New Report on the Dangers Facing Delivery Drivers Goes Viral
One of the most shared articles today on WeChat is “Delivery Drivers, Stuck in the System” (link in Chinese), which has sparked a heated discussion among Chinese netizens regarding the worsening conditions that the country’s network of 7 million delivery drivers are facing.
Published by People magazine — one of the most influential human-interest story publications in the Chinese mainland — the article looks at the personal side of the country’s ubiquitous, life-changing delivery apps, weaving a tale of immense pressure and serious risk of accident courtesy of the apps’ competing algorithms and targets.
Employing traffic data from a slew of police reports, using first-hand comprehensive narratives from a mixed group of delivery drivers, workers involved in the delivery distribution network and academic scholars, the article takes a deep dive and concludes that "delivery driver" has become one of the most high-risk occupations in modern-day China.
The report quickly went viral on WeChat (hitting over 100,000 views within a few hours) and sparked a corresponding hashtag on Weibo that also rapidly attracted tens of thousands of views. The story puts a renewed spotlight on both Meituan and Eleme — the two major players that dominate China’s food delivery landscape and who have long attracted both praise (for such efficient services) and criticism (in particular for their environmental impact).
The article highlights that Chinese delivery apps have significantly reduced the maximum time allowed for each order in the last few years. This is a result of intense competition and improved algorithms for optimizing profit for the company, but naturally places the drivers in increasingly risky scenarios as they drive against the flow of traffic, speed and skip red lights to deliver on time. Failing to finish orders within the time limit can lead to a significant reduction of payment per order and a less advantaged position in future order assignment for the drivers.
All of this takes place against a back-drop of hazardous working conditions: extreme weather (which naturally sees an increase in orders), misleading and inaccurate GPS route planners, packed and inconvenient elevators inside buildings, delayed orders from restaurants, unreasonable requests from customers, poorly-designed internal training systems, as well as problematic job welfare. The report points out that these factors inevitably set barriers for drivers in meeting the assigned targets while delivering orders.
Such risks are not particularly well rewarded. According to the statistics, only 2.15% of the entire workforce of drivers earn more than 10,000RMB (around 1,461USD) per month, while more than half of them interviewed are finding it difficult to make basic ends meet.
For more details from the report - plus reactions from Chinese netizens - hit "Read More" at the bottom of this message.
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