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January 10, 2017

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

The faster the delivery, the higher the pay

By Xu Wenwen | January 10, 2017, Tuesday | Print Edition

WITH clicks on a smartphone, people can peruse menus, order meals from a food-delivery app and pay online. Within 30 minutes, the food arrives at home, office or dormitory.

It’s all so rapid, with deliverymen shuttling along high streets and through back lanes. That is creating traffic problems.

Delivery people, keen to cram as many orders into a day as possible to earn more money, are sometimes willing to cut corners where traffic regulations are concerned.

“Every day, I have to dodge at least five delivery scooters veering in front of my car,” moaned a Hangzhou taxi driver surnamed Xie.

“They go in wrong directions, run red lights and exceed speed limits,” said another cabbie surnamed Li.

During the three-day New Year holiday, Hangzhou traffic police monitoring the city’s 32 main intersections logged more than 100 electric delivery scooters breaking traffic rules.

Under a new crackdown, violators will be subject to fines of up to 50 yuan (US$7.22), will have to transcribe a copy of the electric mobile traffic rules and will have to either take a quiz or work as a traffic police assistant for 30 minutes.

“The aim is to teach them the error of their ways, more than to collect fines,” according to an official with the traffic authority.

Last week, traffic police in Binjiang District invited 100 deliverymen from five online food companies to take an official pledge about obeying traffic rules. Some 3,000 deliverymen shuttle around the district every day.

Ordering meals from phone apps is a popular trend in China. There are an estimated 253 million people who use the apps in a market valued at well over 165 billion yuan. The three largest platforms nationwide are Ele.me, Meituan and Baidu Waimai.

Fierce competition among the platforms spills over to deliverymen.

“Of course I know the traffic rules, but sometimes I have to break them,” said deliveryman Zhang Lin. “Speed is proportional to our earnings.”

Different platforms have different salary systems. A deliveryman typically earns 2-5 yuan per order and can usually deliver up to 30 orders a day.

Baidu Waimai has seven classes of deliverymen, who are called “knights.” Their salaries are commensurate with their rankings — from Bronze Knight up to the top Deity Knight.

The classifications are determined by the number of favorable comments a deliveryman gets from customers.

At the same time, those who don’t measure up to standards face retribution. All the companies fine employees for delayed deliveries, for breaking traffic rules, for not wearing uniforms or for drawing customer complaints.

Baidu Waimai has punishment clauses that include chattering with other deliverymen, smoking or occupying customer seats as restaurants prepare orders. The penalties can range up to 2,000 yuan.

At Ele.me, a complaint from a customer can result in a 50-yuan fine, and at Meituan, a traffic citation can mean an additional fine of up to 500 yuan.

One Sunday noon, Shanghai Daily journalist visited a food street in Hangzhou’s Xiasha District, home to several universities. It’s peak hour for student food orders.

Food deliverymen, dressed in the blue, red, yellow or black uniforms or their companies, are everywhere.

“No milk in the coffee,” a deliveryman in red tells a tea stall owner. “Is No. 35 order ready yet?” a blue-clad deliveryman asks a restaurant owner. “Oh, no, not noodle soup again!” sighs a deliveryman in yellow, knowing how difficult the meal is to deliver without spilling any.

Most of the deliverymen are young and look frantic.

One deliveryman cautiously packs several white plastic bags of food in a warming box on the backseat of his scooter. With one hand on the handlebar and the other using his smartphone to plot a GPS course, he speeds off.

Online food platforms distribute orders is a similar way to how Uber operates its car-hailing services. Intelligent systems track who’s available and who’s in the vicinity in meting out orders.

“I once received seven orders at once, which meant I had to deliver meals to seven customers in just 45 minutes,” said a deliveryman called Jiang Tao.

He hangs his mobile around his neck so he never misses an order call.

At 10pm, the delivery day is over. As they eat a late dinner, the deliverymen count how many good comments they have received and calculate how much they earned for the day.

Returning from the food street to my apartment, I ordered dinner from an app. In 30 minutes, a deliveryman appeared on my doorstep with warm chicken soup.

“Don’t you ever get to rest,” I asked him.

“Rest? No!” he said.

“I never take a day off unless I am very sick.”

Hangzhou


 

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