Rider crazy involution: personnel skyrocketed, last place eliminated, monthly income sad 10,000

Source| Tech Planet

text| Lin Jing, Chen Qiaohui, He Xuyang

A news that "Guangzhou takeaway riders are full, and the undergraduate rate has reached 30%" has been fermented on social platforms for several days. Many people ridiculed that riders suddenly became a knowledge-intensive industry, and the slogan of young people "big deal quit to deliver food" has now really come true.

This is not out of nowhere. According to a report released by Meituan in 2020, as of June 30, 2020, Meituan had 2.95 million delivery riders. 25% of the riders have a college degree or above, including 170,000 undergraduates and 58,500 graduate students.

Riders shuttling between cities are one of the most powerful moats of Meituan, which now has a market value of nearly 800 billion. In the early days, riders earning more than 10,000 a month was nothing new. It used to be one of the few high-paying jobs available to workers with modest educational backgrounds in big cities.

But being a takeaway rider is a job with almost no threshold, as long as you can ride an electric car and use a smartphone, you can basically work. The cost of investment is also negligible, and it only costs a few hundred yuan to buy a used electric car. In contrast, the Toyota Corolla, the favorite of ride-hailing drivers, also needs to be tens of thousands larger, plus the driving age requirements, the threshold is obviously much higher.

Because of this, riders have also become a gathering place for "frustrated" workers. In the past 3 years, you may have been delivered food by a tour guide, an HR person, or even a business executive. In 2020, Meituan had only 4.7 million self-operated riders, compared to 5.27 million in 2021 and 6.24 million in 2022. And that's not even counting outsourcing.

When more and more people have become riders, and the order volume of takeaway platforms and instant retail platforms has limited growth, riders are passively caught in competition. Tech Planet recently interviewed a number of riders, who jokingly called the profession "death assemblyline", they are located in different cities, they have been riders for different lengths, but the feelings are surprisingly consistent: there are fewer lists, the unit price is lower, and the money is getting harder and harder to earn.

But even then, riders can only endure because they don't have many options.

The unit volume is reduced, and the delivery fee per order is also declining, and the monthly income of more than 10,000 is a thing of the past

Location: Shenzhen, working time: 2 years

I haven't been a rider for long, only two years. The human resources work I was engaged in before was mainly to send talents to some manufacturing factories in the Pearl River Delta, and the business of many factories was affected by the epidemic, many of them were directly closed, and the number of orders that were still "alive" was very small. As a result, I had almost no source of income, and in order to support my family, I chose to be a rider.

This is a job with a very low threshold, the webmaster has almost no problems, there is not much interview session, he is more concerned about whether you have a car, whether to rent a car, whether to rent his battery, etc. In terms of age, 18-57 years old can be used.

But it's really not easy to do. It often rains in the south, the roads are slippery, and riders have strict requirements for delivery times, and if an order times out, basically everything that follows will be affected.

Once, in order to hurry, I directly threw someone out with the car, and I lost a lot of blood. At that time, I didn't know that I could be reimbursed if I went to a regular hospital company, and I was in a hurry to deliver the order, so I went directly to the pharmacy to bandage it, and there were no stitches.

Scraping someone else's car also happens a lot. I had scratched a Tesla before, but because the other party was also responsible, I only lost a few hundred dollars.

But these daily trivialities are diluted the moment they receive their salary. Last year, due to the epidemic, many stations in Shenzhen were not full of riders. For example, my site at that time only had 40 people, and there were no people recruited at all, and there were many lists. Especially when the epidemic first opened, I could basically earn more than 300 a day, and more than 10,000 a month. Those days, it was really comfortable.

This year the situation is really bad, we have 200 people on the site, which is directly 5 times the original. The delivery fee for an order is also falling, a few cents a few cents. We now still have a final elimination system, such as too many customer complaints, or not enough orders, all must be eliminated.

In this way, my income this year is really much worse, 6,000 is more. I wonder if everyone is stopping ordering takeout. And many people come to do part-time work, some merchants may feel that Meituan's deduction point is high, and will also cooperate with some other delivery companies, so that we have fewer lists.

Compared to entering the factory to play screws, it is more comfortable to be a rider

Location: Wuhan, Duration: 4 months

I graduated from a double non-bachelor's degree, worked in sales, and also worked in pushing, and then heard that substitute driving was very profitable, so I later worked as a substitute driver for half a year, but since the second half of last year, more and more people have been doing substitute driving, resulting in a decrease in income, coupled with most of them staying up late to take orders and hurt their bodies, so at the end of last year, they began to switch to takeaway riders.

At that time, I went directly to the distribution point near my home to apply, and I was doing full-time delivery. During the interview, the store manager also joked that there are quite a few people who have been riders with a bachelor's degree recently, and the cultural quality of the distribution station has been improved. I thought it was a joke with me, but when I was working, I found out that there were 6 recent college graduates working as riders at our distribution site, and one of them told me that his major was difficult to find something to do, so I first became a rider, experienced life while making money, and then saw if there were suitable opportunities.

I have been a rider for 4 months now, and I personally think that full-time takeaway is better than being a courier of express logistics such as JD.com, SF, and Jitu, because these companies have purchased social security, company organizations, and certain other opportunities to make money. And although the work of both is delivery, the time card of takeaway delivery is on the second, and the money will be deducted if it is overtime, and the range of running is relatively large. On the contrary, the delivery time of the courier is relatively sufficient, and the area is divided, and the road is familiar after a long time.

Now, our income is also falling, starting next month, our income per order will drop to 2.5 yuan, before it was 2.8 yuan a single, listen to the old riders, 3 years ago it was 4.3 yuan a single, mainly or too many riders in the area, recently our distribution station is still hiring, the starting point of recruitment has become high school graduation, even if you don't have a degree before, you can run. Therefore, after there are more riders, the income will naturally decrease, and some people also cheats to grab orders, just like cheating to grab Maotai, the list comes out in seconds. Now it is very good to earn five or six thousand yuan a month.

And now as a rider, the cost is not low, after entry, first of all, the physical examination fee, and then buy a second-hand electric car about 1500 yuan, modify the shared battery 400 yuan, replace the battery fee of 230 yuan a month, which costs more than 2000 yuan, if you encounter late delivery, delivery of the wrong meal, or customer complaints, fines are indispensable.

Of course, it is not surprising that some highly educated people deliver food these days, because although the job is not so decent, it is not very stressful. Compared to a factory that plays screws for 12 hours a day and only rests for a few days a month, the rider's degree of freedom is still quite high.

In short, this is a simple, repetitive job, and you don't have to think about work after work. As long as you are willing to endure hardships, the income is still considerable.

The number of riders skyrocketed, and there was also involution between the various stations

Location: Shenzhen, working time: 6 years

I became a rider in June 2016, which is the earliest batch of riders, at that time, Meituan would give riders social security, and there was a non-responsible basic salary of 3,000 yuan, and the time was free, which was very attractive.

The threshold for employment is also much higher than it is now. Because to become a Meituan rider, you are a real Meituan employee, Meituan will control the number of riders in a region, will select experienced and clever applicants, and will give priority to people with experience in express delivery and logistics.

In March 2017, Meituan began outsourcing riders to third-party contractors, and riders can no longer enjoy social security and other benefits. After Meituan takeaway gradually became large-scale, my average monthly salary can reach more than 10,000 yuan.

When I first started taking out food, the security environment was not as good as it is now. Just two months after delivering food, my electric car was stolen twice, once to deliver food upstairs to customers, and disappeared when I came back, and once when the tram was charging in the community. Takeaways placed in food trucks are also often stolen, and customers can only be replenished at their own expense. But as now, in rain and snow, it is common to fall on the way to deliver food.

My biggest feeling now is that the per capita number of riders is getting smaller and smaller, and it is difficult to earn more than 10,000 a month. I think this is because the overall order volume of the platform is growing, but the riders coming in from all over the world are growing faster.

The increasing number of riders has a lot to do with platform rules. In order to increase customer experience, takeaway platforms will require their station contractors to recruit more riders to optimize delivery efficiency to ensure customer experience. Because the more riders, the faster it will be delivered.

If the person in charge of the site cannot recruit people in a short time, he will come up with a series of favorable conditions, such as "no need for electric vehicles, food, drink and housing, people can come." In fact, these site leaders will cooperate with third parties, and will later deduct this series of expenses from the rider's salary.

Tricks don't exist. It can only be said that when a site has a situation such as "hiring one more person leads to five departures", the recruitment will be stopped. As employees continue to leave, the site will start a new round of hiring.

The turnover rate of each site in my area is more than 20%, and there is a lot of mobility. In fact, Meituan has many rules, and riders also have countermeasures, and they will leave when Meituan's order volume is not good. Meituan riders will constantly "jump" internally, such as "jumping" to Meituan special delivery, Meituan crowdsourcing, Meituan music running, different time periods, who gives good treatment, where to run the order.

Not only the riders, but also the various stations are also involuted. My area has changed from one site to seven, and Meituan will distribute these sites to different outsourcing companies. Sites compete with each other. If one site has a large number of people, it will eat away at the share of another site, and in order to maintain its market share, the site leader will also hire people frantically, "As long as the opposite (site) does not stop recruiting, I will not stop recruiting." ”

In the final analysis, it is because the threshold for becoming a Meituan rider is extremely low, as long as you can use a smart phone, can ride an electric car, have no criminal record, and meet the requirements of the health certificate, you can become a rider.

A lot of newcomers kept pouring in in the spring, and I occasionally ran two platforms at the same time

Location: Beijing, working time: 5 years

I have been a rider for five years, but from 2020, I left Meituan as a delivery rider to become a Meituan crowdsourced rider, and later joined the Meituan "Le Run Project" to become a Le Run rider.

The advantage of running is that there is a large number of orders, and we must be online for the afternoon peak and evening peak, and then choose one from the afternoon tea and supper time. At the highest, I could run 70 orders a day, and the farthest order ran nearly 7 kilometers, and sometimes I encountered a tram running out of electricity halfway, which was very embarrassing. Now, I can basically run an average of 50 orders a day, and if I have more, to be honest, my body can't survive.

However, in March this year, the run seems to have limited the number of riders. Riders who exceed 45 orders a day are "forced to leave work and forced to rest", and I guess it should be the spring "more riders, less per capita orders", Lerun will make this decision.

Different seasons also affect the income of runners. Because of winter or bad weather such as rain, snow, wind and so on, the platform will have higher subsidies, high delivery fees, and higher income.

It will be more difficult to do in the spring, because many new workers continue to pour in in the spring, and the number of orders assigned to each rider is relatively small.

In the past two years, there are many people who have entered this industry, I have a fellow who graduated from a bachelor's degree, used to be in the software industry, and the company's operating efficiency was not very good last year, he came here to be a Meituan crowdsourcing rider, until now. However, most of the riders' academic qualifications are still junior high and high school, and the academic qualifications mentioned on the Internet do not appear on my site.

The disadvantage of Lerun is that it cannot refuse orders. For some "long distance, low unit price" orders, crowdsourced riders can choose not to take them, but not for fun running. For example, there is a university near my site, the school does not allow electric vehicles to enter, riders can only walk or scan a shared bicycle to enter, delivering meals between teaching buildings is more tiring and time-consuming, crowdsourced riders definitely do not want to pick up, and finally can only run riders to deliver.

When the winter takeaway platform is bursting orders, crowdsourcing riders can refuse orders that are difficult to deliver, but runners cannot refuse orders casually, and there are restrictions on transferring orders.

Although the fun run is very tiring, I will still stick to it, after all, I have more freedom of time, and I don't have to send riders to work full-time. The reason why I left the Meituan special delivery rider is because there are more special delivery rules, and my personality is the most unbearable, especially the daily morning meeting, which talks about repetitive content, such as delivery rules, do not click delivery in advance, etc., and it is annoying to listen for a long time.

However, I occasionally return to Meituan in winter. Because at that time, Meituan special delivery is generally short of people, Meituan will have activities, such as inviting a rider to join, the inviter can get 3000-4000 yuan reward, commonly known as the introduction fee. Generally, if I am familiar with the inviter, I will join the Meituan special delivery, and finally the two will privately divide the money equally.

Now after Lerun limits the amount of orders, it is difficult to think of a monthly income of more than 10,000, and I will occasionally choose to run two platforms at the same time and send Ele.me part-time. However, I think that Le Run should not limit the amount of orders all the time, and maybe it will resume next week.

Now there is no shortage of people, recruiting people to pick and choose, rider mobility is weakened

Location: Beijing, working time: 3 years

I was originally in the wedding photography industry, but the industry was too volatile to continue. In 2020, Meituan came to work as a rider, and later became a station manager, and now he has been a station manager for two years.

Hiring now is different from before. In 2017 and 2018, there was a shortage of people, and many people ran for a while and left, so the recruitment standards were very low. Last year, the epidemic was even more difficult to recruit, I could only manage 15 people, now after the lifting of the lockdown, 80 people. Most of the 80 people have been running orders in this area, and a small number have just come out of school.

Now there is no shortage of people, and when recruiting people, they all pick and choose. I can feel that the number of applicants is increasing, and more than 30% of those in their 20s and recent graduates have applied. I took a recent graduate student who worked here for half a year. It's harder for students just out of campus to get started, sometimes better than those who don't have good academic qualifications but have work experience.

Although there are a lot of applicants who come right after graduation, I don't want them because they have a low retention rate, it takes a month or two to bring them out, they run again, and I don't have as much energy to find new riders. Of the 80 people I manage now, there are less than 5 riders who have just graduated.

One of the most desirable years is between the ages of 30 and 40. At this age, there are old and young, he must work, he can't do it. A freshly graduated college student, he has not suffered hardships, and he really suffers when it rains on cloudy days or winter, and ordinary college students can't carry it in this bad weather.

The overall unit volume has not decreased, the income should be high or high, and those who want to fish in troubled waters will definitely not get much money.

Now the most important thing to recruit people is to keep it and it should be stable. In the past, the stations competed with each other, and new riders came to this site to get an introduction fee or newcomer award, and then went to other sites. Riders are now not allowed to jump around, and they are not allowed to grab people between stations, and there is no competition between stations. Riders have to jump to another station, yes, but they can't jump until 60 days after resigning from this station, and they can't do anything else during that time. In addition, the salary standard has been changed, and a seniority bonus has been set up, which can only be obtained after working for a certain amount of time.

Platforms are working to reduce rider mobility.