Pandemic as a Driver of Diversification of the Bolt Platform: Launching Food Courier Service in Budapest

Abstract

Bolt, a ride-hailing company providing “on-location platform-determined work”, became a global platform operator in the personal transport sector within a year after its foundation in 2013. Presently, the company is among the first five fastest growing European firms. The Hungarian operation was founded in 2016. In contrast to the Uber, this company,originally called Taxify but rebranded as Bolt in 2019, respects the country’s regulation on personal transport. The aim of the case study is to identify some key characterists of the platform that allowed the company to adapt to sudden societal shifts caused by the COVID19 pandemic. The paper is structured around five sections: 1) an overview on the ride-haling service globally and than focusing on Bolt itself, 2) an outline of the service diversification of Bolt under the worldwide social-economic and health crisis created by COVID-19, 3) the platform workers’ motivation, earnings, working conditions, skills match, algorithmic mangement/autonomy and employment status, 4) a summary of the practice of representation or the forms of voice of the workers, an 5) an overview ofkey impacts of COVID-19 that have been felt by platform workers. The descriptive analysis is ended by the concluding remarks.