Food delivery staff collect orders from a cafe offering takeout only on Sunday after in-house dining was converted into delivery for the May Day holidays. Photo: VCG

Beijing's delivery sector is facing some pressure from a capacity shortage after a number of delivery riders were ordered to stay in quarantine amid the city's latest bar-related cluster outbreak. 

The Global Times learnt from multiple Beijing residents on Tuesday that they had encountered the same situation that their deliveries were delayed by about one hour.

"A delivery rider told me via delivery app that lots of his colleagues received pop-up reminders and caused the capacity shortage, and my order was delayed for one hour," a Beijing resident surnamed Liu living in Chaoyang district told the Global Times on Tuesday. Another Beijing resident surnamed Xiong said the delay happened from Sunday because of capacity shortage which she was told by a delivery rider. 

The Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau announced on Monday plans to optimize quarantine policies for delivery riders. The bureau vowed to apply a technical approach to limit the service area for the riders and initiate daily nucleic-acid test mechanism to minimize their infection risks. 

A delivery rider on Tuesday told the Global Times that even though some of his colleagues had to suspend delivering goods, lots of restaurants also closed.

"The consequence was obvious that delivery orders I received during peak hours saw significant increases, so I have to try my best to deliver them on time, but sometimes failed," another delivery rider said.

As of Monday, the bar-related cluster outbreak had led to the lockdown of nearly 100 residential communities in Beijing. Beijing authorities announced a ban on cross-district delivery service from May 28 to control community transmission risks. 

Global Times