China Expands Work Injury Protection for Delivery Riders

China’s groundbreaking occupational injury protection pilot for gig economy workers has expanded nationwide, covering nearly 30 million people across all 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps as of July 1, 2026. The expansion comes as experts and policymakers grapple with how to design effective work injury protection schemes for the country’s 84 million new employment form workers, including delivery riders, couriers, and ride-hailing drivers, according to Xinhua News.

The Challenge: Low Participation Willingness

Despite the rapid growth of the platform economy, delivery riders face significant barriers to social security coverage. The “new occupational injury” (新职伤) system, launched as a pilot in July 2022 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and 10 other departments, was designed to address a critical gap: traditional work injury insurance requires an established labor relationship, which most gig workers lack.

The system broke new ground by not requiring traditional labor relations as a prerequisite, using a “per-order fee, monthly declaration” payment model with fees fully borne by platform companies. As People’s Daily reported, this created a “third path” between social security work injury insurance and commercial insurance.

However, multiple factors continue to suppress participation willingness among riders. Many crowd-sourced riders told reporters they understand the need for insurance but are reluctant to see their take-home pay reduced. “For those of us who just take orders, most don’t have [social security],” one rider said. Rider Lao Ma from Henan, working in Wuhan, voiced a common concern: “If I pay social security here, what happens when I go elsewhere?”

The “New Occupational Injury” Pilot: A Milestone

Since its launch, the pilot has achieved significant scale. As of end of June 2026, cumulative participation reached 29.902 million people. Meituan alone has paid over 3 billion yuan in occupational injury insurance fees, covering more than 10 million riders, as reported by Nandu N Video.

From July 2026, the program expanded from the original 7 platforms to include additional major platforms such as Xiaoxiang Supermarket and Hema Fresh, with some provinces adding smaller platforms. The expansion focuses on three high-risk industries: instant delivery, ride-hailing, and same-city freight, according to Shanxi Daily.

The “15th Five-Year Plan” explicitly calls for “improving the rights protection system for flexible employment and new employment form workers” and “increasing the participation rate of flexible employment personnel, migrant workers, and new employment form workers.”

Persistent Barriers: Claims and Coverage Gaps

Despite the progress, significant challenges remain. Riders often struggle to obtain the documentation needed for claims. A dedicated rider in Huainan, Anhui, who suffered a tibia fracture in a July 2024 traffic accident, discovered that her employment relationship involved multiple entities: a contract with a station, wages paid by a human resources company, and management by the station. None had paid social security on her behalf, making traditional work injury claims impossible.

Crowd-sourced riders face even greater obstacles. One rider told reporters he works across multiple platforms simultaneously, raising complex questions about responsibility allocation in multi-platform employment scenarios. A Beijing Daily survey of 200 riders in Jinan found that only 39.3% had work injury insurance, while 25.5% had personally experienced accidents.

Commercial insurance, which riders typically pay 2-4 yuan per day for through deductions from their first order, provides inadequate protection. “Usually 2 to 4 yuan, but no one has told me what it covers or how to claim,” said crowd-sourced rider Xiao Zhang. Some insurers have even attempted to deny claims by citing the “new occupational injury” coverage as grounds for exclusion, as happened in a March 2023 case involving a Chongqing rider who died in a traffic accident.

Expert Recommendations: Strengthening Platform Responsibility

Lou Yu, Director of the Social Law Research Institute at China University of Political Science and Law, argues that platform responsibility must be strengthened. “In incomplete labor relations situations, platform workers face high occupational injury risks but cannot participate in work injury insurance,” he said. “In the future, platforms should bear contribution responsibility equivalent to employers, with supporting detailed rules to clarify claim boundaries for multi-platform and cross-region incidents.”

Chen Lifan, Associate Professor at Renmin University’s School of Labor and Human Resources, highlights the gap between leading and smaller platforms. “Small and medium platforms lag significantly behind leading platforms in financial strength, technical capability, and compliance awareness,” he warned. “Without reasonable transition arrangements and strong contribution supervision, if platforms pass on insurance costs to riders, it could trigger new conflicts.”

Chen also notes that domestic services workers, online streamers, and other new employment forms remain uncovered. “Workers in these industries during the transition period have neither work injury insurance nor occupational injury protection—falling between two stools,” he said, as reported by China News Service.

What’s Next: Toward Comprehensive Protection

Experts recommend several concrete steps: implementing personalized benefit calculation services to help riders understand the value of participation, establishing grace periods for contribution lapses during income downturns, simplifying cross-region transfer procedures, and expanding coverage to additional industries.

For riders who have benefited, the impact is tangible. A Beijing rider who received 3,799.51 yuan in compensation after being struck by a vehicle while delivering put it simply: “Nobody wants to get hurt, but when you’re anxious and frustrated, it’s reassuring to find there’s a safety net to catch you.”

As China’s gig economy continues to evolve, the challenge ahead is clear: building a protection system that matches the flexibility of platform work while ensuring no worker falls through the cracks. The nationwide expansion marks a significant step, but the design of truly effective protection for the country’s millions of delivery riders remains very much a work in progress.