At 10:00 on October 14, takeaway riders near the Beijing World Trade Center were having breakfast. Photo by our reporter Wang Yu
In recent years, with the booming development of the platform economy, more and more workers have tried to make a living on the platform. The number of new employment forms such as delivery riders, couriers, and online ride-hailing drivers has increased significantly. They provide great convenience for people’s lives and work, allowing you and I to enjoy many services at your fingertips and without leaving home.
While these new job forms of workers are busy running around in big cities, we can’t help but wonder, how are they doing when they have left their hometowns? Deliver food for us, where do they eat? Help us deliver things to our homes, where is their home? What if the new job form workers work hard in the city, get sick and injured?
Recently, reporters from the "Workers’ Daily" visited several new employment workers in Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Zhengzhou and other places to explore how they eat, live and seek medical treatment. From today onwards, this edition will launch a series of reports on the "Survival Records of New Employment Workers", so stay tuned. Looking forward to their hard work in the city, they can be treated gently.
Editor
Receiving orders, picking up meals, and delivering meals, takeaway riders are a profession that deals with "meals". Every time a meal is served, they shuttle through the streets and alleys, rush between buildings, and race against time to deliver steaming meals to people.
However, where do they eat? Workers’ Daily reporters visited the lives of takeaway riders in Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other places, and experienced the ups and downs of the delivery road…
Beijing Rider:
Cheap restaurants are hard to find, so you can eat on the side of the road when you wait for an order.
At 10 o’clock on September 24, it was rainy and rainy in Beijing. On the street next to the North Third Ring Road Global Trade Center, Han Leqiang finished his breakfast delivery. He parked his electric car on the side of the road and prepared to eat breakfast. While the rain was getting smaller, he quickly took out a cup of soy milk and drank it with his head up. The hot steam made his glasses fog up. Because he was in a hurry, his raincoat was also splashed with soy milk. He didn’t care too much, and took out two biscuits to satisfy his hunger while drinking.
This breakfast cost 9.5 yuan.
"Beijing is too big, cheap restaurants are hard to find, and it’s far from places to take orders and deliver food. I often pass by and buy some random packaging and wait for one-sided food on the side of the road." Han Leqiang has been a rider for six years. Recently, due to the drop in unit prices, he started taking orders for breakfast. While talking to reporters, new orders arrived, and he stuffed most of the biscuits into his mouth and sped away.
At 13:30, Meng Jun, who was running with Han Leqiang in the Hepingli area, was about to finish work and eat when he suddenly received a call from a customer: The noodles delivered were only soup, not noodles. He immediately contacted the merchant and sent another one. At 14:30, the delivery order was short, and he had time to think about his lunch. At a chain fast food restaurant, he ordered a sauerkraut fish. The rider’s discount price was 11.5 yuan, and the rice could be renewed.
The reporter visited Beijing and found that because of "no time, I am afraid of delaying orders", many takeaway riders do not have time to eat breakfast. As for lunch and dinner, even if they eat, they can only eat at different peaks. At the dining location, riders have no fixed place to eat, except for merchants with discounted packages and low-priced small shops, many of them eat takeaway on the roadside.
Takeaway riders in charge of popular business districts feel this deeply. In order to take more orders, some riders are even staring at their mobile phones while eating. "Sometimes I just buy something and eat it directly on the lunch box." Pang Qinglong, the rider in charge of the Financial Street area, although he has been a rider for less than a year, has entered the top of the list of riders’ running orders several times. In August, he delivered a total of 2,585 orders, ranking third in his area.
At 20:45, after the evening rush, Pang Qinglong came downstairs to a shopping mall in Xidan. "It’s expensive around here, and this mall is relatively affordable." He took off his helmet and ordered a beef noodle, a rare moment of relaxation in the day. It had been nearly 12 hours since his last meal, which was breakfast. The reporter saw that it was past the peak ordering period, and many riders came and went here.
Shenzhen Rider:
Wait for orders at any time, eat, and dare not run far
At 13:30 on September 24, next to an office building in Longgang District, Shenzhen, white-collar workers rushed back to the office after lunch. Delivery rider Chen Zuo received an order and sent it from Minzhi Street, Longhua District to Bantian Street, Longgang District, 4 kilometers, the whole journey took half an hour. In a hurry, after finally delivering the order within the specified time, Chen Zuo was already hungry and settled for lunch at a roadside fast food restaurant.
"I start delivering food at 7 every day and carry it until 13:30 for lunch." That day, Chen Zuo ordered two meat and two vegetables, 13 yuan, and rice at will. He sat down with a plate, and before he could take off his helmet, he took a sip of soup and devoured it. The reason for choosing fast food, Chen Zuo said, is that it is affordable on the one hand, and fast food on the other.
Chen Zuo has been delivering food in Longhua District for three years, delivering nearly 40 orders a day. "Sometimes before 12 o’clock, I’m so hungry that I say hello to the stationmaster and quickly find a fast food restaurant to eat." Chen Zuo said that in this case, you need to eat quickly, and you don’t dare to delay for too long. As soon as you have an order, you have to leave quickly.
Yifang Tiandi, a large supermarket in Longhua District, is a place where takeaway riders gather and wait for orders. Usually, most of them hold their mobile phones and sit on the electric car, chatting from time to time, and more time is to pay attention to whether there is an order reminder on the mobile phone.
Fang Liwen, the rider, picks up food here for half of his daily orders. Usually, he doesn’t dare to travel far for meals, so he usually chooses cheap places nearby. Because he likes to eat pasta, Fang Liwen often goes to a beef noodle restaurant, which costs about 10 yuan for a bowl of noodles. Sometimes, he orders pasta from the supermarket to improve his meal, but the price has doubled.
Compared to Longhua District, there are many high-rise buildings in Nanshan District and Futian District, which makes it more expensive for riders to eat. On the afternoon of September 22, the reporter visited here and saw many takeaway riders who had just finished their meals eating in small restaurants. A takeaway rider told the reporter that there are several public welfare canteens nearby, and riders can enjoy preferential prices for their meals, but the canteen operation hours are generally from 11:30 to 13:30. During this time, they are busy delivering meals and have no time to eat. He hopes that the canteen can extend the dining time.
Chengdu rider:
Lunch at 15:00
"I’ll go to Jingronghui for dinner at 15 o’clock, let’s meet there!" On the other end of the phone, Zhao Mingyang simply agreed with the reporter on the time and place of the interview, and then continued to devote himself to the tense meal delivery. For takeaway riders, time is money. Often after dinner, they have time to eat.
In Chengdu, the food capital, the food delivery industry is at an active level. Zhao Mingyang’s business area is within a 5km radius near Chunxi Road and centered on Taikoo Li. This is the most prosperous business district in Chengdu. In the two years he has been a food delivery rider, he has completed 19,480 orders around this "circle" and accumulated a total mileage of 29,839km.
The reporter followed Zhao Mingyang to the Jingronghui Shopping Center, and the automatic door slowly opened. The staff greeted him with familiarity. Zhao Mingyang nodded and said to the reporter with a smile, "We are all old friends.
"Delivering food and meals here, the business volume and income must be considerable, right?" the reporter asked.
"On my best day, I ran more than 80 orders, worked for 12 hours, and earned about 400 yuan, but this situation is very rare." Zhao Mingyang introduced that there are many riders near Chunxi Road. Although the order volume is large, the advantage is not obvious. Everyone’s monthly income is around 6,000 yuan, and only a few riders earn more than 10,000 yuan a month.
While speaking, Zhao Mingyang brought the reporter to the dining point, which was a chain of fast-food restaurants, spacious and bright, with a clean environment and rich dishes.
Due to the fact that the meal time had long passed, there were few customers, which made the takeaway riders who gathered here to eat stand out. Zhao Mingyang chose three stir-fried dishes, and after weighing, he spent 10 yuan. There was no limit to rice, and drinks were free to drink.
It turned out that in order to ensure the delivery of food delivery in the OurHours section, the food delivery platform implemented a rotating duty system for riders, which meant that many people could not eat on time. Some platform partners have taken the initiative to provide riders with dining discounts and rest places. Zhao Mingyang said that there are still many restaurants that offer similar discounts.
"Delivering food is hard work, but we also often get warmth." Zhao Mingyang said that now platform companies are paying more and more attention to the occupational health of riders, and the union department has also built outdoor rest stations for them. He and his colleagues increasingly find the professional appearance of riders dazzling. To impress when delivering food, some delivery staff also glue ponytails and cute tentacles on hard hats.
"I like this job very much, running around the streets of the city, watching the crowds bustling and the cars coming and going, every day is full of vitality!" To facilitate work, Zhao Mingyang and two colleagues shared an old house near Chunxi Road. They don’t have the luxury of buying a house in a prosperous city, but they are willing to work hard and strive for this goal.
(Some respondents use pseudonyms)
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