Source: Dongyi Academy Author: Xing Bin Editor: School Girl
Recently, Professor Xing Bin from the School of Liberal Arts of Linyi University talked about his experience of delivering food for a whole month under the title "In the Winter of 2022, I Delivered 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 caused a lot of discussion and received over 10,000 likes. Now I will share the full text with you.
(Source: Meituan Takeaway)
Xing Bin: In the winter of 2022, I delivered food in Linyi City
Author: Xing Bin, Professor, School of Liberal Arts, Linyi University
1. Basic situation of takeaway
Just do it.
The simplest one 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 paid every day. There is also "Hummingbird crowdsourcing (were you hungry before)". Basically the same as above.
Later, I signed up for "Shandong" (it is said that this company is the most standardized and user-friendly). I went to Qilu Park for a half-day training and spent 50 yuan to buy a work badge, vest, and document bag.
"SF Express Intra-city" is similar to "Flash Delivery", so you won't experience it anymore, otherwise you will have to spend a lot of money.
Comparing these companies, Meituan is the most ruthless and has the highest market share. Hummingbird is second, and Flash Express and SF Express are relatively mild but do not have much business.
Meituan divides riders into three levels.
The core is Meituan’s exclusive delivery and professional riders. I clock in to work at nine o'clock every day and get off work at nine o'clock in the evening. immerse yourself in the orders pushed by the system, each order costs 3-4 yuan. They are all optimized orders. The food pick-up area is centralized, for example, go to the fourth floor of Wanda and pick up 5-6 meals in a circle. The delivery locations are centralized, for example, 5-6 meals are delivered to the front desk of a 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 food, and the food can be placed directly at the front desk. There is no need to enter the community, get on the elevator, climb the stairs, or call the customer repeatedly to confirm.
They are relatively relaxed. But the disadvantage is that you are not allowed to ask for leave. You are allowed four days off every month. You must report the day of rest one week in advance. The more windy, rainy and snowy it is, the more timely delivery is required. The fine for receiving a negative review is 200-500, and the general fine is 500.
There is no penalty for being late for food delivery because it is calculated by the system, so just run quickly. It was said that I would work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but in fact it was longer. There is a morning meeting at 8:30 in the morning. If you are late, you will be deducted 20. It's nine o'clock in the evening, and you can only clock in and go home after the food in your hand is delivered (usually orders will continue to be sent until 8:30, and most people can only clock in and go home at 9:30). In Linyi City, special delivery workers have to work 12-14 hours a day, 26-28 days a month, and can earn an average of 6,000. Those who work extremely hard can earn more than 8,000 yuan, all in exchange for their lives running 60 yards against the traffic light in the city.
Specialized delivery is very difficult, but crowdsourcing riders who are amateur delivery people are even more miserable, and they are at the lowest third level. The unit price for one-time delivery is 30% lower, and the orders are all specially delivered to pick up the leftovers. They are either in remote areas or far away, or they have to go to a relocation community without elevators and climb the sixth floor to deliver them to your door. Good orders are hard to grab (the upper two levels have 60-30 seconds of priority to grab orders in advance). Crowdsourcing works longer, is more dangerous, and makes less money. If you don’t obey, you will be “targeted” gifts sent to marginalized areas where there are no orders. The good thing is that if you don’t want to do it, you can just go home and lie down, and no one will force you to make money. The most hard-working person I know can earn 7,000 per month (working 15-16 hours a day, non-stop for a month).
I have my own job and can only do part-time crowdsourcing. These days, I work from morning to night on holidays. I run for two hours in the morning on weekdays, and then run again at one, two, or two or three o'clock at night after dinner. Pay more money at night, and the places where you can make money are in remote places. In the middle of the night, I ran to the villages east of Xianggong Town, to Fangcheng, to Lanling Village, and to Yinan Mountain, all on country roads. All on motorcycles. It was too dark and the lamp couldn't illuminate the academy very far, so sometimes I would ride into a ditch. As soon as we passed Changchun Road, there were many large trucks at night. We passed by them and felt frightened. After delivering the goods and riding back, I felt my hands were numb and freezing. Once I was really too cold, so I parked my car in the field and ran around for a while. I looked at the Amap map and saw that I was nine kilometers due north of Linyi University. It was still a long way 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 a day, walk 32,000 steps, and climb 110 floors. So I walked the most every day during my WeChat exercise that month.
Calculated 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 the goods and deliver them. The average waiting time for picking up the goods is 5 minutes, 8 minutes by bicycle, and the average 7 minutes for door-to-door delivery into the community, a total of 20 minutes. 3 orders per hour, 10.5 yuan.
Send 3 orders at once, arrange them in order, and save 1/3 of your time. But you will be urged. We can deliver 4-5 orders in one hour for 15.75 yuan. Delivery of 5 orders at a time, suitable for concentrated delivery times for lunch and dinner. It’s hard to put things in order without being rushed. Basically it's the limit. Slightly increase the income per unit time, still send 5-6 orders per hour, 19.25 yuan. The advantage is that it can maximize food delivery volume during peak periods.
Regarding the goods to be sent, I have some small suggestions: It is not recommended to send cakes. It is not recommended to send flowers. Don’t send barbecues in winter. Wanda and Taisheng are not recommended to pick up goods. It is not recommended to send it to the hospital. Buying on behalf of others, not recommended as a gift. If you buy it from the vegetable market on your behalf, you will definitely not give it away. It's best not to send beer. Transfer orders cannot be accepted. A supermarket supply is better than food delivery. Stationery and medicine are the best. It is recommended to send special supplies that are light and not easily damaged. Long distance, expedited, use caution.
2. Is pain a fact or an experience?
Poetry has only one reality: pain
——Pacheco "The Love of a Poet"
I'm not interested in investigating, I just want to experience the experience.
2022 is very special. According to a report, riders delivering food in Shanghai can earn more than 1,000 yuan a day. Another report said that Wang Lin, a deputy director of the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, had personal experience as a food delivery rider and earned 41 yuan in 12 hours of delivering food. Which one is true? I think you should try it yourself to know the authenticity.
After working for a week, I feel that Director Wang Lin’s report is more authentic. If you have time, you can search for his detailed account. However, I feel that earning 41 yuan in 12 hours is not enough to sustain life, let alone in Beijing. Director Wang Lin's experience is a bit short. If he works for a few months, I estimate 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 daily income record (without excluding the daily insurance premium of 3 yuan and the motorcycle gas fee of 25 yuan). By the 20th day, I had reached the highest level of crowdsourcing rider, and I was very familiar with the roads (I had memorized all the communities in Linyi city and the surrounding towns, so I didn’t need to look at the navigation. I returned to the communities I frequented every day) Everyone memorizes the order of specific building numbers for a while to increase the speed of food delivery on foot), basically they are very skilled riders. The labor intensity and specific income situation are roughly the same.
But what I am mainly concerned about is what the "identity" of a delivery person is like. Experience how people feel, respond, and ruminate on these encounters during this work process. Physical suffering is one aspect, although I haven’t experienced this for a long time; the main thing is being insulted by others.
No one takes the food delivery people seriously, the merchants, the customers, especially the security guards. No acquaintance knows that I am doing this recently, only the security guard in our community knows. They saw me leaving early every day and coming home late at night, but they wouldn't let me in. I said I was the owner; they followed me downstairs on bicycles to watch me go upstairs, saying that you can buy a house here even if you deliver food, and you are a real person. Many customers look at me like I'm a beggar. Some customers are just beasts in human skin. I used to hate these people, but then I gradually forgot about them.
A few times, I almost got recognized. One time was in Wanda. When I was picking up my meal, a young couple next to me said that the delivery person sounded like Teacher Xing. I thought to myself that he must be a good kid who loves to listen to my class. Another time, I was delivering snail powder to Boyd New Area in the middle of the night. The man who opened the door was wearing underwear. He was a former colleague of mine. I recognized him, but he certainly didn't recognize me. I'm wearing a helmet.
I prefer to recall warm moments. This month, I delivered more than 2,000 orders, and three people sincerely thanked me. One is a woman from the Gucheng 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 she thanked me for bringing them specially. Later I found out that she rewarded me with another 2 yuan. There is another person, also a lady, from the village in the northeast of Xianggong Town. The couple were afraid that I wouldn't be able to find my way in the middle of the night, so they sent me to the intersection with a flashlight. There is also a couple who live in the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease center in Building 5 of the People's Hospital. I spilled some of the meal they ordered for the elderly, and later bought another one to give away. They both refunded me the money for the second meal and gave me another 10 yuan as a reward.
Really appreciate them. I wish them all the best and good luck.
3. How much does it cost per month for us to exist decently in society today?
There is plenty of time in the solitude I inhabit
Let’s think about the question of hope:
Can one day
our life
no longer like Hobbes said
Just dirty, brutal and short-lived?
——Pacheco "The 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 that is not allowed in many countries. KFC and McDonald's have their own delivery teams: whether full-time or part-time, they are all officially signed. They have five insurances and one housing fund, and company insurance for injuries. They never set a delivery countdown to urge you to rush there, otherwise you will lose money and be fined.
——For our companies (I can’t name them here), the actual situation is that if a rider has a car accident, the insurance deducts 3 yuan per day (the company deducts 60%, and only gives 1.2 yuan to the insurance company). Provided Casualty insurance of up to 6,000 yuan. If it is not enough, the county operators will bear it. If it is not enough to cure the disease, the county operators will simply run away, and you will not be able to find anyone if you sue. Even the operators in the city cannot be sued, and the headquarters of the food delivery company cannot be sued at all, because it is all about "labor outsourcing" and it has long since isolated itself. It is understood that such serious casualty accidents occur every month in urban areas.
Sudden death, all levels of management at the headquarters of the food delivery company will not - according to their terms, this has nothing to do with the delivery company, the headquarters has nothing to do, and the prosecution will be a waste of money. No one who sued across the country won.
The issue of fines. ——Customers will be fined heavily if they complain. There are many discussions on this online, so I won’t go into details. Let me tell you another question about fines.
For example: Case 1.
This order was done very well, perfectly. Then while continuing the delivery process, the software prompted that the previous order was not clicked to deliver. You had to stop clicking. You will be fined the next day: click-to-deliver in another location, or click-to-deliver overtime. You can complain that there was no timeout and delivery was clicked at that time. This is another problem caused by the software. The complaint is invalid. There is one more opportunity to appeal. If you appeal again, the reply will be instantaneous, but it will be invalid. If you call a human customer service number, you'll be lucky if you can be contacted within an hour. I contacted him and got the same response.
I encountered this situation twice a month, and the procedures were exactly the same. The three opportunities to appeal were of no use at all, and were completely for show. I finally told the human customer service (a living person) that you can contact the customer directly to see what the real situation is. No use, still deducting money. Moreover, the money deducted is not returned to the customer, but goes into the pockets of the takeaway company headquarters.
Case 2: Errand order.
The delivery process went smoothly and the customer was very satisfied. But the customer will not complete the "advance payment" on the mobile phone. The customer cannot find the page on how to pay the advance payment, and the rider has to wait outside the door, and it is not easy to urge loudly. (Using loudly means a bad attitude and will be fined. , fined 500). The family was looking for the advance payment entrance in the house. After waiting for a long time, the system prompted that the delivery had timed out. If it exceeds one second, 40% of the errand fee will be deducted. If it exceeds five minutes, 60% of the errand fee will be deducted. Yesterday I After waiting on the stairs for nearly ten minutes, the customer completed the payment. Today, it was shown that 80% of the deduction for that order was given away. It is 11 kilometers from the vicinity of the University Town to Luozhuang.
Once, at Xiao Conch, I paid for the meal for the customer and waited for the meal (four dishes and one soup). After waiting for half an hour, the first dish was not done. I called the manager to report it, and the reply said that I would continue to wait until 45 minutes. When the food was not delivered, I called the manager again to report it, and the reply said that the countdown timer was 15 minutes. When the countdown was almost over, I had already waited for 75 minutes, and then called the manager to report it. The reply said that I would discuss it with the customer and try to satisfy the customer. Don't complain.
The customer was very considerate and said: Since the payment has been made, please wait a little longer. It is almost the Spring Festival and there are many people. I understand; I will confirm the receipt of the goods at home first, and you can feel free to deliver it.
As a result, when I woke up the next day, I saw a red warning: serious violation, fined 200 yuan! What should I do? Start filing a complaint. Start the appeal from the first level, fill in the form, record, take screenshots and report. The appeal was rejected and the appeal was invalid. The second-level appeal...the third-level appeal...the fourth-level appeal went to the headquarters and someone recorded the call to collect evidence; in the end, the appeal was invalid. Finally, I reached the fifth level, the highest level, general manager of the marketing department of the headquarters, Shanghai..... The appeal was still invalid. The reply said that the system showed the time when the customer filled in the positive review, and my position was still in the hotel.
I said that the customer's specially recorded description, the lobby manager's recording description, and the photos of the customer receiving the meal at home have made the facts clear. The reply said no. At the same time, I asked you, you have been complaining for almost a whole day. In this time, you can run takeout for a day and almost earn 200 yuan. Why are you so stupid?
I told the general manager on the phone that you should have seen a movie called "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit"; this is not a question of money.
After a while, he called and said he had sent me a red envelope, please accept it. I clicked on the 15 yuan red envelope and left a message saying that I personally understand your experience, but the fine cannot be canceled. This 15 yuan is my personal humanitarian compensation.
——Is the profitability of these world-renowned food delivery companies really so tight?
This company is listed on NASDAQ in the United States and has strict quarterly and annual financial reports. Let's open it and take a look. Since its inception, it has been profitable almost every year for more than ten years. It suffered a loss of 115.5 billion in 2018, a loss of 23.5 billion in 2021, and a loss of 6.7 billion in 2022.
When I saw this financial report, I was very surprised like everyone else. Because for every takeout order, merchants need to pay an additional delivery fee of 30% of the product price, and customers need to pay a delivery fee of 0.5 yuan per kilometer. For example, if you order a meal for 20 yuan for lunch and cover 3 kilometers, the customer will pay 20+2=22 yuan; the merchant will get 14 yuan, the courier will get 3 yuan, and the takeaway company will get 5 yuan. The draw ratio is roughly like this. Why did it suffer such huge losses?
Let’s look at the financial reports. In 2021, its administrative expenses were 8.8 billion and R&D expenses were 16.7 billion. In 2022, its administrative expenses were 9.8 billion and R&D expenses were 20.8 billion. All the money flows away from here. All its branches are outsourced. You can count how many administrative staff the headquarters platform requires. Its platform is a mobile APP. You can also calculate how much research and development expenses are needed to support it every year.
Sometimes carefully revised numbers mislead the world. Not as good as our daily experience. These riders do the most intensive food delivery work in the world and earn the lowest proportion of income; merchants withdraw one after another and no longer accept its heavy commission; its major shareholders transfer assets to luxury houses and yachts around the world... It is completely inconsistent with what these financial report data show.
During the month of delivering food, I met three female delivery workers and several older delivery riders. The oldest one told me that he was 66 years old. They can't afford such intense labor 14 hours a day, all year round. I estimate they can earn 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a month. After the Spring Festival, I left the takeout team, but I still noticed them first on the road. In recent months, I’ve seen more and more female and elderly riders racing against the clock. No matter how dangerous, painful or tiring it may be, they can't do without the income of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. The children at home, the old man in the hospital bed, the mortgage repayment text message from the bank...all reminded them: run, run faster! One night, I squatted in front of a barbecue restaurant by the river, waiting. The boss serves the meal. There were several Meituan riders squatting next to them.
I asked him, what is the hardest job nowadays? He said, delivering food is the hardest to make money, sorting at the express delivery center is also hard, moving goods is also hard, and carrying floor tiles upstairs is also hard.
I asked him, is it harder than farming in his hometown? He said, of course it is harder than farming. Farming is leisurely, and there is no money to farm. I asked him, are these jobs harder than doing construction work? He said, of course it is harder than doing construction work. A thousand construction jobs cost 200 a day for big workers and 180 to 200 for small workers. But you can get money. No? There was work for half the year, and no work for half the year. At the end of the year, the foreman ran away, and the New Year was over. I'm going to do all of these things. Do each thing for several months. Lose weight for your fat-headed and noodle-filled heart.
Is there a kind of company that not only allows me to make money to make a living, but also teaches us something good? This is the biggest question in my mind.
Where does our extreme involution come from, who can tell me?
I checked the specific situation of the foreign express delivery industry. The starting price for a free order in Japan is 32 yuan (RMB), and the starting price for a free order in North America is US$6. Therefore, it is very expensive to have food delivered to your home abroad. (The salary of senior intellectuals in Japan is currently 2-3 times that in China, and in North America it is also 2-3 times that in China. However, the income of workers at the bottom is currently 8-12 times that in Japan, and that in North America is 10-15 times that in China. times.) Moreover, the general rule in foreign countries is that both parties can complain about negative reviews: if a rider is criticized five times, he must suspend his work and retrain. If a customer receives five bad reviews from a rider, his account will be banned from the system for one year. He will no longer be able to order takeout and must pick it up himself. If both parties complain, the system will provide a real person to answer the phone and provide feedback within 2-6 hours. If mediation is not possible, both the rider and the customer can bring evidence to the court to sue, or they can sue the company. If you win a lawsuit such as suing a company for "violation fines" or "discrimination", you will be financially free for the rest of your life (usually you will receive money from the company to settle out of court). Because those unions are not just average, they are very, very powerful.
The management system of our takeaway headquarters is completely different in core from the humanized companies mentioned just now.
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 support of big data and artificial intelligence, have become more precise and accurate. It can "just happen" to obtain the right amount of workers, and "just" allows the riders to maintain the most basic life and prevent them from accumulating more. The meager capital of recuperating and raising money is like a donkey, tightly tied to this mill.
Isn't this what Zygmunt Bauman wrote in "Work, Consumerism and the New Poor"? "What the new factory system requires is only a part of the human being, a person in a complex machine, like a little soulless person." The part that works like a gear. And the 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 the useful parts that are needed for production." This is about the future. The analysis of modern conditions is heart-wrenching. What we encountered is an enhanced version, which is even more worrying.
Who is standing in the way of us living a minimally decent life?
4. The “Information Cocoon Room” of Intellectuals
Revenge is the main theme of the world
People offend me, I offend people, people offend me again
We continue this endless cycle
——Pacheco "The Cage"
I don't think intellectual is such a beautiful word. ——It is a neutral word, neither good nor bad.
I have been reading for many years, read many books, and met many scholars. But I feel that the more you read, the bigger your blind spots will become, and you will develop an inexplicable and strange 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 intellectuals. The two are often incompatible.
Let me talk about this issue from another angle.
I come from a Catholic family. When I was in high school, I left the church under great pressure. 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 feel that "the essence has been exhausted and all can be discarded."
This is a saying in the world of Go. ——If I don’t go to hell, who will? This is the core of Catholic belief. Having this belief is the most important thing. I have met many believers who claim to strictly follow the commandments. 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 buying a coffin for a pearl?
A world with sustainable development should understand the limitations of human beings and the fluidity of wealth. At the very least, we must understand that all strata of the world must develop in a balanced way, and if we try to catch all the water, we will lose the eggs. Weber talked about the Puritans' "generousness" not only because of their moral pursuits, but also because they realized that they must give up part of their profits to others in order to maintain the stable operation of the system.
To put it further, the end of the world is "empty" (empty is not nothing). What I understand as "emptiness" is the cycle of birth and death, which does not exist forever for someone or someone else. Getting a lot of money is kind of interesting, but not very interesting.
The ancients once said that it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. Common people like to say that people are just lazy, they can only get up but not down.
It is indeed the case. As I approach my fiftieth year, I feel that I am becoming more and more squeamish, hypocritical, bad-tempered, and impatient. If this continues, we will go to hell.
Zhang Ailing said that during the Lantern Festival one year, Hu Lancheng accompanied her to wander around the suburbs of Shanghai, and got into a shed to listen to a wandering troupe singing wild operas. In the cold winter, those actresses were red with cold and their voices were hoarse from the cold. They were painting eyebrows and changing clothes on the mound of soil behind the curtain. After watching for a while, Hu Lancheng said let's go. Zhang Ailing said, you go, I will watch for a while.
Later, Zhang Ailing recalled this incident in the United States. She said, I was shocked. These are truly vital women. No matter how miserable and poor they are, even if the world is falling apart, they can't stop them from living, just like weeds.
Indeed.