DgcityMeituan is rolling out winter protection for more than one million food delivery riders across 186 cities, equipping them with self-heating jackets and company-funded medical coverage for cold-related illness from November 1 through the end of March.
The new uniforms, first tested in the frigid northern city of Hulunbuir, carry heating elements across the chest and back. Early batches went to riders in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang before wider distribution. Gloves, masks and knee pads are available through the app for as little as one fen, and service stations in 40 cities will offer hot water, meals and maintenance for electric bikes.
The medical plan marks a shift from blankets and gloves toward institutional protection. Riders will be covered for conditions tied to freezing weather, with free online consultations, on top of the occupational injury protection Meituan says it has funded with 3.6 billion yuan in contributions, covering about 19 million riders by the end of August.
Working as a delivery rider in a Chinese winter means hours on a slow electric scooter in temperatures that can fall below minus 20 degrees Celsius across the north, with algorithms still timing every order. Frostbite, respiratory illness and traffic injuries on icy roads are routine hazards, and riders injured on the job have historically struggled to prove a relationship with the platform.
The measures arrive as the government drafts broader rules for platform work. A proposed 54-article regulation would set standards for pay, hours, algorithm management and occupational injury insurance, turning what companies once framed as seasonal charity into expected, enforceable practice.
China’s delivery riders number in the millions, and the job has become one of the most common fallbacks for workers leaving factories, construction and farming. Entry is easy, requiring little more than a phone, an electric bike and a health check, which is precisely why a sudden illness or injury can leave a rider with no savings and no employer to turn to.
Platforms have been gradually nudged into responsibility. Earlier guidelines required them to stop forcing riders into the tightest delivery times, relax penalties when weather slows traffic and disclose how algorithms decide orders. The new draft rules would go further by giving riders a clearer route to claim wages and resolve disputes rather than negotiating with automated customer service.
Rival platforms have introduced their own winter kits in past years, but coverage has been patchy and riders on short-term contracts sometimes missed out. The scale of this program, and the five months of medical cover, suggest companies now expect such protections to become the legal baseline rather than remain a public-relations exercise.
