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Reprinted from: Recruitment Academic | Source: Dongyi Academy Author: Xing Bin
Recently, Professor Xing Bin from the School of Liberal Arts of Linyi University talked about his experience of delivering food for a whole month with the title "In the Winter of 2022, I Deliver Food in Linyi City". He talked about the basic situation of food delivery, personal experience and observation, the survival cost of the people at the bottom, and the information cocoon of contemporary intellectuals.
Once the article was published, it aroused many discussions and received over 10,000 likes. Now I will share the full text with you.
(Source: Meituan Waimai)
Xing Bin: In the winter of 2022, I will deliver food in Linyi City
Author: Xing Bin, Professor of Liberal Arts College of Linyi University
1. The basic situation of takeaway
Just do it.
The easiest way is to run "Meituan Crowdsourcing": No training is required, just register, there is no time limit, no minimum workload is required, and the income is settled every day. There is also "hummingbird crowdsourcing (was it hungry before). Basically the same as above.
Later, I registered for "Flash Delivery" (it is said that this is the most standardized and most user-friendly). I went to Qilu Garden for training for half a day, and spent 50 yuan to buy badges, vests, and file bags.
"SF Express" is similar to "Flash Express", so I don't want to experience it anymore, otherwise I have to pay for it.
Compared with these companies, Meituan is the most ruthless and has the highest market share. Hummingbird is next, while Flash Express and SF Express are relatively mild but not doing much business.
Meituan divides riders into three levels.
The core is meituan special delivery, professional riders. Clock in at nine o'clock every day, and leave work at nine o'clock in the evening. The order pushed by the system is 3-4 yuan per order. They are all well-optimized orders. The food pick-up places are centralized, for example, on the fourth floor of Wanda, and you can get 5-6 meals in a circle. Centralized delivery places, for example, deliver 5-6 meals to the front desk of a certain bank at a time. The delivery distance is short, no more than 3 kilometers. The delivery time is short, because it saves time to pick up the meal, and the meal can be placed directly at the front desk, without entering the community, taking the elevator, climbing the stairs, and repeatedly calling the customer to confirm.
They are relatively easy. But the disadvantage is that they are not allowed to ask for leave, and they are allowed to take four days off each month. The days off have to be reported a week in advance. Receive a fine of 200-500 for bad reviews, and a general fine of 500.
There is no penalty for late food delivery because it is calculated by the system, so people just run fast. It is said to work from nine o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock in the evening, but it is actually longer. The morning meeting is held at 8:30 in the morning, and 20 will be deducted for being late. It's nine o'clock in the evening, and I can only clock in and go home after the food in my hand is delivered (generally, the order will continue to be delivered until 8:30, and most of them can clock in and go home at 9:30). In Linyi City, delivery workers have to work 12-14 hours a day, 26-28 days a month, earning an average of 6,000 yuan. Those who are particularly desperate can earn more than 8,000 yuan, all of which are exchanged for their lives by running a red light 60 yards retrograde in the urban area.
Special delivery is very bitter, but amateur food delivery crowdsourced riders are even more bitter, at the lowest third level. The unit price for one delivery is 30% lower, and the orders are all left over for delivery, either remote or far away, or if you have to go to a relocation area without an elevator and climb the sixth floor to deliver it to your door. Good orders are hard to grab (the upper two floors have 60-30 seconds of priority to grab orders in advance). Crowdsourcing works longer, is more dangerous, earns less, and if you don’t obey, you will be “targeted” and sent to marginal areas without orders. The advantage is that you can go home and lie down if you don't want to do it, and no one is forcing you to earn money. The most desperate one I know can earn 7,000 a month (working 15-16 hours a day, non-stop for a month).
I have my own job, so I can only do amateur crowdsourcing. These days, I work from morning to night during holidays. I run for two hours in the morning on weekdays, and after dinner, I run until one or two, or two or three o'clock at night. Give more money at night, and those who can earn money are in remote places. In the middle of the night, I ran to the village east of Xianggong Town, to Fangcheng, to Lanling Village, and to Yinan Mountain, all of which were country roads. All ride motorcycles. It was too dark, and the light from the academy was not far away, and sometimes I rode into a ditch. As soon as I crossed Changchun Road, there were big trucks passing by at night, and my heart was terrified. After delivering the goods, when I came back by bike, my hands felt numb and cold. Once I was too cold, so I parked the car in the field, ran around for a while, and looked at the map of Gaode. It was nine kilometers due north of Linyi University, and it was still a long way to go home.
In one month, I delivered more than 2,000 orders, contacted hundreds of merchants, and knocked on more than 2,000 doors. On average, I ride a motorcycle 210 kilometers, walk 32,000 steps, and climb 110 floors every day. So I walked the most every day in the WeChat activity that month.
Calculated comprehensively this month, an hourly income of 10 yuan is the norm, and an hourly income of 20 yuan is the limit.
The average order is 3.5 yuan, and it takes 2+3 kilometers to pick up and deliver the goods. The average waiting time for picking up the goods is 5 minutes, 8 minutes for cycling, and 7 minutes for delivery to the community, a total of 20 minutes. 3 orders per hour, 10.5 yuan.
Send 3 orders at a time, and arrange them in order, which can save 1/3 of the time. But will be urged. 4-5 orders can be sent in one hour, 15.75 yuan. Deliver 5 orders at a time, which is suitable for the centralized delivery time of lunch and dinner. It's hard to get in order without being rushed. Basically the limit value. Slightly increase the income per unit time, and still send 5-6 orders per hour, 19.25 yuan. The advantage is that it can maximize the delivery volume during peak hours.
Regarding the goods to be sent, I have some small suggestions: cakes are not recommended to be sent. Flowers are not recommended. Do not send barbecues in winter. Wanda and Taisheng do not recommend picking up the goods. It is not recommended to send to the hospital. Buying on behalf of others is not recommended. The vegetable market buys it on behalf of others, and they are determined not to give it away. Beer, it is best not to send. Transfer order, can not accept. A supermarket supplies, better than meal delivery. Stationery, medicine, best. It is recommended to send special supplies that are light and not easily damaged. Long-distance, urgent, cautious judgment.
2. Is pain a fact or an experience?
Poetry has only one reality: pain
- Pacheco, "A Poet in Love"
I'm not interested in investigating, I just want to experience the experience.
2022 is special. According to a report, riders in Shanghai can earn more than 1,000 a day delivering food. Another report also said that Wang Lin, a deputy director of the Beijing Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, personally experienced being a food delivery rider, earning 41 yuan in 12 hours of delivery. Which one is the truth? I think, you should try it yourself to know the truth.
After working for a week, I think Director Wang Lin's report is more authentic. If you have time, you can search for his specific description. However, I feel that earning 41 yuan for 12 hours is not enough to support my life, let alone in Beijing. Director Wang Lin's experience is a bit short. If he works for a month, I estimate that he can earn three to four thousand yuan a month. Otherwise, how would he live?
I experienced it for a month. This piece of paper is my income recorded every day (the insurance fee of 3 yuan per day and the motorcycle oil fee of 25 yuan are not removed). When I ran to the 20th day, I rose to the highest level of crowdsourcing riders, and the roads were very familiar (the neighborhoods in Linyi City and the surrounding towns are well remembered, and I don’t need to look at the navigation. The neighborhoods I often go to, I go back every day Everyone memorizes the specific sequence of building numbers for a while, and increases the speed of walking food delivery), basically he is a very skilled rider. The labor intensity and specific income situation are roughly the same.
But my main concern is what the "identity" of the delivery man is like. Experience how people feel, deal with, and ruminate on these encounters during the work process. Physical suffering is one aspect, although I haven't experienced this kind of experience for a long time; the main thing is being insulted by others.
No one takes the food delivery, merchants, customers, especially security guards seriously. None of my acquaintances know that I am doing this recently, only the security guards in our community know. They saw me leaving early and returning late every day, and they wouldn't let me in. I said I was the owner; they followed me downstairs on a bicycle and watched me go upstairs, saying that you can buy a house here if you deliver food, it is a character. Many customers look at me like a beggar. Some customers are animals in human skin. I used to hate these people, and then gradually forgot.
A few times, I was almost recognized. Once was at Wanda. When I was picking up the meal, a young couple next to me said that the delivery guy spoke like Mr. Xing. I thought to myself that he must be a good boy who loves to listen to my class. Another time, I sent snail powder to Baode New Field in the middle of the night, and the man who opened the door was wearing underwear. He was my former colleague. I recognized him and he certainly didn't recognize me. I wear a helmet.
I prefer to recall the warm moments. This month, I sent more than 2,000 orders, and three people have sincerely thanked me. One is a lady in the ancient city community of the relocated community. She said that the child wanted to eat wontons in the middle of the night. It was so cold and thanked me for bringing them. Later I found out that she tipped me another 2 yuan. There is another one, also a lady, who lives in the village northeast of Xianggong Town. They were afraid that I would not be able to find my way in the middle of the night, so they took me to the intersection with a flashlight. There is also a couple, the elderly live in the fifth building of the People's Hospital, the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease center. I spilled some of the meal they ordered for the elderly, and later I bought another one to send. They both refunded me the money for the second meal and tipped me another 10 yuan.
Really appreciate them. I wish them all the best and good luck.
3. Today, how much "cost" do we need every month to exist decently in society?
There's plenty of time in the solitude I inhabit
Let's think about the question of hope:
can one day
our life
no longer as hobbes said
Just nasty, brutal and ephemeral?
- Pacheco, "Jonah Report"
Let’s take a look at the invisible control structures of these food delivery companies in China:
The headquarters of the food delivery company subcontracts all cities to operators in each urban area, and then the operators subcontract again. This is a very special structure, which is not allowed in many countries. KFC and McDonald's all have their own delivery teams: whether they are full-time or amateur, they have formal contracts. They have five insurances and one housing fund, and company insurance for injuries. They never set a delivery countdown to urge you to rush to Pegasus or you will be fined if you lose money.
——For our companies (I don’t want to name them here), the actual situation is that if the rider has a car accident, 3 yuan of insurance is deducted every day (the company deducts 60%, and only 1.2 yuan is handed over to the insurance company) Provided Casualty insurance up to 6,000 yuan. If it is not enough, the county operators will bear it. It’s not enough to cure the disease, the county and district operators just run away, and you can’t find anyone to sue. Even the operators who sue the city can’t sue, and the headquarters of the food delivery company can’t sue at all, because they are all “labor outsourcing” and they have isolated themselves. It is understood that such major casualty accidents happen every month in urban areas.
Sudden death, the management of all levels of the food delivery company headquarters will not - according to their terms, this has nothing to do with the food delivery company, the headquarters has nothing to do, and the prosecution is a waste of money. None of the national prosecutions won.
The question of fines. ——Customer complaints will be severely punished. There are many discussions on the Internet, so I won't go into details. Let me talk about another question about fines.
For example: Case 1.
The order came out very well, it was perfect. Then, during the delivery process, the software prompts that the last order has not been delivered. You just stop clicking. You will be fined the next day: off-site click delivery, or overtime click delivery. You can complain that there is no timeout, and the delivery has already been clicked at that time, this is a problem that the software jumped out again. Complaint is invalid. There is one more opportunity to appeal. Reappeals are also returned in seconds, which is invalid. If you call the manual customer service number, you will be lucky if you can get in touch within an hour. Contacted, still the same reply.
I encountered this situation twice a month, and the procedure was exactly the same. The three appeal opportunities were of no use at all, it was just a decoration. I finally told the artificial customer service (it was a living person) that you can directly contact the customer to see what the real situation is. It's useless, still deducting money. Moreover, the deducted money will not be returned to the customer, and it will all go into the pocket of the headquarters of the food delivery company.
Case 2: Running errands.
The delivery process went smoothly and the customer is very satisfied. But the customer will not complete the "advance payment" on the mobile phone. The customer cannot find the page of how to pay the advance payment, and the rider has to wait outside the door, and it is not good to urge loudly. (Large urging is a bad attitude, and you will be fined Yes, a fine of 500). The family was looking for an advance payment entrance in the house. After waiting for a long time, the system prompted that the delivery had timed out. If the overtime was one second, 40% of the errand fee would be deducted. If the overtime was five minutes, 60% of the errand fee would be deducted. Yesterday I After waiting on the stairs for almost ten minutes, the customer completed the payment. Today it shows that 80% of the order has been deducted and given away for nothing. It is 11 kilometers from the vicinity of the university town to Luozhuang.
Once, at Little Conch, I waited for the meal (four dishes and one soup) after paying the meal fee for the customer. After waiting for half an hour, the first dish was still not ready. I called the manager to report and replied that I would continue to wait until 45 minutes. When the food didn’t come out, I called the manager to report again, and the reply said that the countdown was allowed for 15 minutes; when the countdown was almost over, I had already waited for 75 minutes, and then called the manager to report, and the reply said to discuss with the customer and try to satisfy the customer Don't complain.
The customer was very considerate and said, "Since the payment has already been made, please wait a little longer. The Chinese New Year is approaching and there are many people. I understand; I will confirm the receipt at home first, and you can send it with peace of mind."
As a result, when I woke up the next day, I saw a red warning: serious violation, a fine of 200 yuan! What to do, start appealing. Complaints start from the first level, filling in forms, recordings, screenshots and reporting. Called back, the appeal is invalid. The second-level appeal...the third-level appeal...the fourth-level appeal, when I arrived at the headquarters, someone recorded a phone call to collect evidence; in the end, the appeal was invalid. Finally to the fifth level, the highest level, the general manager of the marketing department of the headquarters, Shanghai, ..... The appeal was still invalid, and the reply said that the system showed the time when the customer filled in the positive comments, and my location was still in the hotel.
I said that the customer's special recording situation statement, the lobby manager's recording situation statement, and the photo of the customer receiving the meal at home have clearly stated the facts. The reply was no. At the same time, I asked me, you have been complaining for almost a whole day. With this time, you will earn 200 yuan by doing takeout for a day. Why are you so stupid?
I told the general manager on the phone, you should have watched a movie called "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit"; it's not about money.
After a while, he called and said he had sent me a red envelope, please accept it. I opened it, a 15 yuan red envelope, and left a message saying that I personally understand your experience, but the fine cannot be cancelled. This 15 yuan is my personal humanitarian compensation.
——Is the profitability of these world-renowned food delivery companies really so tight?
The company is listed on Nasdaq in the United States and has strict quarterly and annual financial reports. Let's open it up and have a look. Since its establishment, it has hardly been profitable for more than ten years. The loss in 18 years was 115.5 billion, the loss in 21 was 23.5 billion, and the loss in 22 was 6.7 billion.
When I saw this financial report, I was as surprised as everyone else. Because for each takeaway order, the merchant needs to pay an additional delivery fee of 30% of the product price, and the customer needs to pay a delivery fee of 0.5 yuan per kilometer. For example, if you order a 20 yuan meal for lunch, the customer pays 20+2=22 yuan for 3 kilometers; the merchant gets 14 yuan, the courier gets 3 yuan, and the delivery company gets 5 yuan. It's probably like this in proportion. Why did it lose so much?
We still look at the financial report. In 21 years, its administrative expenditure was 8.8 billion, and its research and development expenditure was 16.7 billion. In 22 years, its administrative expenditure was 9.8 billion, and its research and development expenditure was 20.8 billion. Money flows from here. All its branches are outsourced, and you can count the number of administrative staff needed for the headquarters platform. Its platform is a mobile APP. You can also make statistics on how much research and development costs are needed to support it every year.
Sometimes carefully redacted numbers mislead the world. Not as good as our daily experience. These riders are doing the most intensive food delivery work in the world, holding the lowest proportion of income; merchants have withdrawn one by one, and no longer accept such a heavy commission; its major shareholders are transferring assets in luxury houses and yachts all over the world... It is completely inconsistent with what these financial report data show.
During the month of delivering food, I met 3 female delivery workers and several older delivery riders. The oldest one told me that he is 66 years old this year. They can't afford such intensive labor 14 hours a day, all year round. I estimate that they can earn 3000-4000 yuan a month. After the Spring Festival, I left the delivery team, but I still noticed them first on the way. In recent months, I've seen more and more female and older riders racing against the clock. No matter how dangerous or difficult or tiring they may be, they cannot do without the income of 3000 to 4000 yuan. The children at home, the elderly in the hospital bed, the mortgage repayment text messages from the bank... all reminded them: run, run fast! One night, I squatted in front of a barbecue restaurant by the riverside, waiting The boss serves dinner. There were several Meituan riders squatting beside them.
I asked him, what is the most difficult job nowadays? He said that it is the most difficult to earn money from food delivery, and it is also difficult to sort and sort in express centers, it is also difficult to move house and goods, and it is also difficult to carry floor tiles upstairs.
I asked him, is it harder than farming in my hometown? He said, of course it is harder than farming. Farming is leisurely, and there is no money. I asked him, are these things harder than doing construction work? He said, of course it is harder than doing construction work. Thousands of construction work cost 200 yuan a day for large workers, and 180 to 200 yuan a day for small workers; but you can get money No? There is work for half a year, no work for half a year, and the foreman runs away at the end of the year. I'm going to do all of these. Do each for several months. Lose weight for your greasy head and noodles.
Is there a company that can not only make me earn money, but also teach us something good? This is the biggest question in my mind.
Where does our extreme introversion come from, who can tell me?
I checked the specific situation of foreign express delivery industry. The starting price for sending an order in Japan is 32 yuan (RMB), and the starting price for sending an order in North America is US$6. So it is very expensive to have food delivered to your home abroad. (The salary of senior intellectuals is currently 2-3 times that of China in Japan, and 2-3 times that of China in North America. But the income of low-level workers is currently 8-12 times that of Japan, and 10-15 times that of China in North America. times.) Moreover, the common practice in foreign countries is that both parties can complain about bad reviews: the rider has five bad reviews, and he has to suspend work and retrain. Customers who have received negative reviews from riders five times will be banned by the system for one year, and they will no longer be able to order takeout, and must pick it up by themselves. If both parties complain, the system will provide real people to answer the phone and give feedback within 2-6 hours. If the mediation fails, both riders and customers can bring evidence to the court to sue the company. Such as suing the company for "violation fines" and "discrimination", if you win a lawsuit, you will be financially free for a lifetime (usually you will receive the company's money for out-of-court settlement). Because those trade unions are not generally powerful, but very, very powerful.
Compared with the humanized companies just mentioned, the management system of our food delivery headquarters has a completely different core.
Our companies are very special, that is, our "big system" is specific and micro, and the genes are exactly the same. All its designs, with the blessing of big data and artificial intelligence, have become more sophisticated and accurate, "just enough" to obtain the right amount of labor, "just enough" to allow the riders to maintain the most basic life, so that they can't accumulate The small capital of recuperating and raising money with money, like a donkey, is firmly tied to this mill.
Isn't this what Sigismund-Baumann wrote in "Work, Consumerism, and the New Poor"? "What the new factory system needs is only a part of man, a small soulless man in a complex machine. The part that works like a cog. And those useless parts of people, such as interest and ambition, and the desire for freedom in nature, not only have nothing to do with productivity, but also interfere with those useful parts that production needs." The analysis of the modern situation is worrying. What we encountered was an enhanced version, which was even more worrying.
Who is preventing us from living a minimum standard of decency?
4. The “information cocoon” of intellectuals
Revenge is the main theme of the world
People attack me, I attack people, people attack me again
We perpetuate this endless loop
- Pacheco, "The Cage"
I don't think intellectual is such a beautiful word. ——It is a neutral word, neither good nor bad.
I have read books for many years, read many books, and met many scholars. But I think the more you read, the bigger your blind spots will be, which will instead create an inexplicable conceit that despises the everyday world.
People at the bottom live in the information cocoon at the bottom; intellectuals live in the information cocoon of the intellectuals. The two are often incompatible.
I talk about this issue from another angle.
I come from a Catholic family. When I was in high school, I was under great pressure and left the restraint of the church. My mother often sighed and said, you do these things more seriously than believers, why don't you go back to the church?
Why? I think "the essence is all discarded".
This is a saying in the world of Go. ——Who will go to hell if I don’t go to hell? This is the core of Catholic belief. Having this belief is the key. I've seen a lot of people who claim to be strict followers of the precepts. Even if their words and deeds are consistent, I don't like it: passively succumbing to certain precepts, but their hearts are full of selfish desires, isn't this not paying for the same thing?
A sustainable world should understand the limitations of human beings and the fluidity of wealth. At the very least, it is necessary to understand that all classes in the world must develop in a balanced manner, and that if you try to catch fish, you will lose your eggs. The reason why Weber talked about the "generosity" of the Puritans was not only because of moral pursuits, but mainly because they realized that part of the profits must be transferred to others in order to maintain the stable operation of the system.
To put it a little further, the end of the world is "emptiness" (emptiness is not nothingness). The "emptiness" I understand is birth and death, birth and death, and a cycle that does not exist forever for someone or a certain surname. Getting a lot of money is kind of fun, but not too much fun.
In the past, the ancients said that it is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal. People like to say that people are lazy, they can go up but not down.
It is indeed the case. Nearly fifty years old, I feel that I am becoming more and more squeamish, more and more hypocritical, more and more bad-tempered, and more and more impatient. If things continue like this, they will go to hell.
Zhang Ailing said that one year during the Lantern Festival, Hu Lancheng accompanied her to wander around the suburbs of Shanghai, and got into a shed to listen to the wandering troupe singing wild operas. In the cold winter, those actresses were red from the cold and their voices were hoarse, so they painted their eyebrows and changed their clothes on the mound behind the curtain. After watching for a while, Hu Lancheng said let's go. Zhang Ailing said, let's go, I'll watch for a while.
Later, Zhang Ailing recalled this incident in the United States. She said, I was shocked, this is the real woman with vitality, no matter how hard or poor, the world collapses, it can't stop them from living, just like weeds.
Indeed.
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