The grey area of Meituan takeout and the "hidden rules" in the huge empire have been revealed in the public's field of vision one by one.

A week ago, the General Administration of Market Supervision announced that it would file an investigation into Meituan's suspected monopoly behaviors such as "choosing one of the two" according to the law. Meituan immediately announced that he would actively cooperate with the regulatory authorities in the investigation.

At a time when Meituan was caught up in antitrust controversy, the Beijing Satellite TV documentary "I do practical things for the masses Director follows the process" was broadcast, and then the video of "Deputy Director delivering takeout earned 41 yuan in 12 hours" went viral. Meituan was once again suspected of "squeezing" takeout riders and became the target of public criticism.

In the documentary, Wang Lin, deputy director of the Labor Relations Department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of people and Social Affairs, experienced the life of a takeout boy for a day. The most watched clip was Wang Lin sitting on the side of the road in Beijing, watching the traffic and lamenting that the takeout industry was not easy.

The scene took place against the background of Wang Lin, who rode an electric car on the road and became a rookie rider for nearly an hour, earning only 6.60 yuan. In addition, he was already overtime and was deducted by Meituan for another 60 percent.

From early morning to nightfall, Wang Lin earned only 41 yuan after 12 hours of running singles, so he sat on the side of the road in Beijing and said, "this money is too hard to earn, really hard to earn." "

Under the investigation and visit of relevant departments, Meituan revealed on April 28th that 22 new talks have been held to adopt 19 riders' suggestions, which are improving the rider's delivery experience. Two new support policies have been added, namely, "green channel for appeal review" and "Baby accompany Day".

Prior to this, Meituan also claimed that he was gradually improving the safety and rights protection measures of takeout riders, as well as related assistance programs. Speaking of the rider evaluation model at an earnings call at the end of 2020, Meituan CEO Wang Xing said, "We take safety indicators and other comprehensive factors into consideration to ensure the safety of riders while achieving more reasonable returns. "

The change revealed by Meituan was not communicated to the rider.

In order to maintain their salary and avoid being fined, takeout workers who live on a single basis can only run faster and faster, and get into a dangerous situation. Meituan rider also mentioned to Insight that some of the income rules for crowdsourcing riders have been revised recently, and there is even a tendency to reduce their wages in disguise. At the same time, in order to reduce labor costs, Meituan has not yet provided social security for crowdsourcing or special delivery riders.

The treatment and security of takeout riders have always been of great concern. Under such circumstances, how much longer can Meituan be vacant?

If you earn more than ten thousand a month, you get it by fighting for your life.

Despite his dissatisfaction with the pay cut, Zhang Wei stayed in Meituan.

In September 2020, Zhang Wei said goodbye to the catering industry and became a "happy run" rider of Meituan crowdsourcing. The job did earn a little more, and he gradually had a goal: to build a small house in the countryside and afford an ordinary car.

However, the adjustment of the platform was caught off guard, and in March this year, Meituan cut his salary in disguise by adjusting the income rules for jogging riders. Zhang Wei said, "in the past, you could run about 2800 yuan a week, but now you can only run to about 2200 yuan, sometimes only 2000 yuan." "the sharp drop in wages made Zhang Wei very dissatisfied.

Under the storm of salary reduction in disguise, Zhang Wei felt that all the riders at the station were in the mood. Many riders did not want to run Meituan Le run any more, so they either transferred to Meituan or moved to ele.me. Zhang Wei also wanted to resign, but the stationmaster told him that only two riders could break their tickets every week (no longer renew them), and the quota limit made Zhang Wei feel that "in fact, they are not allowed to break their tickets."

Zhang Wei did not experience the era of easy "monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan". At that time, in order to occupy the market, various delivery platforms began to recruit takeout employees on a large scale and competed for the market in the form of red envelopes, rewards, subsidies, and so on. In 2020, when he entered the industry, to some extent, takeout has become a low-income, high-risk profession.

For a long time, many outsiders have the impression that they earn more than 10,000 yuan a month and work freely. But under the glamorous appearance, the takeout staff actually have a great pressure on their income and have to work extra long hours and high density, just like a machine dominated by algorithms.

In Zhang Wei's view, the price to be paid for a salary of up to 10,000 yuan a month is also staggering.

In fact, Meituan and other takeout platforms have all along used professional freedom to attract crowdsourcing riders when advertising "free order taking and flexible settlement" on the platform. in fact, this piecemeal labor does not mean an increase in individual free time.

At present, Meituan adopts two modes of employment for takeout riders: special delivery riders and crowdsourced riders. The former refers to the full-time workers of the takeout platform, while the latter refers to the part-time takeout staff who grab orders through the platform and send orders independently.

But for both the former and the latter, riders work extremely long hours in order to run more single quantities.

Li Feng feels the same way. As a special rider sent by Meituan, he runs singles from 9 am to 9 pm every day, taking only one or two days off a month, and his salary can only be maintained at the level of more than 7000 yuan.

He said, "people talk about a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan, which comes from getting up in the morning and in the dark, and it lasts for a month from 6: 00 in the morning to 2: 00 in the morning. On this side of our site, some people have been running takeout in Meituan for three years without a day's rest. "

It can be seen that to earn a salary of more than 10,000 yuan also means that the rider has to accept the work intensity of "fighting for life".

In order to earn more wages, racing against time has almost become a daily routine for takeout workers. The reason is caused by the order dispatch mechanism and fine mechanism of the platform.

The salary of the takeout staff is directly linked to the unit quantity, which is calculated at 6 yuan per order. If the takeout worker wants to get a salary of 6000 yuan, he needs to run more than 1000 pieces a month and more than 33 pieces a day.

Even if the delivery clerk does not pursue a single quantity, Meituan also sets a strict time limit for each delivery order. under the timeout, the platform will impose a corresponding fine on the delivery rider, and the rider will have to race against the clock.

"if the delivery time is overtime, seven yuan will be deducted, and I have to stick it upside down. Zhang Wei said that this kind of punishment mechanism is the most unacceptable to him. He believes that the Meituan system dispatches too many orders, and the rider cannot refuse the order, so he can only look at the list and keep coming in. If the rider can't catch up with the time, he will be fined.

If the meal is not delivered on time, user complaints may also lead to fines, and the amount of these fines can be huge compared to the income earned by each order.

In order to avoid overtime and complaints, takeouts often choose the delivery route with the shortest driving distance, sometimes violating traffic regulations or even running red lights. In order to run with all their strength, a second of distraction is a luxury.

This planted a bomb for their riders' lives. For riders, the amount of fine for traffic violations is much smaller than that of Meituan, but under this helpless and dangerous choice, they also face great risks to their personal safety.

The rider has been driving in the "danger zone"

Riders broke the law 50,000 times, causing more than 1,000 accidents, with an average of 51 accidents per day, 2 deaths and 389 injuries. This is only an illegal act investigated and dealt with by Hangzhou traffic police in January 2020. Similar data are common across the country, and there is no doubt about the high-risk nature of the takeout profession.

Rider Cheng Ze said he was most worried about his own accident. In order to support his children and support his family, he delivered takeout alone in Wuhan, rented the lowest standard of housing, and sent most of the money home. "if an accident happens, the whole family will be ruined," he said. "

Cheng Ze said that in the case of bad weather or night delivery, food delivery vehicles such as electric cars are extremely easy to fall and bump; as they have to grab and hand in orders on the way of delivery, he will also frequently check his mobile phone and distract cycling. Or illegal cycling, there have also been accidents.

Almost all takeout workers are well aware of the dangers of this job, but eventually choose to drive in a dangerous zone.

This high-load working state has already aroused discussion from all walks of life. After an article entitled "takeout riders trapped in the system" spread widely in September 2020, takeout workers were criticized by public opinion for their extremely intensive work under the control of big data's algorithm.

Although Meituan has faced many doubts, it is helpless that the delivery time of the rider has not improved at all. Zhang Wei mentioned that during the year when he went to Meituan takeout, he did not feel the improvement in the order time, and even the delivery time was shortened. In the past, it was usually 37 minutes per order, but now some orders are 32 minutes per order.

Meituan has to enhance the efficiency of rider distribution in order to improve the growth of takeout revenue, but under the attention of public opinion, he has not yet found a balance between efficiency and safety.

Riders in the pursuit of profit and efficiency algorithm drive and control, high-speed cycling, there is also a crucial problem is that such a high-risk occupation, there is often no social security, medical insurance, industrial injury insurance and other protection.

According to a number of Meituan crowdsourcing and delivery riders interviewed by Insight, the company did not pay social security for it. As a result, riders either do not pay insurance or have to pay at their own expense to participate in the new rural cooperative medical system (medical insurance for urban and rural residents) in rural areas or hometown.

Zhang Wei said that in his hometown, he pays a minimum standard of social security, and many riders hope that Meituan can provide relevant security for riders.

And this was originally Meituan's duty. According to Article 4 of the interim regulations on the Collection and payment of Social Insurance premiums, payers and individuals shall pay social insurance premiums in full and on time. It is a legal obligation for employers to pay social insurance for their employees.

Why did Meituan not provide social security, whether it was special delivery or crowdsourcing?

In crowdsourcing and delivery mode, the rider did not sign a contract directly with Meituan, and most of them registered as a rider through a third-party company or APP associated with the platform. Zhou Xiaofeng, a human resources expert, mentioned that whether a third-party company is sent to Meituan or registered as a rider, there is no labor relationship with Meituan.

Only by establishing labor relations can employers pay social security for workers. In this mode, Meituan can not provide the treatment of social insurance and house fund to the rider.

The case can be corroborated: in January 2020, the Guangdong TV Electric shock News reported that a man applying for Meituan takeout rider was asked by the site to give up social security voluntarily. The person in charge of the site said that both sides were willing to do so. Giving up social security can get a higher salary. In addition, according to media reports, a human resources service provider said that riders can receive orders from the system after registration, and there is no need to sign labor cooperation relations between riders and them.

Through a third party, not paying social security to the rider, or persuading the rider to give up social security, Meituan travels in a gray area.

Zhou Xiaofeng also mentioned that due to the operation through a third-party company, even if the rider had an accident, Meituan did not bear the responsibility for labor relations and transferred the platform risk.

Rider is a high-risk occupation, the risk of work-related injuries is high. And each city has relevant regulations, such as the regulations of Shanghai Municipal regulations on Industrial injury Insurance, which stipulates that if so-and-so has a labor contract relationship with the platform, the standard of one-off work death subsidy is 20 times the per capita disposable income of urban residents in the previous year.

Meituan passed on the risk to a third party and even to a takeout rider.

Once the rider has an accident, it is often difficult to tear it apart with the platform. at this time, in order to protect their rights, the rider can only take a third-party company and Meituan to court, but many riders are unwilling to spend time and money on suing. This has also led Meituan to maintain the status quo in recent years.

However, this may not last long. Meituan is obviously also facing the pressure of supervision. In the documentary "the Director of the Bureau of doing practical things for the masses," Wang Lin came to Zhongguancun to investigate and visit Meituan. When discussing the social security issue of takeout workers, Wang Lin asked Meituan what insurance can cover with 3 yuan a day.

For crowdsourcing riders, Meituan has opened a channel to insure accident insurance on his own APP. Because APP is set to "automatically buy insurance as long as the rider does not explicitly object". As a result, the rider automatically buys the day's crowdsourced rider accident insurance every day when he receives the first order delivery.

The premium for this accident insurance is 3 yuan per day, and the guarantee time begins when the first order is received and ends at the agreed time in the early morning of the next day. Due to the low premium, many takeout staff think that this accident insurance can not work, it doesn't matter whether there is it or not.

Most of the riders expressed unease about this life without any security, which also led to the high professional mobility of takeout workers, and those who had worked for a long time only lasted about two to three years. As takeout workers do not have many development prospects and are very dangerous, most riders just use them as a way to make money.

As Li Feng said, "running beauty tours are forced by life, but this is only a transition. Get some money first, and then choose another industry." But in this transitional period, in order to make enough money as soon as possible, takeout staff have to go to a dangerous situation.

How much longer can Meituan be vacant?

Meituan was supervised and interviewed and wrapped up by public opinion. Li Feng has been watching silently, but to his disappointment, in the policies launched frequently, their living situation has not changed much.

Over the past year, Meituan has issued a number of policies to improve the rider's experience. Meituan revealed that 22 new talks have been held to adopt 19 riders' suggestions, which are improving the rider's delivery experience, and two new policies of "green channel for appeal review" and "Baby accompany Day" have been added.

Li Feng's site holds a regular meeting once a week, but at this meeting, he did not hear any news of new policies or new benefits, and the stationmaster talked more about overtime and fines.

Meituan's frequent movements do not seem to have brought much change to the rider.

Riders have always been the core competitiveness of Meituan takeout, but it has been more than five years since the takeout boom began in 2015. Meituan has been absent in terms of rider protection.

Zhou Xiaofeng believes that although the rise of takeout platforms such as Meituan has provided many people with job opportunities and received a certain amount of income, Meituan has also ignored the protection of the personal rights and interests of takeout riders. Due to models such as the takeout platform, labor regulatory authorities have paid less attention to it before, and Meituan has been in a grey area.

In fact, in the past few years, Meituan has been paying huge riders' costs on the one hand, and on the other hand, constantly improving the efficiency of riders and controlling their salaries through algorithm optimization and adjustment of management rules. Meituan's role is more like a platform for constantly squeezing the value of riders.

By the end of 2020, there were 9.5 million takeout riders on Meituan, who supported Meituan's catering takeout business revenue, but Meituan also paid a high cost.

In 2020, Meituan's commission on takeout was as high as 58.592 billion yuan, and the cost of takeout riders totaled 48.692 billion yuan, which is equivalent to 42.42 percent of Meituan's total income, which also means that 80 percent of Meituan's commission is paid to riders.

For Meituan, who has been optimizing the financial model and pursuing profit, it is impossible to increase the rider's cost, give the rider better treatment, or even further control the rider's cost.

Before 2020, the cost of takeout riders as a proportion of takeout revenue is gradually declining. According to the financial report, in 2019, with the increase in order density, the average rider cost per unit of Meituan was 4.71 yuan, down 8% from the same period last year, which also enabled Meituan's catering takeout business to turn a profit in 2017 and then maintain a certain growth.

The decline in the cost of riders means that riders have to pay more labor in exchange for the same wages, which also promotes the outbreak of contradictions between riders and platforms and the outbreak of public opinion.

In addition, the reason why delivery platforms such as Meituan impose high fines on riders is to improve customer satisfaction, but it is undeniable that fines also reduce the riders' remuneration and costs in disguise.

At present, it seems that Meituan does not pay social security to riders, it may also be due to cost and profit pressure. Take Hangzhou, where Li Feng is located, as an example, with a salary of about 3321 yuan according to the minimum base and proportion, Meituan has to pay about 870 yuan a month for each rider (excluding industrial and commercial insurance).

The number of 9.5 million riders is a huge number, and the social security costs involved are even huge. Meituan's net profit in 2020 was 4.7 billion yuan, and now she has fallen back into losses because of her huge investment in the community group buying market.

Since 2020, the degree of discussion and attention about the survival status of the rider group has increased. Under pressure, the downward trend of Meituan takeout riders' costs slowed down significantly. According to the financial report, the cost of Meituan's catering takeout riders in 2020 was 48.692 billion yuan, an increase of 18 percent from 41.042 billion yuan the previous year.

Meituan can no longer be vacant. Zhou Xiaofeng mentioned that at present, the relationship between Meituan and the rider is not strictly managed in accordance with the labor contract, which is different from the traditional enterprises. We need to explore a labor relationship that not only protects the legitimate rights and interests of workers, but also conforms to the platform model.

For more wonderful ideas, please stamp > >How to treat Meituan's rider outsourcing model?