• Delivery platforms rely on a large, mostly migrant workforce that is out on city streets all day. Yet they provide almost nowhere for these workers to rest, charge their bikes or get help. In cities around the world, rider hubs have emerged to fill this gap. These are community spaces offering legal advice, bike repair, charging points and rest areas to platform delivery workers.
• This briefing is the first comparative study of these spaces. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, it documents rider hubs in Vienna, Bordeaux, Paris, Brussels, Florence and Melbourne.
• Platforms operate on a similar model wherever they are found. The hubs, however, do vary, shaped by local labour law, migration policy and the involvement of unions, municipalities and riders themselves.
• We call for rider hubs to be recognised and funded as essential social infrastructure. We also call for closer dialogue between hubs, so that established models such as Vienna’s Riders Collective and Italy’s CGIL-backed Casa Rider network can support new ones.
