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Article History

Received: 5 September 2024

Revised: 1 May 2025

Accepted: 17 July 2025

First Online: 23 October 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors declare that they have no Conflict of interest.

: Our research, which focuses on the pricing and time limit setting mechanism for each delivery service provided by delivery drivers, involves human participants. It is important to note that this study is conducted within the framework of commercial operations and is fully aligned with the regulatory policies set forth by the government. To ensure compliance with ethical standards, we have adhered to the following principles:

: All participants, i.e., the delivery driver, the platform, were informed about the nature of the research and its potential impacts on their work.

: The data collected from the participants was handled with strict confidentiality. Personal identifiers were removed to protect their privacy, and data was only used for the purposes outlined in the study.

: Our research strictly followed all relevant government policies and regulations concerning commercial operations and human participant research.

: The research aimed to benefit the delivery drivers, the food delivery platform and the broader community by proposing a fair, reasonable, and efficient bonus allocation and time limit setting mechanism. It is crucial to highlight that the delivery incentive policy targets only about 5% of the overall orders, and primarily affects the tail-end orders with extremely long estimated delivery times (> 45 min). To protect delivery drivers’ welfare, we implement several measures. Firstly, we establish a minimum time limit for incentives based on expected delivery times, with an added margin to allow for more flexible deadlines, which prevents undue pressure on delivery drivers. Secondly, the platform’s ethics committee oversees the program, making adjustments to unrealistic time limits or inadequate bonuses through post-evaluation. Lastly, our experiments indicate that tight deadlines lead to lower order acceptance rates and increased customer complaints, thereby indirectly protecting delivery drivers from a policy optimization standpoint. Overall, these measures align the interests of the platform with those of the drivers, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship.