{"id":874151,"date":"2026-09-08T13:29:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=874151"},"modified":"2026-09-08T13:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:29:49","slug":"the-drivers-taking-over-south-africas-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/874151\/the-drivers-taking-over-south-africas-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"The drivers taking over South Africa’s roads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since entering the South African market at the start of the decade, grocery delivery services have continued to be a growth engine for several of the country’s retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On-demand grocery delivery first became popular amid the COVID-19 pandemic, where strict lockdowns and movement controls limited people’s ability to shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grocery delivery services quickly became a way to address this problem, as people could shop without leaving the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the end of these lockdowns, delivery services have continued to grow for many of South Africa’s established retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest players in the on-demand grocery delivery sector is Shoprite, through its Checkers and Shoprite Sixty60 service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 financial year, digital commerce was a driving force behind the company’s growth, with the sector reporting a 34.5% increase in sales, totalling R25.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital commerce reported larger sales growth than both Checkers (10%) and Shoprite and Usave (4.3%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform operates from 976 of the group’s stores, approximately 89% of the group’s combined total of 1,096 Checkers and Shoprite stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online delivery services for the Shoprite group are handled by Pingo, a subsidiary of the company, which employs approximately 18,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of its over 18,000 employees, approximately 10,000 are delivery drivers, who work as independent contractors for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite is not the only company which has seen its online delivery services grow, with Pick n Pay also reporting growth in this sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 52 weeks ended 1 March 2026, Pick n Pay reported that turnover from its online business had increased by roughly 32.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s grocery delivery services, Pick n Pay ASAP! and grocery deliveries through Mr D, were a large part of this, with turnover growth of 37.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These online services are available from over 620 of the company’s stores, including supermarkets, hypermarkets, and franchised stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said in its financial results that it employs over 2,500 delivery drivers, “improving delivery speed and reliability.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An industry that keeps growing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Woolworths, online delivery via its Woolies Dash platform accounted for 7.3%<\/a> of its total food sales in South Africa in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The food sector was the best-performing segment for Woolworths in the last financial year, and the company plans to centre its future operations on this segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spar has also increasingly worked to increase its presence in the e-commerce sector, and has seen some success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It currently offers its Spar2U grocery delivery service in 636 stores as of the end of 2025 and said it was planning to increase its footprint in this market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2025 financial results, the company noted that consumer behaviour was rapidly shifting towards the online environment and that it needed to advance its online systems quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Competitors with advanced delivery platforms are capturing the urban convenience shopper, eroding SPAR\u2019s relevance among tech-savvy consumers,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales growth for several major retailers in their online delivery divisions was not isolated in 2026 \u2013 it occurred over several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2020, retailers have consistently reported growing revenue from on-demand services, with Shoprite holding the largest market share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over 10,000 delivery drivers working under the Sixty60 banner, the service has become a major employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Sixty60 and other grocery delivery services provide thousands of jobs in South Africa, these positions are often not full-time or permanent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drivers operate as independent contractors, which gives them greater flexibility in their working hours but leaves them without many benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without being classified as permanent employees, the delivery drivers are not entitled to benefits such as paid sick leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drivers are also often responsible for the maintenance and operating costs of the vehicles they use to make deliveries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retailers have continued to ramp up their grocery delivery services as sales in the sector keep growing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":865807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2097286337938284577","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2199453384208394","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18113154244806296","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4067,7520,17414,9838,949],"class_list":["post-874151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-pick-n-pay","tag-shoprite","tag-sixty60","tag-spar","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874151"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":874398,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874151\/revisions\/874398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}