Rappi courier base in Brazil doubles in two months of quarantine

Delivery and personal shopper app Rappi has increased its base of couriers from 600 to 1,200 professionals in Brazil in only two months, according to website MobileTime. 

The increase of the workforce has led Rappi to adopt an Enterprise Mobility Management tool to keep control of all smartphones used by its couriers for work. The 600 drivers will be the first to test the system, but Rappi aims to have 2,500 mobile phones tracked by the platform. 

Long before the pandemic, most new jobs in Brazil were already going to the gig economy. Work for delivery, courier, and transport app companies is one of the main drivers of positive recent job creation numbers — a market estimated at 4 million people. According to Brazil’s official statistics agency IBGE, these new jobs have a direct link to high unemployment rates.

Back in December, Brenno Grillo and Marcelo Soares showed that the old adage “a job is a job” is simply not true. Formal full-time employment in Brazil grants workers access to the country’s labor legislation safety net — but people working for apps have a no-strings-attached relationship with the tech companies that connect them to customers.

This situation that has only worsened due to Covid-19. 

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