Mkhululi Siziba swapped Uber Eats for Checkers Sixty60 and bought a car

In 2020, Johannesburg driver Mkhululi Siziba left Uber Eats for Checkers Sixty60, a new local grocery-delivery app. The switch offered better pay, shorter hours, and work contracts. At first, he delivered up to 28 orders a day and said he earned 5,208 rand ($272) a week.

The test got harder as more riders joined: by 2023 he was barely getting 18 deliveries a day. Yet he still made more than he had working only for Uber Eats. The decision worked because pay and schedule, not just order count, determined his take-home income.

The switch paid for a new car and became his cash cow. When rising fuel prices increased pressure in January 2023, Siziba added an after-hours Uber Eats shift instead of abandoning the better-paying base. The result was a portfolio of gigs: Checkers Sixty60 for core income and Uber Eats as a flexible top-up.

Checkers Sixty60 initially offered better pay, shorter hours, and a contract; even with fewer deliveries, Siziba earned more than on Uber Eats and bought a new car.

Checkers Sixty60 offered better pay, shorter hours, and work contracts than the Uber Eats gig he left.

The grocery-delivery market was expanding in South Africa, while more workers joining the app later increased competition.

A second gig could be added after hours when fuel prices squeezed the economics, preserving optionality.

When platform work becomes a race on volume, switch to the channel with better unit economics and contractual stability; keep optionality by adding a second gig when costs change.

Siziba continued to treat Checkers Sixty60 as his main income while using Uber Eats for extra cash. The article says Checkers Sixty60 had 2.4 million downloads and dominated against Woolies Dash and Pick n Pay ASAP; the worker-level gain was meaningful even though the platform still required speed and competition rose.