Man on the Street: Shared Bike Mover
By Jocelyn Richards
"Man on the Street" is a regular series where we talk to someone doing an everyday job, in order to gain insight into the lives of normal Chinese people.
Have you ever looked at those rows of seamlessly aligned shared bikes and wondered who – or what – is responsible for such precision? Well, inquisitive reader, this month we have your answer: some random guy.
It’s kind of a letdown, we know. We had expected teams of slick night crawlers trained to get those bikes into formation faster than Beyoncé. But alas, it’s just a man. On a street. Who happens to sound a bit like a Chinese Schwarzenegger.
“I have no time for talk,” he barks when we first meet, sweat dripping from his furrowed brow and onto overworked, meaty biceps.
It’s 3pm on a sweltering Friday afternoon and the mission is clear: move 50 Mobikes from the back of a truck onto a strip of pavement outside of Taojin Metro Station. The catch? Schwarzenegger’s sidekick has parked their truck illegally and, to our man-on-the-street’s great distress, directly under a traffic camera. The pressure is wearing on him, but he manages to ask where we’re from in-between frenzied trips to his truck.
“Ha, America,” he growls, displeased. “If you took me to America right now I wouldn’t even have time to look around!”
Clearly. We tell him we’ll follow up later on WeChat. And before you ask, yes – we did do some shameless Moments snooping (as only the best investigative journalists do) – and discovered that our protagonist, ‘Gufeng,’ enjoys playing with Chinese bamboo rats in his spare time. So there you go.
The transport business Gufeng works for is hired by a number of different bike-share companies, but he personally only hauls Mobikes and Ofos around the city and between various storage facilities.
He’s tried out every model of every shared bike in Guangdong, and seems partial to the “little yellow ones,” though he claims they “all have advantages.”
A typical day starts at 9am and ends at 5pm, though he might be back out at 8pm if there’s still work to be done, and occasionally finishes the job early, by 3pm.
Gufeng has only taken one day off this year, to “pay respects to his ancestors on Qingming Jie,” at his home in Conghua.
It’s a physically trying career but pays surprisingly well: approximately RMB10,000 a month. Gufeng claims that’s because “the dangers associated with driving are great.”
Are there any other frustrations associated with the job? “I’m happy every day,” Gufeng insists.
He considers the recent explosion of shared bikes and growing competition a positive thing that “motivates” him and is “an inevitable step towards improvement in any industry.” Touché.
His only complaint?
“Because Mobikes have solid-core tires, the shock absorption isn’t great. Also on the older versions you can’t adjust the seat, which could injure taller people.”
Our thoughts exactly, Gufeng, our thoughts exactly.
THE DIRTY DETAILS:
Monthly salary: RMB10,000 and up
Days per week: 7
Hours per day: 8-10
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