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Delivery Drivers Double in Latin America: `It's Been Crazy Days'

Growing armies of couriers chase orders as cash reserves burn.

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Photographer: Victor Moriyama/Bloomberg

These should be fat times for Latin America’s armies of delivery drivers. Across the region of 650 million, people are holed up at home, and hungry.

But the troops are growing fast as the coronavirus pandemic strangles economies and kills jobs. It seems that anyone with a bike or a motorcycle is hustling to ferry pizzas and grocery orders, intensifying the delivery wars that have been raging between startups such as Rappi and iFood, international players including Uber Eats and scrappy mom-and-pop outfits.