When there is a surplus of riders, is it still fragrant to deliver takeaways?

Buy an electric car, put a large box in the back seat, install a mobile phone holder on the front handle, and after successfully registering on the platform, you can take delivery orders. Due to the low entry threshold, Hao Xiaoyu from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, became a part-time delivery driver four years ago.

"It's okay to be idle, I'll deliver a few orders after work and earn some extra money. Because he made more money than "screwing" in the factory, after working part-time for more than two years, Hao Xiaoyu became a full-time delivery driver. Like Hao Xiaoyu, the low threshold, relatively free work, and considerable income are the simple reasons why a considerable number of people choose to become a food delivery driver in the first place.

Time has passed, and Hao Xiaoyu, who has now walked from the factory to the "street", wants to escape from this industry. "This year, I can feel that the number of orders is significantly less, and there are more and more people around for takeout. On April 22, Hao Xiaoyu reluctantly said in an interview with a reporter from China Logistics and Procurement magazine that he is currently considering changing careers.

Why did you enter the food delivery industry?

According to the statistics of the Sullivan report, the order scale of the mainland ready-to-match industry will reach about 40.88 billion orders in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 22.8%, and it is expected that by 2028, the market size will reach 81.31 billion orders, maintaining an average annual double-digit growth of 14.7% in the next five years.

At present, the mainstream orders for instant delivery come from the catering industry, but they are rapidly expanding to more diverse scenarios such as fresh food, 3C, medicine, home appliances, and non-standard services. Taking Meituan as an example, last year's Qixi Festival, Meituan ran errands and completed 2 million flower orders in a single day. In terms of categories, the online rate of beauty and personal care, electrical appliances, consumer electronics and other products exceeds 50%, but the offline penetration rate of instant retail is only 1%, and there is still huge room for improvement. As the online retail format enters the era of "everything at home", the increasingly diversified demand scenarios for instant delivery are an important driving force for the rapid expansion and continuous growth of its market scale.

Guo Zhuangzhuang, who has been a food delivery driver in Beijing for five years, does not pay attention to these data and does not understand the development trend of the industry. In January this year, the "2023 China Blue-Collar Group Employment Research Report" released by the China New Employment Form Research Center showed that the average monthly salary of blue-collar groups in 2023 will be 6,043 yuan, of which the average monthly salary of delivery workers can reach 6,803 yuan, which is only lower than the confinement lady and truck driver.

Guo Zhuangzhuang told the reporter of China Logistics and Purchasing magazine, "There are two peak seasons every year, which are the hottest days and the coldest months of winter. Every morning, noon, and dinner is the peak period, and there will be more orders, and you will earn more at this time. ”

At six or seven o'clock in the morning, many delivery riders will wait outside the breakfast shop to deliver orders on the platform, or grab orders themselves. "Generally, white-collar workers who go to work make an appointment for breakfast in advance, and it is delivered to them early when they go to work at nine o'clock. At this time, there is a little more. Guo Zhuangzhuang explained.

"Is 4768, 4768 there?" "Is 3489 there?" "Hello, your takeout has been placed in the takeaway cabinet for you." "Under the major office buildings in Beijing, around 12 noon every weekday, there are such shouts. The delivery rider waited anxiously with his hands in his hands and his eyes fixed on the door of the office building. As soon as the order was delivered, they got on their electric scooters and sped off to the next location.

In the process of delivering takeaways, Guo Zhuangzhuang has also accumulated some experience. This helps to boost his income. One is to look at the distribution data. "The platform sends you orders based on data, and there are more orders with good data and fewer orders with bad data. Guo Zhuangzhuang said that the data he mentioned refers to the delivery data of delivery workers, including average delivery time, praise rate, activity, geographical location, etc. If the commuting time is fixed, there are many praises, and the punctuality rate is high, it means that the delivery person's data is better, and more orders will be distributed. If the distribution data of "three days of fishing and two days of drying nets" will not be good, and the orders sent will also be reduced. Second, when delivering takeaways, you have to wait in a place close to the merchant, "When you are closer to the merchant, the platform will give priority to the order of this place to you." When the weather conditions are more bad, the price of the order will be higher. He added.

Unlike Guo Zhuangzhuang, who is full-time, Hao Xiaoyu started as a part-time delivery boy. Four years ago, he worked in an electronics factory during the day and ran takeaways after work. "I have a salary of 5,000 yuan a month in the electronics factory, and I start to run takeaway at 6 o'clock in the evening, and I also have an income of 100 yuan a day, and the income at that time can also have 7000~8000 yuan, which is a good income in Taiyuan. ”

In addition, food delivery is also regarded by many people as a transitional stage in their careers. In 2020, the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences participated in the implementation of a national questionnaire survey on the occupational group of food delivery riders. According to the survey results, compared with the work plan for the next year, the proportion of food delivery riders who choose to "continue to work in their current job" in five years has decreased, from 70.7% to 51.7%.

Another reason why most people choose to deliver food is that they have more freedom to work hours. Hao Lin, a delivery rider at Ele.me, said, "Compared with work such as express delivery, delivery is more free, and what time to go up and down is all based on self-discipline, and I personally prefer freedom." "There's no one in charge of this industry, and it's definitely more comfortable than working in a factory. Peng Jun, a delivery rider, said.

Shrinking delivery fees

According to the "Instant Retail Industry Development Report" recently released by the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, the scale of instant delivery is expected to reach one trillion yuan in 2026. The booming ready-to-use market has also attracted the entry of major Internet companies.

In March last year, Taobao issued a notice on the new "Taobao "Hour Delivery" Service Specification", showing that Taobao intends to add "Hour Delivery" service specifications; in November of the same year, Kuaishou also entered the field of instant delivery, and the local life/group purchase orders on the platform support some KFC and Haidilao goods takeout/delivery, and individual small businesses will also have employees to deliver them; this year, Dongfang Selection's "Hour Delivery" business was officially launched.

With that comes an ever-expanding rider scale. Taking data released by Meituan as an example, from 2020 to 2022, the number of riders in Meituan increased from 4.7 million to 6.24 million, an increase of 32.8%. At present, the number of delivery workers is still increasing.

Hao Xiaoyu told reporters that more and more people have joined the team of takeaway brothers this year, resulting in a phenomenon of more monks and less porridge in the entire industry. "The income of this industry in the past few years was still good, and it was a quick money, I ran a few orders today, and I can get the money immediately tomorrow, so everyone will come to deliver takeaways. ”

"Some young people have just entered the society after graduation and want to start a business and need money, so they will send takeaways for a few years to save some money. There are also some middle-aged people who have not found a suitable job, due to their low education, there are fewer industries to choose from, and takeaway is a better choice than other industries. When talking about why there are more and more people in the food delivery industry, Guo Zhuangzhuang thinks so.

"Last year, there were more than 40 orders a day, and now it is good to have 20 orders. In addition, the commission per order is also less, the original 2 yuan per kilometer, now it has dropped to a little more than 1 yuan. Liu Fei, a takeaway brother in Taiyuan City, said. On the day of Liu Fei's interview, he went out for 3 hours and only grabbed 2 orders, which also included the afternoon rush hour in these three hours. "Now that orders are too difficult to grab, the takeaway platform will give priority to the platform team, such as Lepao riders, etc., and the orders will be given priority to the people in the team, and then they will be sent to the crowdsourcing riders. ”

Peng Jun also feels, "Since the epidemic has been released, there have been more and more people. In 2022, Peng Jun resigned from the furniture industry and joined the food delivery industry as a food delivery rider. "Now it's doubled, there used to be more than 100 riders on this piece, now there are three or four hundred riders. It is equivalent to 100 yuan for two people in the past, but now it is divided for five people. He added.

Some people who have their own main business will also come to work part-time to deliver food in order to increase their income. "There are many rules for special delivery, you must wear uniforms, wear helmets, fix commuting time, and various assessments, while in the crowdsourcing mode, as long as you have a mobile phone and can ride an electric car, you can do it, the threshold is low, and it is relatively free, and there are no rules and regulations such as assessment. Guo Zhuangzhuang introduced.

Mr. Zhao from Tianjin has been delivering food part-time for three years now. "There are more and more people, there are so many orders, and when there are more people, each person will get fewer orders, and I can earn more than 100 yuan a night, but now I can earn dozens of yuan. "Due to the continuous adjustment of the platform's algorithm and the influx of more and more people into the food delivery industry, not only the number of orders distributed is less, but the delivery fee of the takeaway has also decreased a lot compared with before. Hao Lin said, "You see that I have more than 30 orders now, and I can earn four or five hundred during the Chinese New Year, but now I can only earn more than two hundred." ”

Hao Xiaoyu now earns about 4,000~5,000 yuan a month, and his income is almost halved compared with the peak season. Hao Xiaoyu is not a native of Taiyuan, and there are children at home, so whether it is renting or buying a house, it is a lot of pressure. "I only run takeaway orders on one platform now, and if I open two platforms at the same time, there will be two platforms that send orders in opposite directions, and there is no way to deliver them at all. Hao Xiaoyu told reporters that in order to subsidize the family, he will also use the morning and afternoon time to run orders for freight in the same city, such as decoration materials, documents, etc., and you can take orders with electric vehicles. The commission of each order is relatively high, but the order is very small, so it can only be a small supplement. ”

The number of orders that could be distributed during the peak period when more orders could be distributed has also started to decline. In April last year, Li Min, who previously worked at Burger King, chose to work as a delivery boy, working about 10 hours a day. Li Min looked at the riders waiting in the distance and said, "You see it's time for dinner, and many riders are waiting here! Originally, there should be more orders during the peak period, but I haven't received orders yet." ”

In the past, the unit price would be a little higher on rainy days, but now, the delivery fee on rainy days has gradually decreased. "When it rained a few days ago, the unit price was only six or seven yuan, and if you don't run, others will run, and the platform capacity is enough, so the delivery fee will not be high. Mr. Zhao said.

"Now the delivery staff is easy to run tens of thousands of times a month, and the delivery time is free. Someone commented on the news related to the delivery man, which attracted a lot of rebuttals. Guo Zhuangzhuang believes, "Those who take more than 10,000 are a small number of 'elites', and most people are at most eight or nine thousand." The kind of people who have more than 10,000 are people who work very hard. Peng Jun works 12 hours a day, coming out at eight or nine o'clock in the morning and finishing at seven or eight o'clock in the evening. He said that in the past, he could earn 10,000 yuan, but now he can't, and the unit price has dropped, and he can earn 8 or 9 thousand at most.

According to the "Beijing Population Blue Book: Beijing Population Development Research Report (2022)", the monthly income of more than 60% of the national takeaway rider occupational group is 4000~7999 yuan, and the proportion of high-income groups with a monthly income of 8000 yuan and above is only 7%.

Some people entered, and some people left

Recently, Zhou Fang, who is engaged in the printing industry, has also joined the ranks of food delivery, choosing part-time food delivery in her spare time to increase some income, and currently earns one or two hundred yuan a day. "It's just starting to be delivered, and it's still in the exploration stage. I've heard that it's the off-season, so let's do it for two months and gain experience slowly. Zhou Fang said.

Although there is still a continuous influx of people into the food delivery industry, there are also some problems in the food delivery industry that cannot be ignored. Many delivery workers do not have five insurances and one housing fund, and their rights and interests are not guaranteed. "Now we have a cooperative relationship with the platform, and the platform will not bear our five insurances and one housing fund. Peng Jun said.

When Liu Fei delivered food on January 31 this year, because there were no street lights in the dark, he didn't see clearly that the road ahead was being repaired, and he fell to the ground with his car, causing soft tissue contusions in his legs, and he was kept at home for 3 months before he could go out and continue to run takeaways. "I fell several times last winter, and once I fell on my ribs, I thought I had a broken bone, but fortunately I didn't hurt my bones, but I also rested for half a month before it didn't hurt. Liu Fei told reporters that the takeaway brother is a high-risk occupation, and many of the brothers around him have had experiences such as scraping and car accidents.

"I am 42 years old this year, and I have the responsibility of supporting my family, and I have no income at home for the first three months of rest, and there is no compensation for lost work, etc., but my children need money to go to school or something. Now that takeaway is getting harder and harder, compared with the previous income of about 8,000 yuan, it is estimated that this year it will take to earn about 4,000 yuan from morning to night, so I want to change jobs. Liu Fei said frankly that under such pressure, it is inevitable to change careers, but what to do in the future has not been considered.

As the income from food delivery is getting lower and lower, Hao Xiaoyu feels that it is no longer realistic to take food delivery as a full-time job. "Because I have previous experience working in an electronics factory, I want to look for a job in the factory again this year, and I will do food delivery as a part-time job. "More work and more time, free time attract people to join the ranks of food delivery, but there are also people who don't want to stop there and want to jump out of the industry. "As a young person, I think food delivery is just a transition, it is temporary, with food delivery to save a sum of money, and then to fight for your own career, you can't always deliver a lifetime of food delivery, right?" After 5 years in the food delivery industry, Guo Zhuangzhuang, who is born in the 90s, has left the food delivery industry and started a business with friends, and is currently doing passenger travel reception services in the tourism industry.

At present, the income level of food delivery riders is acceptable, but the welfare insurance coverage rate is low, the traffic safety risk is high, and the rights and interests protection is relatively weak. Some analysts have pointed out that this requires all parties to form a joint force to improve laws and regulations, improve social security mechanisms, establish professional norms and standards, and build a safe delivery environment, so as to jointly promote the sustainable development of the food delivery rider profession. (This article was published in the 9th issue of China Logistics & Purchasing magazine in 2024.) ）