① Analysts pointed out that the current "rider benefits" are still partial and incomplete, essentially a balance between platform policies, costs, and stable capacity. ② The first pilot by MEITUAN-W was launched in two cities, Quanzhou in Fujian and Nantong in Jiangsu, open to all riders in the region, and will gradually cover the whole country.
According to the Star Daily on April 28 (Reporter Xu Cihao), the reform of the treatment for riders on food delivery platforms is further deepening.
April 27, $JD.com (JD.US)$ A bulletin stated that it will further increase the recruitment effort for full-time riders. In over 130 cities where full-time rider recruitment is initially open, in addition to the five insurances and one fund, a guaranteed income and career development channels will also be provided for full-time riders, and as the business rapidly develops, the coverage area of cities will further expand.
JD.com stated that in the next three months, it will hire 100,000 full-time riders, all covered by the five insurances and one fund, with all expenses paid by the company, averaging about 2,000 yuan for the five insurances and one fund. Riders will also enjoy various benefits such as statutory welfare leave, annual leave, family gifts, Physical Examination, paid sick leave, and a love fund.
It is reported that under the basic attendance requirements, for the first three months of employment, JD.com will provide at least 5,000 yuan as a guaranteed salary for full-time riders, rewarding those who work more according to their output. "In addition, we will also provide career development opportunities for outstanding full-time riders to promote to deputy stationmasters and stationmasters, encouraging them to teach running experience to more riders to help increase everyone's income."
On April 21, JD.com issued an open letter to all food delivery riders, stating that the recruitment effort for full-time riders will be increased, raising the recruitment quota from 50,000 to 100,000 in the next three months.
It is worth mentioning that under the recent large subsidies, JD.com's daily order volume for food delivery has made a significant breakthrough. According to JD.com's bulletin, on April 22, the daily order volume for JD.com food delivery exceeded 10 million orders, covering 166 cities. Just a week has passed since April 15, when the daily order volume had broken through 5 million orders.
Recently, when reporters from the Star Daily visited Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xiamen, and other places, several full-time JD.com food delivery riders reported that the platform assigns them 80 to 90 orders per day. Calculating at 80 orders per rider daily, 10 million orders would require 0.125 million full-time riders. Due to insufficient delivery capacity, many stores' JD.com food delivery orders are being delivered not only by full-time JD.com employees but also by crowd-sourced riders from MEITUAN-W and Ele.me.
Meanwhile, $MEITUAN-W (03690.HK)$ Ele.me also announced measures regarding rider treatment.
According to a message from MEITUAN-W's official account on April 3, MEITUAN-W announced that starting from pilots of 'new occupational injuries' in July 2022, which will be expanded this year to 17 provinces and cities, they are launching a pilot for rider retirement insurance based on existing flexible employment insurance policies in the country, exploring retirement insurance solutions suited to the characteristics of the new employment group’s flexible jobs.
The first batch of pilots has been launched in Quanzhou, Fujian, and Nantong, Jiangsu, and is open to all riders in the region, with plans to gradually expand coverage nationwide.
Recently, MEITUAN-W announced a 'Flexible Employment Social Insurance + 50% Retirement Subsidy' program for riders, replacing the traditional five insurances and one fund model.
On April 25, Ele.me held a negotiation meeting on algorithms in Shanghai and signed the "2025 Ele.me (Shanghai) Online Delivery Algorithm and Labor Rules Agreement." This is reportedly the first national agreement on online delivery algorithms and labor rules, which covers measures to guarantee rider rights, including labor compensation, rest and vacation, labor protection, and negotiation coordination mechanisms.
Among them, Ele.me optimized the "Adverse Weather Automatic Trigger Subsidy" function to ensure that crowd-sourced delivery workers' hourly labor compensation calculation is not less than 25 yuan under normal working conditions, gradually advancing the removal of overtime deduction penalties, reducing delivery workers' overtime anxiety, and stabilizing their income.
At the same time, Ele.me will comprehensively upgrade its fatigue prevention rules. Based on the fatigue reminder function, a new "Self-Selected Break Rights Reminder" function has been added, and the "Forced Offline" function has been optimized, ensuring that daily delivery time for delivery workers does not exceed 11 hours, with a minimum break of 20 minutes.
Additionally, the platform will integrate a real-time "Traffic Light" function into the navigation and violation management for delivery workers, providing real-time reminders of violations, conducting safety awareness campaigns, and continuously upgrading safety intelligent devices, subsidizing 0.02 million smart helmets to expand their coverage.
Deng Bin, the principal of Ant Worm and an enterprise strategic analyst, stated in an interview with the Star Daily that the user growth in the food delivery industry has peaked, and competition among platforms has shifted from subsidizing users to competing for delivery capacity resources. The shortage of riders (especially during peak seasons) forces platforms to enhance their attractiveness through benefits, such as JD.com's "Delivery Knight Corps" plan offering "five insurances and one fund" as a recruitment gimmick, attempting to poach from MEITUAN-W and Ele.me.
However, Deng Bin pointed out that the current "rider benefits" are still partial and not thorough, essentially reflecting the platform's balancing act between policies, costs, and stable delivery capacity.
Deng Bin believes that real breakthroughs depend on three aspects: on the policy level, a clear standard for labor relationship identification is needed (e.g., refining the concept of "incomplete labor relationship"); on the technological level, costs need to be digested through efficiency improvements (e.g., optimizing delivery algorithms); on the social level, a social security system adaptable to flexible employment needs to be established (e.g., cross-platform accumulation of individual accounts). "In the short term, improvements in rider rights are still a 'toothpaste-squeezing' process, but in the long run, the standardization of the gig economy is irreversible."
Editor/rice
