgery.
The financial consequences have added to the strain. Under Keeta's accident insurance policy, Joe could qualify for up to HK$1 million for permanent total incapacity, depending on the assessment of his condition. The policy also provides up to HK$120,000 for accidental medical expenses and HK$450 per day for hospital stays, capped at 30 days.
Yee submitted the insurance claim shortly before the one month deadline. She said she had spent weeks trying to obtain authentication of a police statement because Joe was physically unable to sign it.
China Ping An Insurance acknowledged receiving the application, but more than four months later, the family was still waiting for it to be processed.
Meanwhile, hospital social workers have pressed the family to arrange for Joe to leave his hospital bed. Subsidised residential care facilities are operating at capacity, while private care homes can cost around HK$17,000 a month, potentially consuming most of Yee's salary.
The couple also owes HK$80,000 in taxes. Tax authorities have refused to grant them further leniency, leaving them facing monthly instalments of HK$6,000.
For Yee, the uncertainty surrounding the insurance claim is only one part of a wider struggle to secure suitable care and keep the household financially afloat.
Employee compensation could offer substantially more
Joe's case also raises questions about the difference between the compensation available to platform workers and the statutory benefits provided to employees.
Under Hong Kong's Employees' Compensation Ordinance (ECO), a worker of Joe's age earning approximately HK$25,000 a month could qualify for compensation equivalent to 72 months of earnings following permanent total incapacity. According to calculations by the HKCIC, that would amount to approximately HK$1.8 million.
The figure excludes hospital fee reimbursements and a constant attendance allowance of HK$700,390, which may also be available under the ordinance.
That level of compensation is substantially higher than the maximum HK$1 million available under Keeta's policy for permanent total incapacity.
The HKCIC argues that delivery workers should be recognised as employees so they can receive the full protection of existing labour laws. However, the government has proposed a separate compensation framework specifically for platform workers, which activists say leaves important gaps.
Chief Executive John Lee introduced the proposal in his 2025 Policy Address. Under the proposed framework, workers would qualify for compensation if they were injured or killed in an accident “arising out of and in the course of performing platform work”.
A document submitted to the Legislative Council's manpower panel outlines the periods that would count as platform work. These include travelling to a designated pick up location, collecting and delivering an order, returning to a vehicle after delivery and certain periods before an order is cancelled.
The problem lies in the time between jobs.
The proposal would allow platform companies to determine whether periods spent logged into an app, waiting for an order or otherwise available for work would be covered.
Keeta's existing accident insurance, by comparison, covers workers' commutes for one hour before and after their shifts. The proposed legislation could therefore leave some riders with less protection than the policy already provides.
For Joe, the distinction is not theoretical. He was waiting for another delivery when the crash occurred.
“The period [between orders] was exactly when his accident happened,” Yee said. “It's not like you're delivering orders for eight, ten hours non stop. You have to go somewhere to rest and wait. From logging on until clocking out, that entire period should be covered.”
Labour activists warn of a major loophole
Justine Lam, a programme officer at the HKCIC, said Joe's experience demonstrated a fundamental inconsistency in how platforms treat their workers.
“When managing you, they treat you like an employee, but then an accident happens and only then do they treat you as self employed,” Lam said.
The organisation's Riders' Rights Concern Group ceased operations in July 2025, but the committee has continued campaigning for better protections and pressing the government to strengthen its proposed legislation.
The HKCIC also objects to the proposed framework's failure to cover assistive technology. Employees with full statutory protection may receive support for rehabilitation aids and equipment, including electric wheelchairs and eye tracking interfaces.
For someone left almost completely paralysed, such equipment can affect communication, mobility and the ability to perform everyday tasks. The absence of clear provisions for these expenses could leave injured workers and their families facing additional costs.
The committee has questioned why the government's Tripartite Committee for the Digital Platform Sector spent so long consulting stakeholders before producing a compensation proposal that, it argues, falls short of both statutory employee benefits and existing platform insurance.
A Labour Department document issued in July suggested that compensation for death or permanent total incapacity would be comparable to that available under the ECO. However, it did not set out a precise calculation formula, instead identifying minimum compensation amounts of HK$514,510 and HK$584,220 respectively.
The proposed framework states that it would ensure platform workers who die or suffer permanent total or partial incapacity because of a work accident receive compensation comparable to that of employees.
In its response to HKFP, the Labour Department said platform operators would be responsible for compensating workers injured in accidents arising out of and during platform work.
“The government is currently making every effort to press ahead with the relevant legislative drafting work, with a view to submitting the legislative proposals to the Legislative Council before the end of this year,” the department said.
It added that discussions with stakeholders would continue through the Tripartite Committee for the Digital Platform Sector.
Pressure for stronger protections grows
The debate in Hong Kong comes as mainland Chinese authorities move towards tighter rules for platform based employment. A draft released by China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in October 2026 proposes that platforms introduce reasonable task allocation systems and performance measures, while avoiding targets or incentives that encourage excessive work.
For Hong Kong's delivery workers, the question is whether the city's proposed law will address the pressures created by app based management and guarantee compensation across the full working shift.
Joe spoke only briefly to reporters during their hospital visit. His voice was weak, barely audible above the sounds of medical equipment and neighbouring patients.
He said he hoped other riders would receive better protection, even if the proposed changes came too late to help him.
For Chan, the government must not introduce a law that leaves workers worse off than they are under existing company policies.
“If the government is legislating, it shouldn't be worse than this one,” he said, referring to Keeta's insurance arrangements. “If it's worse, then it's better if they don't touch it at all.”
The draft legislation is expected to be submitted to the Legislative Council before the end of 2026. As lawmakers prepare to consider the proposal, Joe's case presents a specific question they cannot avoid: Will Hong Kong's new law protect delivery workers from the moment they log in until they log off, including the dangerous intervals between orders?