Original title: Takeout platform holds a knife but asks users if they can kill Source: Deep Blue Finance
On September 8, the article “Takeout Rider, Stuck in the System” blew up the screen and stung the hearts of countless netizens. Some people said, “I endured my heartache and finished reading it.”
It turns out that the “People” team conducted a survey for nearly half a year. Through exchanges with dozens of takeaway riders, participants in all parts of the delivery chain, and sociologists from all over the country, they tried to find the question “Why is the takeaway industry a creator of social problems while creating great value?” The answer.
In the early morning of the 9th, Hungry responded urgently and announced that a new feature would be launched: a small “I would like to wait 5 minutes/10 minutes” button will be added to the settlement and payment process.
The short text is full of power, and the emotions of netizens are instantly ignited, because this is like a takeaway platform holding a knife in its hand but asking users whether to kill or not.
Transfer the conflict
Hungry also mentioned in its response:
“If you're not in a hurry, you can click to give the Blue Knights a little more time.”
“Hungry will provide an incentive mechanism for excellent Blue Knights. There is no need to blame even if individual orders are overdue.”
“Everyone who works hard in life deserves to be respected.”
Asking users, “Would you like to give me 5 more minutes?” Isn't this a modern version of “Shi Chong Chou Chou Mei Ren to Drink”?
During the Western Jin period, when Shi Chong, the richest man, invited guests to banquets, always persuaded them to drink alcohol. If the guests did not finish drinking a glass of wine, Shi Chong would kill the beauty.
On the surface, it was the guests present who decided the beauty's life and death, but it was Shi Chong himself who actually controlled life and death.
Looking back, hungry is like “Shi Chong,” and takeaway riders are like “beauties.” Users are just “guests” who seem to have the power to decide but are actually being burned on fire.
Now “Shi Chong” kindly exhorts the “guests”: the system is dead, people are alive, and whether the “beauty” can be saved depends on whether you finish drinking the wine in your hand. After all, the “wait 5 more minutes” button is in your hands, so you need to learn to compare your heart to heart.
In other words, if you want to save the rider, press the button. If you don't want to, it's your fault that the rider is “slashed” at that time.
In response, Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary general of the Shanghai Consumer Insurance Commission, analyzed that the statement about being hungry was logically problematic.
“Mentally disabled” system
For takeout platforms, instant delivery is roughly divided into two types — exclusive delivery and crowdsourcing.
In the exclusive delivery model, the income of a takeaway worker consists of basic salary, number of orders delivered, and rewards for processing orders, which is equivalent to a full time job. Crowdsourcing, on the other hand, is more like a part-time job. Anyone can sign up as a rider, and takeaways will be paid based on how many orders they receive. Compared to exclusive delivery, takeaways in the crowdsourced model are less regulated and have more freedom of time. And whether it's exclusive delivery or crowdsourcing, even if they wear Meituan or hungry clothes, they won't have a direct labor or labor relationship with takeout platforms.
However, when it comes to issues such as matching the right riders, using what mode to distribute orders, and which delivery route to choose, you need to rely on platforms for intelligent scheduling.
In 2017, Meituan launched the intelligent scheduling system “Super Brain”. In the same period, Hungry also began using the intelligent scheduling system “Ark.”
Through technological iterations, it is reported that Meituan's “superbrain” can execute an algorithm about 2.9 billion times per hour during peak periods, and schedule 600,000 active riders across the country every day to complete the delivery of more than 20 million orders. The average delivery time is no more than 30 minutes. Similarly, the fifth-generation Ark by Hungry reduced the average delivery time to 28 minutes and 36 seconds per order in 2018.
The reduction in delivery time for each order means that each rider delivers more orders every day. However, in the end, the cold machine was ruthless, and the illogical scheduling made it seem very “mentally retarded.”
For example, the delivery time given by the system is calculated based on the shortest route. Navigation sometimes shows a straight line, or even includes a retrograde section.
If there is a flyover, the system navigation will take you past the flyover, including the kind of flyover where electric vehicles are not allowed to get on. If you run into a fence, it will also let you pass through the wall.
Although the system takes elevators into account as a key factor when estimating food delivery times, at the midday peak, it also delivers food to 30-story residential buildings and office buildings. The former only takes 7 or 8 minutes to go upstairs, while the latter waits for the elevator for too long due to the high number of office staff entering and leaving at lunchtime, and some even have to wait for half an hour.
Another example is that the SKP shopping mall in Beijing only opens one elevator for takeaways. It took quite a while just to find this elevator.
In order to avoid the risk of overtime, some takeaways have to “grab” time and walk through the streets and alleys like crazy people.
As a result, a Meituan takeaway boy popped out and asked Wang Xing three questions:
First, why was the time reduced from 50 minutes to 40 minutes and then to 30 minutes. Some orders even took more than 20 minutes. So what time did your business place the order?
Second, after the order on the platform is overdue, the reason is not asked, and the deduction appeal is not approved.
Third, why are there overtime orderscomplaintsThere were bad reviews, was blocked for one day, and the customer applied for a refund online. The order was actually paid by the rider who delivered the order at the time. Why?
Growth theory
The growth theory has always been the corporate culture that Meituan founder Wang Xing believes in.
Among them, “fast” is the most important point of the growth theory. Wang Xing once said, “For startups, the speed of development and growth is very, very important.” In November 2016, in an interview with the media, Wang Xing said, “Meituan takeout, everything is delivered quickly”.
Speed really fattened this kangaroo. In the second quarter of 2020, Meituan achieved revenue of 24.7 billion yuan and net profit of 2.2 billion yuan. Among them, Meituan's core food and beverage takeout business contributed 1.25 billion yuan in net profit.
Meituan's stock price hit a record high after the release of its second-quarter earnings report, which exceeded expectations. In the intraday period on August 24, Meituan's market capitalization surpassed 200 billion US dollars in one fell swoop, becoming the fifth largest Hong Kong stock company by market capitalization. Wang Xing's personal wealth also exceeded 20 billion US dollars.
According to data from QuUseTMoble, in June of this year, the number of active users of the Meituan Takeaway App was 53.98 million, and the number of active users of the Meituan Takeaway WeChat Mini Program was 96.7 million. The number of users coincident with the two reached 5.9 million. On the other hand, the number of active users of the Hungry App in June was 45.3 million, and the number of active users on the Hungry Alipay applet was 32.96 million. The two coincided with 1.65 million users.
In a sinking market, Meituan is also the strongest. According to Aurora data, when users in the sinking market ordered takeout, the proportion of users who preferred Meituan Takeout reached 73.7%, while the proportion of users who preferred Hungry was only 24%.
What's ridiculous is that while Meituan and Hungry are eating up on the riders' achievements, they are unwilling to take responsibility for the riders' accidents. As mentioned earlier, riders do not have a direct labor relationship with the platform. The entities that actually sign contracts with riders are agents. These agents are usually third-party logistics companies. The advantage of this is that it can reduce the labor costs of takeout platforms themselves and avoid risks.
Intercepted from an analytical article on the Beijing Court Network
10,000 yuan mark
In the past, the monthly salary was over 10,000, which is one of the reasons why many people chose to switch to takeout delivery.
However, because of overtime, complaints, bad reviews, attendance, order cancellations due to “delivery reasons”... all of these are reasons to deduct money. Now, riders want to earn tens of thousands a month is a legend from the past.
In March of this year, the “Takeaway Rider Employment Report for the First Half of 2020” released by Meituan Research Institute strongly supports this: in the first half of 2020, a total of 2.952,000 riders earned income on Meituan. Although close to 50% of riders earned 4000-8,000 yuan a month, only 7.7% of riders were able to cross the 10,000 yuan mark per month.
However, even with so many restrictions in place, the riders now have to undergo another assessment task — Meituan called it “Operation Smile,” while Hungry named “Blue Storm.”
The rule of “Operation Smile” is that the system will randomly and randomly check riders to check whether they are delivered by the riders themselves. Riders selected are required to immediately follow the system prompts to shoot the certification video, which should not take more than 5 minutes. If photos are not uploaded in a timely manner, or if the content of the photos is unqualified, the system may determine that the review has failed. Riders will face fines of as little as 300 yuan and as many as 1,000 yuan, and may also be blocked for three days or forever.
Some time ago, a takeaway with cerebral palsy in Nanchang, Meituan blocked his account because he didn't have time for face verification “Operation Smile” on a rainy day.
Fortunately, the video of this takeaway boy with cerebral palsy being interviewed was retweeted and spread by netizens, drawing the attention of Meituan. After learning about the circumstances of the incident, Meituan officially unblocked his account.
But in fact, how many of the lucky ones have been favored by Meituan's senior management? Some riders said, “At least on our rider side, we don't see any channels where we can file a complaint.”
There are also riders who are out of breath. They choose the relevant department to consult whether the fine is lawful.
The current public opinion storm has continued for almost a day. As the two biggest players in the current online takeaway market, one proposed the launch of a new feature, while the other chose to wait and see.
Since the system is dead and people are alive, why doesn't the platform never find its own reasons and give more warmth to the riders?
(Just when Xiaobian was preparing for publication, Meituan responded!)
Meituan Takeout said it will optimize the system: give riders 8 minutes of flexible time to wait for the delayed elevator and slow down a bit at intersections; in bad weather, the system will extend the rider's delivery time or even stop taking orders; at the same time, upgrade the rider complaint function. After verification, overtime and complaints due to special circumstances such as bad weather or accidents will not affect riders' assessment and income.