Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority has switched on around 40 air-conditioned rest areas for delivery riders, ready before the worst of the summer heat arrives.
Delivery riders spend their shifts on a motorbike in temperatures that soar past 40°C through the summer months. The rest stops give them a cool, safe place to pause between orders — somewhere to drink water, charge a phone, and get out of the sun for a few minutes. The Roads and Transport Authority frames it as a road-safety measure as much as a comfort one: a rested rider is a safer rider.
The sites sit in areas with heavy delivery traffic, including Hessa Street, Al Khawaneej, Al Barsha, Al Satwa, Oud Metha, Al Karama, and Arjan. The authority said it chose the locations using operational data and worked with delivery companies to map where riders actually gather during the day.
Each rest area has an air-conditioned waiting space, water dispensers, and phone charging points. Depending on the site, one can hold about 10 riders at a time, with dedicated motorcycle parking alongside. The shelters are built to block direct sunlight and hold the cool air in, while keeping riders visible from the road.
The timing is no accident. From 15 June, the UAE's annual midday break stops most outdoor work under the sun between 12:30 pm and 3 pm, running through 15 September. Now in its 22nd year, it is the country's main summer safeguard for people who work outside. The rider rest areas extend that same idea to the people weaving through traffic with food and parcels all day.
Delivery riders are one of the most visible workforces in the city, out in every neighbourhood in every kind of weather. Small things — shade, cold water, a place to sit — add up across a long shift in June. The authority says the rest areas are part of a wider effort to improve riders' working conditions during the hottest months of the year.