Do you have what it takes to be a delivery driver in China?

The 20-year-old can't stop yawning as he gets ready for another 13-hour day of delivering food across Beijing.

His first fare pops onto his phone at 10:42am. It's a coffee order.

He sprints off on his electric motorbike to the cafe to collect the drink, but 3 minutes later he accepts another order, a Chinese hamburger.

He makes a calculated gamble that he'll be able to pick up and deliver both within the tight delivery timeframe.

If he doesn't make it in time, his approval rating will be penalised, affecting his ability to get future fares.

Mr Qi acknowledges he might take dangerous risks to make the delivery deadline, which can be as low as 20 minutes.

"Sometimes I get anxious and I'll run red lights or go against traffic,"

he said.

"Sometimes I might be overtime, sometimes merchants might not have your meal ready on time, and there are all sorts of issues."

As the clock ticks down, Mr Qi drops off the coffee and zooms, well over the speed limit, to his next location to deliver the Chinese hamburger.

There is less than 1 minute remaining on the clock as he sprints through the car park of the unit block and rushes up the stairs.

Huffing, he places the plastic bag with the food in front of the customer's door with just seconds to spare.

Then he accepts the next order and hops back on his bike.

How gig work dominated China

Mr Qi is a small player in China's rapidly expanding gig economy, which includes food delivery, ride-hailing and self-employed services.

The number of Chinese workers engaged in the so-called "flexible employment" sector is expected to rise to 320 million by the end of this year, or about 44 per cent of China's workforce.

Angelia Li, an assistant professor at the University of California, said the burgeoning sector has been soaking up workers unable to find more traditional jobs because of China's economic downturn.

"China's economic slowdown has made desirable formal-sector jobs harder to secure and competition for them much more intense," Dr Li said.

"Others enter delivery after being laid off, losing a small business, or accumulating debt.

"For these workers, delivery work provides a relatively low-barrier way of earning money quickly.

"They may initially imagine it as a temporary or transitional job, only to remain in the industry much longer than expected because they have difficulty finding better employment."

The gig economy has become a lifeline for China's young people, with the youth unemployment rate nearing 20 per cent in recent years.

For people like Mr Qi with few qualifications, it was an obvious job opportunity that required little more than a phone and bike.

But the hours needed to make substantial pay are often brutal, and the competition to meet deadlines and take on more orders is unforgiving.

Gruelling work, but it could be worse

On the day ABC News travels with Mr Qi, he works non-stop, picking up milk tea, noodles, dumplings, rice, pizza, and more coffee from 10am until he logs off exhausted at 11pm.

He made 28 deliveries, rode 68 kilometres and earned about $45.

It's gruelling work, but Mr Qi says it's still better than many of his previous jobs.

"I used to work in security," he said.

"I worked at the subway for a year and quit because the working time was too long and tiring, so I would even fall asleep standing up.

"Now, just riding a bike every day delivering food is pretty good. It's not as complicated as security checks."

Fines, risk and an unrelenting algorithm

Dr Li said there are several overlapping layers of pressure that make the gig economy particularly stressful.

"First is income pressure. Piece rates for delivery work have declined these years, meaning workers need to complete more deliveries to maintain the same level of income," she said.

"Many times, the platform even does not need to nudge workers to run red lights, workers simply want to run red lights because doing so saves time.

"Second is algorithmic and time pressure.

"Food-delivery workers are given very tight delivery deadlines, which can sometimes be unrealistic because the system cannot fully anticipate traffic, restaurant delays, problems locating customers, or other circumstances beyond the worker's control."

Mr Qi said his earnings can be wiped away in an instant if he is penalised and fined for making an incorrect delivery.

"If a customer asks for a refund, or we didn't deliver it to the right place, we will be fined," Mr Qi said.

"If we deliver the wrong meal and the customer complains, 500 yuan (more than $100) will be deducted."

Surveillance and meltdowns

Some delivery apps also track riders' movements and demand they provide "selfie proof" they are wearing helmets and uniforms within 20 seconds of getting a notification, or they could also be penalised.

While Mr Qi accepts pressure as part of the job and says he's generally "pretty happy" with his work, the challenges of the gig economy and competing with millions of others for orders can be too much for some.

In recent years, videos shared on Chinese social media show delivery drivers at breaking point. In one, a rider who is blocked from an elevator becomes upset and aggressive when worried he will miss the delivery deadline.

Gig economy researchers also say the expansion of the sector is evidence of a shift of China's workers away from traditional labour force industries.

Zeng Xianwu started food-delivery driving in Beijing less than a month ago after becoming disillusioned with his construction job, even though the labour work paid more.

"It was hard to get paid working on construction projects, but this job at least pays on time," he said.

"Construction sites definitely make more money, but construction sites don't get paid on time.

"Sometimes it would take three to four months to get paid, sometimes not until the end of the year, or even longer.

"So with elderly parents above and young children to support, what do you do?"

The 37-year-old moved to Beijing from his hometown province in Hubei to provide for his family after struggling to find rural work.

He says he's now working about 15 hours every day to make no more than $1,900 a month.

But in a sign there may still be a stigma attached to flexible employment, Mr Zeng says many of his family and friends don't know he is a food delivery driver.

He doesn't know how long he'll be able to stay doing the job.