The peninsula investigates the current situation of riders’ survival： it is a bit difficult to be chased by the ＂algorithm＂ and earn more than 10,000 yuan a month.
Wen/Tu Peninsula All Media Chief Reporter Zhong Yingxue
"A few years ago, running hard really earned over 10,000 yuan a month. Now it is a bit difficult. Most riders earn between 4,000 and 7,000 yuan a month." A colleague of takeaway rider Liu Dong (a pseudonym) told reporters that riders who can now spend more than 10,000 yuan account for 3%-5%, but fortunately, customers are more and more tolerant of them.
Industries such as car rental, express delivery, take-out and live broadcast have become the choice of many people for flexible employment. According to relevant data, the online take-away market has exceeded 1.1 trillion yuan, accounting for 25.4% of the national catering industry’s income. As a result, the group of take-away riders has expanded rapidly, and the take-away industry has gradually begun to "roll in", with the single quantity reduced and the unit price reduced. What do these "people in a hurry" think of their industry?
The rider is waiting for the order in the business circle.
An irresistible "algorithm"
At 12 o’clock noon on August 21st, the reporter came to the food street of Laoshan Lida Shopping Center, and found that 11 dark-skinned cyclists were gathered in the passage before the peak of lunch delivery. It was the time to deliver the order, but everyone was waiting for the order.
"You help me go up to the sixth floor, and I’ll help you get the coffee downstairs." Some riders are also taking meals and delivering meals, and their clothes are basically soaked with sweat. When two of the riders meet, they exchange orders and help each other. Most of the takeaways bury their heads in their mobile phones to check their positions. When they are on their way, if they meet each other, they will spit out or share their orders with each other. In the food street where people come and go, their figures are fleeting.
The rider is waiting for the order in the business circle.
"I used to be busy for two and a half hours during the afternoon rush hour, but now it’s an hour and a half!" After interviewing a number of take-away riders, the reporter found that due to the increase of newcomers and summer part-time riders, the order volume of old riders dropped by 10% to 30%.
"I used to run for seven or eight hours to get to the early 10 thousand, and now the same time is seven or eight thousand." Lao Lu (a pseudonym), a 38-year-old delivery clerk, told reporters that he has been delivering food for four years. Now, in order to increase his income, he can only increase the delivery time, but it is difficult to even the total income before running for 12 hours a day. In addition, if it is overtime, a certain percentage of delivery fee will be deducted, and the deducted fee will increase according to the overtime. Now there are more and more rules on the take-away platform, which shortens the delivery time by more than ten minutes. As long as it is overtime, it will be deducted, and there has been a simple dependence on subsidies and low-price competition.
The delivery clerk in the food delivery exchanges order information.
"There are many people and few orders, and there are all kinds of running orders." Lao Lu told reporters that the major platforms will also adjust the distribution rules, assess the effective online time, the punctuality rate of food delivery, the completeness of food products and the effective order quantity, and make corresponding penalties and adjust the unit price according to different situations.
"The delivery of Shangchao is the most tiring, especially a pack of heavy objects. It’s okay to have an elevator. Without an elevator, you have to climb the stairs and go upstairs. On such a hot day, you are so tired that you are sweating." Lao Lu introduced that because some platforms send orders far away, no matter how much they weigh, they are all settled according to the distance, which is not only cheap, but also reduces the delivery time. The most difficult thing is to take seven or eight orders at once, and the location is concentrated well, so I am afraid that the locations will be scattered, which will easily lead to overtime. In addition, some orders that are not on the way or have lower delivery fees can be refused by riders without quantity requirements. But now, after a certain number of orders are rejected, riders need to accept all orders assigned by the platform. For this reason, even riders have no choice but to let customers blacken their own methods to avoid using orders to deal with the so-called "algorithmic oppression".
"The current models have their own advantages and disadvantages." The reporter learned through the rider’s reflection that the operation modes of various take-away platforms are different, and the platforms are mainly divided into various forms such as special delivery, crowdsourcing, smooth running and happy running. Some platforms are characterized by "flexible working system", which allows riders to arrange working hours flexibly; However, some platforms have sufficient quantity but low unit price; Some platforms require riders to go online during fixed working hours; Some platforms specify distribution in the region, and the payment of wages is also different in the settlement cycle, which is divided into next-day cash withdrawal, settlement every Wednesday, monthly settlement and so on. The rider chooses the food delivery platform according to his personal situation, and many riders have changed multiple platforms.
"On average, it is 200 to 300 yuan, and up to 500 yuan a day, but there are only a few days in a month." Liu Dong (a pseudonym), a 25-year-old rider, told reporters that he started to deliver takeout in early 2023, and he needed to run to more than 50 orders every day to achieve a maximum monthly income of 9,000 yuan. In the last three months, due to the influence of the tourism market, his order volume has only increased.
Three dollars and eighty cents, four dollars and seven dollars … According to Liu Dong’s running list, the delivery unit price varies according to the distance.
The take-away riders around Liu Dong generally told reporters that the income has begun to show a downward trend. The proportion of riders who can exceed 10,000 yuan is only 3%-5%, and the price reduction per order is between 50 cents and one piece, resulting in a decline in income due to changes in unit price.
"Last year was basically three or four hundred dollars a day, and now it is two or three hundred dollars. Because there is no loan pressure, I don’t have to run so hard. " Liu Dong showed reporters the task time and odd number on the mobile phone platform. From 10: 00 am to 1: 00 pm, he ran 16 food deliveries, earning 107 yuan. At 1: 30 pm, Liu Dong had time to talk to reporters in detail.
Judging from the activities and tasks of the platform on the same day, during the three time periods of noon peak, afternoon tea and evening peak, the platform requires the rider to run for at least 6 hours, and Liu Dong’s task on that day has not yet reached the standard.
At first, because he didn’t understand the business circle and the route of the community, Liu Dong spent a month getting familiar with the surrounding geographical location and route. In May of this year, Liu Dong took a leave of absence and went back to his hometown to rest for half a month. After returning to Qingdao, he changed to another platform in July to continue to run takeout because he felt that the previous platform rules were cumbersome and difficult to run.
Liu Dong is equipped with a large bottle of mineral water and spare tires.
Busy until 9: 50 pm
"I often see new faces and I am very mobile." Previously, there were more than 100 riders at the site where Liu Dong worked. Basically, one or two new riders could be recruited every day, young and old, ranging from 18 to 40 years old. Anyway, they have been recruiting people. Because the food delivery efficiency of new riders can’t be compared with that of old riders, it doesn’t matter if there are many old riders, but if there are few old riders, more new riders will affect the working efficiency of the platform.
Liu Dong said that it is more difficult to earn more money by running take-out part-time at present, and basically most of them are full-time riders now. Although the income difference between part-time and full-time riders is basically one yuan, the system gives priority to full-time riders, which affects the orders of part-time riders, so the income is unstable.
"There are many cars during the peak hours, and it has become a normal thing for riders to grab time and bump into each other." In this case, the rider has a lot of helplessness. There is no single faction on the line, and the address can be found without a single one. The insurance of three yuan at their own expense every day has become the "bottom" in their eyes. In order to catch up with the time, in addition to the original electric vehicles, more and more riders bought unicycles or two-wheeled vehicles themselves, accounting for 60%. Liu Dong bought a two-wheeled bike first, and then he spent money on a single-wheeled bike to ensure that he could run for one day. After all, he could only run more when the order was limited.
Liu Dong knocked on the door and delivered it by courier.
"The eldest brother around me earns up to 14,500 yuan a month, about 60 bills a day, and the highest can reach 70 or 80 bills, but he runs for at least 12 or 3 hours, basically non-stop from morning till night." Speaking of the old rider who can run around, Liu Dong is also admired. From 6 am to 9 pm, he has been sending it all the time. Eating is also waiting for the store to eat, or simply buying it on the road.
Liu Dong prepares to deliver the meal after taking it.
At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, Liu Dong returned to the rental house to rest after eating. At 3: 30, he needed to go online on time and then run.
Liu Dong’s classmate is also a rider. The house shared by the two people costs 1,000 yuan per person per month, plus the cost of eating, battery and mobile phone, which costs 3,000 yuan per month. Liu Dong saved 60,000 yuan a year.
The lowest unit price is 4.6 yuan and the highest is 9.6 yuan … At 9: 50 pm on August 21, the reporter followed Liu Dong to finish the last meal delivery of the day. From the platform, Liu Dong ran for seven hours, totaling 41 orders, with a total income of 297.4 yuan.
At night, Liu Dong was driving on the way to take delivery.
The number of complaints decreased and the number of female riders increased.
Losing meals and spilling soup … Liu Dong said that as a rider, the first reaction after a fall is to see if the takeaway is spilled, and the shadow will not affect the normal distribution. In the past year, he didn’t receive many complaint orders, but once or twice a year. In this case, the rider usually compensates the customer for the meal.
"Customers are urging orders and complaining that complaints are obviously less than before, at least by half." Timely and efficient delivery is the responsibility of the "takeaway", but no one can guarantee that there will be no accidents, so previous grievances and misunderstandings are common. However, in recent years, the society’s tolerance for the working time limit of take-away workers has improved. The take-away workers that the reporter asked generally reported that the number of complaint orders was reduced by 20% to 30% compared with the previous two years. Even if you encounter some special circumstances to communicate with customers, you can basically solve them satisfactorily and reduce your own losses.
"Yellow chicken, sauce bones, milk tea drinks account for the bulk", Liu Dong told reporters that the delivery of take-away food for one year and eight months also witnessed the "involution" of catering, and more people who order food consider the unit price to be affordable.
Due to the hot weather and excessive physical exertion, the reporter saw that during the break, the takeaway staff would hold water cups, or iced black tea, functional drinks and coffee to replenish energy.
"Just drinking cold mineral water also hurts your stomach, and you may even feel like vomiting." Liu Dong said that he occasionally buys a drink to supplement sugar, but considering that drinking a lot of cold mineral water hurts his stomach, he occasionally brings an insulated kettle and receives a bucket of hot water from the mall.
The female rider (first from left) is waiting for her meal.
On the afternoon of August 23, the reporter came to Shangchao again, during the afternoon tea time, and saw that the riders took the most meals with milk tea and coffee. The reporter found that more and more female riders appeared in the take-away team.
"I have only been in business for less than half a year, and I have seen many riders stop running." Li Li (a pseudonym), a 35-year-old female rider who is waiting for a meal, told the reporter that before entering this business, delivery seemed simple, but I didn’t know the cumbersome platform rules and super timeliness. While ensuring the flexibility of time, more and more treasure moms join the rider team, but their daily income is generally around 200 yuan, and their hourly income is around 20 yuan, and they post their daily life on social platforms to earn traffic.
Neither spilling meals, but also the fastest speed, also makes the profession of takeaway more and more contradictory. Sometimes, the store is slow to serve meals, but the customers are too busy to cope with her, and the takeaway industry has high requirements for physical fitness. Li Li already wants to "retreat".
Sending takeout brought Liu Dong fatigue, satisfaction and pain, and he was more nervous and confused about career planning. Liu Dong’s heart is still burning with unwillingness. He also wants to try from the direction of the media. He has shot short videos, but the traffic is too low. Liu Dong also analyzed that the regular delivery video has nothing to watch and cannot attract people.
Coming from other places, Liu Dong has little social interaction. Basically, he is either running alone or resting and sleeping. In the repeated work day after day, it is easy to lose himself. All the local friends in his hometown are married and have children, and his parents will urge him to get married, but he doesn’t want to go back to his hometown, because the takeaway can only earn money if it is in the office area and in the bustling business district.
"Takeaway riders are essentially a transitional industry, and it is estimated that no one wants to send a lifetime takeaway." In the interview, most riders said that it is hard to send takeout food, but fortunately they can earn some money, and they want to find a way out and learn a skill in the future. In particular, some young people who are new to the workplace not only want to improve their working environment and living conditions, but also want to obtain stable social security. They run forward hard in the torrent of time every day, not for poetry and distance, but for the truest life.
