Uber Eats driver carjacked at restaurant pickup in Perth — what gig workers need to know

Reena Walia pulled up to a Chinese restaurant in Canning Vale just after 6:30pm on a Wednesday — a routine pickup, mid-shift. She left with no car, no order, and a criminal charge sheet that reads like a police blotter highlight reel.

According to 7NEWS Australia, Walia, 54, was approached by a stranger while waiting at Waratah Blvd and threatened until she threw her keys in a panic. Her BMW 3 Series was driven off. The alleged offender eventually crashed 25 kilometres away near Hazelmere and was found hiding in bushland. A 32-year-old Jandakot man was charged with robbery, motor vehicle theft, drug possession, reckless driving to escape police, and failing to stop. Bail was not considered.

"I feel maybe next time when I do Uber Eats it's going to be horrifying," Walia told 7NEWS. "I don't feel safe."

That sentiment is not unique to Walia. Gig economy delivery work sits in a particularly exposed risk category. Drivers operate alone, often after dark, in unfamiliar areas, with predictable stop patterns that are visible to anyone watching an app. A 2022 report by the Transport Workers' Union found that nearly one in three food delivery workers in Australia had experienced a safety incident on the job — and that figure almost certainly undercounts incidents that go unreported because workers fear losing access to the platform.

Restaurant carparks and pickup zones are a known flashpoint. They concentrate delivery workers in a predictable location, often idling with engines running, frequently checking a phone. A vehicle left running while a driver ducks inside to collect an order is an easy target. Walia did not leave her car running — she was approached before she even entered the restaurant — but the dynamic is the same: isolated worker, low foot traffic, early evening when lighting is still transitional.

This is exactly the kind of situation XGuard handles for organisations with lone and mobile workers. A delivery driver checking in through XGuard at the start of a shift would have a live monitored session running in the background. If she triggered a duress alert — or simply failed to check in after a set interval — a response would be initiated within seconds, not minutes. The platform is built for exactly this scenario: no colleague nearby, no fixed workplace, no security camera that anyone is actually watching. XGuard operators run a defined escalation playbook that goes from in-app alert straight through to emergency services contact if the worker cannot confirm they are safe.

There are also practical changes delivery workers can make right now without waiting for platforms or employers to act.

Pro tip: When collecting from a restaurant pickup, lock your vehicle even if you are stepping away for under a minute. Engine running plus unlocked door is the combination most carjackers are looking for. If you feel uneasy about a person near your car, go back inside and ask staff to call the order complete from there — the delivery fee is not worth the risk.

The alleged offender in this case was charged with robbery, not just theft — meaning police believe a threat was made directly to Walia. That distinction matters for workers thinking about risk. Carjackings at delivery stops are not typically random crimes of opportunity; they often involve someone who has observed the pattern and made a deliberate choice. That makes situational awareness — scanning the area before you get out, positioning your car so you can leave quickly, not sitting in a stationary vehicle with attention buried in your phone — genuinely protective, not just common sense platitudes.

Platforms like Uber Eats offer some in-app safety features, but they are largely reactive. A driver who has already been threatened is not in a position to navigate an app. What gig workers actually need is a background layer that monitors their safety state continuously and hands off to human response when something goes wrong. That is the gap the industry has not closed, and it is the gap that left Walia running back into a restaurant screaming for help with no safety net underneath her.

Walia said she is shaken and uncertain about returning to delivery work. That is a reasonable response to a genuinely frightening event. It is also a signal that the current patchwork of platform safety features is not enough for workers doing this job at scale, every night, across every suburb in the country.

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Source: au-7news — 2026-10-01