Uber Eats turned 10 in Australia this year. The service launched in Melbourne in April 2016.

Pizza delivery was already familiar to Australian consumers. What Uber Eats (and its competitors) changed was the range of food available, the ease of ordering and, eventually, our expectations.

We became accustomed to watching dinner inch towards us on a little map. 

This anniversary tells us something about Australia in general. We value lifestyle, dislike unnecessary hassle and will pay someone else to deal with it.

Delivery apps have made that transaction easier than ever. They have also created a workforce whose convenience looks rather different from ours. 

The chart below shows the number of Australians working as delivery drivers, covering goods such as parcels as well as food.

It starts at about 27,200 in August 1986 and reaches 84,400 in February 2026. That is more than a tripling over almost four decades. 

The more relevant comparison for this birthday is February 2016, shortly before Uber Eats arrived. There were about 44,800 delivery drivers. Ten years later, we almost doubled ( 88 per cent) the number of delivery drivers while the total number of employed people grew only by 24 per cent. 

Uber Eats isn’t responsible for the whole increase of course. Online retail, population growth and the pandemic all shaped this trend.

The quarterly estimates bounce around, and recent growth has hardly been a straight line. Nor is this a count of everyone with a delivery app on their phone: Occupation statistics record people’s main jobs, missing delivery work done on the side. Not every driver is a gig worker, either. 

Still, the long-term message is clear. A larger workforce is bringing things to us. 

Australia Post’s 2026 eCommerce Report estimates Australians spent a record $82.6 billion online in 2025. Shopping online has become an ordinary way to buy things, rather than a technological novelty or a pandemic necessity. 

Calling this laziness is wrong. Consider a household juggling two jobs, school pick-up, homework and bedtime. Ordering dinner buys a little breathing room. A delivery fee purchases time as well as transport. 

For someone........

© The New Daily