Too lazy? Too busy? Campus gofers thrive
Print Edition
YAN Yi, a graduate of the Communication University of China in Beijing, gets high marks for astuteness in spotting a good opportunity.
“One day I went to the campus mail office to fetch a package that had arrived for me,” he recalls. “I saw people waiting in a long queue. They seemed either bored or impatient, and it occurred to me that if I fetched packages for other students, I could make some money.”
Indeed he did. Yan started his package pickup service in 2012 and made about 3,000 yuan (US$433) a month shuttling between the mail office and dormitories. It was much more than most fellow classmates were earning from their part-time jobs.
His service was simple. When students were notified that a package was awaiting pickup at the campus mail office, they could phone or text Yan to act as gofer, paying him a small fee for his trouble.
Four years on, campus errand services have become part of student life. Instead of earning money washing dishes in school canteens or tutoring on weekends, enterprising students are using mobile phone apps to run errands for other students.
Fetching packages remains a lucrative endeavor. According to the Chinese Education Logistics Association, 6 percent of package deliveries on the Chinese mainland in 2015 were destined for college campuses. Fetching services could create up to 70,000 jobs.
In the wake of the Singles Day online shopping extravaganza on November 11 — the world’s biggest one-day retail event — there were oodles of deliveries to campuses.
Students use smart device apps to advertise their services.
Zhang Chao, a student at Neusoft Institute Guangdong, has founded a group to do delivery errands. It usually receives 300 orders a day, but after November 11, the volume of business doubled. Deliveries bring in between 3 yuan and 5 yuan per fetch.
“We don’t think the peak season will end soon,” says Zhang. “There will be another shopping fest around December 12. More packages mean more money.”
Zhang and his team use an app called Xiao Nei Da, which literally means “rhaching those on campus.” Developed by a team of mostly Beijing people 30 years and younger, the app provides a platform for students to post all kinds of errand services, including package fetching, meal pickups or even fruit buying.
“It is an app for students who want to save time and for those who want to make some pocket money,” says Sun Yewen, director of the app development team.
Sun says the app currently covers 10 campuses around the country, with more to be added.
A similar app called Dao Le Me — which means “has it arrived yet?” — is popular around Shanghai. Developed by Lu Peng, a postgraduate student at Shanghai University, the app has attracted investment of 3 million yuan because of its bright prospects.
“The app is much more than an errand platform,” says Lu. “We want to make it a social networking service.”
For example, Dao Le Me allows people to choose the gofer they want for a specific job.
“They are all fellow students, so perhaps a friendship or even a romance can be kindled through a simple errand job,” says Lu.
Not all students are enamored of the idea of earning money as dogsbodies.
Li Rong, another student at the Communication University of China, says she thinks running errands is a waste of time. “The money you make isn’t worth the time you spend,” she says.
Li knows from experience. She has tried her hand at being a gofer. Fetching packages took more than an hour each time, she says, and delivering breakfasts from the canteen to dormitories was even worse.
“I took their orders and then waited in the canteen for a long time, only to get to the counter and find the dishes they wanted sold out,” says Li. “So then I had to message the clients and ask if they wanted to change or cancel their orders. It was all just too much trouble.”
Li says she prefers part-time jobs that help with her studies or give her new, useful skills.
“We students are at the prime time of our lives for learning and improving ourselves,” she says. “We need to decide what is more important — money or our future.”
Of course, students being inventive sorts have been stretching the definition of “errand” to palm off other distasteful duties. Some have posted “jobs” requesting people to attend classes or even take exams for them.
On Xiao Nei Da, there were requests such as “politics class, roll call this afternoon.”
Sun says a system to filter out such requests hasn’t been developed yet, but there is a customer service team that screens job requests and tries to delete such information manually as soon as possible.
“We encourage students to put their study and career first,” he says. “We don’t want our app to become a tool for cheaters.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
