Takeout rider, a profession that has been repeatedly discussed in the past two years.

They come and go in the wind and rain, picking up "steel bars" in the local life market, but it seems that personal safety and welfare protection can hardly be effectively protected.

Last September, a report on "takeout riders trapped in the system" sparked a discussion online. The article describes that the takeout rider is tired under the drive of the system algorithm. in order to avoid being fined for untimely distribution, the takeout rider often violates traffic regulations and faces the risk of traffic accidents.

At that time, Meituan responded that it would better optimize the system, better ensure the safety of riders, care for riders and their families, and improve the reward model for riders.

A change is under way around the distribution of commission for riders on the merchant's side.

Recently, Meituan was exposed to adjust the billing method of merchant-side distribution, from the original "across-the-board" single commission, refined to comprehensive commission according to delivery distance, order price, and distribution period.

Although there is no official announcement on this adjustment, all-weather science and technology has learned from some merchants that the first-and second-tier cities covered by Meituan takeout have been gradually adjusted, and merchants in some third-and fourth-tier cities are also aware of the change information and are about to make adjustments.

As for the reason and basis for the specific adjustment, the authorities have not yet explained it, but judging from the notice issued by Meituan to the merchants, the adjustment is mainly "in response to the general view of merchants that the platform commission is too high, the charging is unreasonable, and the client distribution fee is high."

As for Meituan's new rules, Liu run, founder of Runmi Consulting, believes that the new rules achieve the separation of commission and distribution fees, can support small and medium-sized businesses, but also help riders to work more and earn more.

Meituan, on the other hand, said to all-weather technology that the reform of rate transparency has no impact on users.

In the industry, not only Meituan, ele.me has also been exposed to carry out commission reform, which is divided into fixed and floating parts. Similar to Meituan, the floating part will be charged according to steps such as delivery distance and order price.

What does this adjustment mean for all participants in the industry-riders, merchants, platforms, consumers, etc.?

Businessmen are ignorant to welcome the new rules.

Chen Jie is the owner of an offline coffee shop in Guangzhou. although his business is not as good as that of a large chain brand, he has made some achievements there.

The COVID-19 epidemic in early 2020 brought Chen's coffee shop to a standstill, forcing him to find a new way out-moving his business online and connecting it to the delivery platform.

Soon, he signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with Meituan takeout platform, and the commission rate of the order was set at 16%. This means that Chen Jie can only open a shop on one platform of Meituan takeout, not on other platforms such as ele.me.

According to Chen Jie, this commission ratio is already preferential. "if it were not exclusive (agreement), the commission ratio would have reached 21 points."

Fortunately, Meituan takeout still has a relatively obvious advantage in the local market share, which benefits Chen Jie a lot. "if you sell 300 cups of coffee a day, about 150,200 cups of coffee will be delivered from Meituan takeout platform," Chen Jie pays more and more attention to the sales of online platforms.

But in the last half a month, Chen Jie suddenly received a call from the business manager of Meituan takeout platform and was told that the distribution commission would be adjusted, "from 16% to 6%". It sounds like the platform makes a big profit, "but that's not the case. It charges fees in other ways." "said Chen Jie.

According to a copy of Meituan's adjusted "fine billing model" provided by him, this adjustment is mainly to split the previous "package charging policy" into two parts: "technical service charge" and "compliance service fee". In particular, the "compliance service fee" is distinguished in detail according to the distribution distance, order price and distribution period.

You know, Meituan takeout platform in the past relatively single, fixed, commission calculation formula is: (commodity price + packaging fee-activity intensity) * draw a percentage = commission. If the actual cost does not reach the guarantee fee, the platform will be charged according to the guarantee fee. According to public information, the previous service fee of Meituan takeout platform ranges from 3.50 yuan to 5.50 yuan.

It is not difficult to see that the new regulations implement a lower percentage of technical service fees, and once merchants adopt self-distribution, they only need to pay technical service fees to the platform, and the guarantee fee is more than 1 yuan, which is significantly lower than before; but businesses who choose platform distribution need to follow the rules of performance service fees on the basis of technical service fees, which will be increased for special orders such as 3 kilometers away and late at night.

All-weather science and technology also found that there are certain differences in different regions in the adjusted commission ratio of Meituan takeout merchants' technical service fees, the starting price for kilometers, and charges per kilometer above 3 kilometers.

Shortly after receiving a call from the business manager, Chen Jie signed a new cooperation agreement with the platform and accepted the rule adjustment of Meituan takeout. But when he recalled the whole process, he was in fact a little confused, and he didn't even understand the details of the calculation.

"he (the business manager) called me to sign the contract and only mentioned that the deduction point would be a little lower than before, but did not elaborate. Many businesses sign up directly in the midst of their busy schedule. Chen Jie said that he was asked to sign after being notified by the business manager. Because Meituan takeout has a high market share and the merchants are highly dependent on the platform, they will basically cooperate with the signing of the contract.

After the new regulations came out, Chen Jie felt that although the store business had not been greatly affected, whether within three kilometers or three kilometers away, the order volume was basically stable, but the actual receipt of each order beyond three kilometers was probably reduced by a few cents to one yuan, and the proportion of the fees it had to pay to the platform in turnover was also increasing.

From March 22 to April 20, 2021, Chen Jie's store turnover was nearly 40,000 yuan and expenditure was about 10,000 yuan, while in the 30 days ending May 20, 2021, its store turnover was close to 70,000 yuan and expenditure was more than 20,000 yuan. He mentioned that the turnover increased in that month, and the actual volume of stores decreased by 2 orders compared with the previous month. What puzzled him was that the "lower deduction point" did not happen. According to the specific data provided by Chen Jie, the fee he has to pay to the platform as a percentage of turnover has increased to 30.08% from 26.12% in the previous stage.

Some analysts believe that the rate change will make small and medium-sized merchants income, most of the close-up order rates will be reduced. In the case provided by Meituan to round-the-clock technology:

Take Zhengzhou local brand "Prince in Love with Shrimp" as an example. Previously, a "heartbeat meal for two" with a unit price of 99 yuan had to pay a commission of 17.29 yuan. After the rate adjustment, under the same order, if the merchants choose to deliver themselves, only need to pay 6.84 yuan technical service fee (commission), the commission rate is only 6.9%. If the merchants choose Meituan distribution, within the scope of standard distribution, the technical service fee (commission) and performance service fee add up to about 14.24 yuan, saving 18% compared with before the adjustment.

More businesses seem to stay in a "wait-and-see" state for this adjustment, and no one knows for sure the long-term impact the new rules may have on them, and some even show a negative attitude.

Li Wen runs a cafe in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, which also serves western food. Unlike Chen Jie, who mainly develops online business, he only uses online as a channel to expose and get customers. Even though he signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with Meituan, Li Wen revealed that the revenue from Meituan takeout platform accounted for less than 10% of the total revenue of the store.

"I heard about the platform adjustment and distribution, but I didn't pay much attention to it. "in Li Wen's point of view, the platform adjustment must be adjusted higher, and in the end, it must be the merchants to bear the payment, not the consumers.

In fact, all-weather technology learned from consumers that the food distribution fee on Meituan's takeout platform seems to have also been adjusted.

An order provided by a Meituan takeout user in Shanghai shows that in a rice noodle shop within 3 kilometers of it, several orders were placed in January and February in the morning, middle and late February, with a distribution fee of 3 yuan, which was directly reduced after taking into account the subsidy activity. when he tried to place an order again in May, the distribution fee rose to 4.50 yuan, which still cost 1.50 yuan including the subsidy activity.

Is this a platform action or a business behavior?

Meituan made it clear that the rate transparency reform of the platform has no impact on users.

Millions of riders benefit?

In the takeout industry chain, the main body can be roughly divided into merchants, consumers, platforms and riders.

As for the commission adjustment, a number of riders told all-weather technology that they did not feel the "benefits", but actually felt that their income had declined since last month.

According to Meituan's financial report, a total of 48.7 billion yuan was spent on riders in 2020, and more than 4.7 million riders earned income on Meituan's platform. According to the category, Meituan riders can be classified into three categories: special delivery, crowdsourcing and jogging.

According to several platform takeout riders, among them, special delivery riders are regular employees, have labor relations with third-party platforms, and settle salaries in accordance with the way of "basic salary + unit pricing + rewards and punishments". They are the guarantee of platform distribution efficiency and service quality. Crowdsourcing riders can be understood as part-time employees, which are mainly composed of social idle transport capacity and are paid only by the number of orders.

Meituan officially disclosed the "rules for the activities of the distributor", according to which the jogging rider takes a natural week as a single activity cycle, and the contract can be automatically renewed when the contract expires in line with the requirements of the distributor. The salary is calculated according to the activity requirements such as single quantity, online time, peak online time, just-in-time rate, push order completion rate and so on.

Some riders told all-weather technology that music running distributors are actually between special delivery riders and crowdsourced riders, have a certain degree of freedom, have no base salary, and do not enjoy the graded rewards of ordinary online distributors.

From the distribution scope, the special delivery distribution range is small, the crowd-sourced distribution range is large; from the stability point of view, the special delivery is the most stable rider, special circumstances, extreme weather need to obey the platform dispatch arrangement.

Even the special delivery riders with a basic salary dare not relax and must complete the time and guarantee the quantity.

Shanghai has begun to welcome the plum rain in mid-May, and the continuous rainy weather and rising orders have increased Guo Dong's work intensity, but he cannot stop. "We (special delivery riders) have no choice but to accept orders, we can only transfer orders. "

According to the regulations, Meituan's special riders can have three big turns and two small turns every day. The so-called "big turn" means that the order is transferred to the Meituan takeout rider platform to wait for others to accept the order; "small turn" refers to the directional transfer order between riders who are familiar with each other by entering their mobile phone number. Guo Dong will only transfer orders in special circumstances or when he is too tired.

This year is Guo Dong's third year in Shanghai. He is already familiar with the area where he is responsible for distribution. He can finish more than 50 orders a day on average and will not be fined for his personal reasons. As long as he accomplishes the target, it will be no problem for Guo Dong to earn more than 10,000 a month.

But in Guo Dong's view, the takeout rider is a job that does not make money. "it is the top dozens of people who make money." He said helplessly that if there are 100 people in a site, at most 30 people can earn money, "the rest of the fine will be fined to death."

At the same time, Guo Dong also deeply felt that the mobility of riders was so great that most riders would leave in the first half of the year. "I work at the site 365 days a year, and I can see new people apply every day."

Shen Jun and Guo Dong are colleagues at the same site. Although he has only been here for more than a month, he is an "old man" in the industry.

On a rainy day two years ago, Shen Jun was involved in a car accident on his way to deliver takeout. His calf was seriously injured, and the treatment cost about seven or eight thousand yuan. "the company doesn't care and shirk its responsibility. I pay for all the medical expenses myself. Shen Jun complained that the company's insurance didn't work at all, and he was very disappointed with the company because of this.

In fact, special riders pay accidental injury insurance every month. Guo Dong revealed that the insurance premium for Meituan to send riders is 6 yuan per day, and the insurance premium for crowdsourcing riders is about 3 yuan per day. But he also said that even if everyone pays the insurance, it is still difficult to indemnify.

The safety and welfare of takeout riders have also attracted attention from all walks of life. Especially last year, after a round of media reports and public condemnation, the relevant local life service platforms have said that they will make changes.

On the eve of May Day, new progress has been made in Meituan's "boat plan" for riders. Meituan said that in order to broaden the space for riders' career development, the platform has improved the promotion and transfer mechanisms of riders, and further opened up posts such as distribution station heads, cooperative management posts, customer service, and trainers; and in order to enhance the experience of children suffering from seriously ill riders, on the basis of the original public welfare assistance fund, two assistance policies have been added, namely, "green channel for appeal examination and examination" and "baby accompany day".

According to all-weather science and technology learned from a site in Shanghai, from April 1 this year, Meituan special delivery rider salary plan also ushered in a round of adjustment.

But on the whole, the target of single responsibility for riders has been improved, the subsidy for midnight snacks is declining, and the threshold for large and heavy subsidies has been raised. The delivery rider said that the average salary per order is actually declining, and that what can be done to maintain the previous salary level is to complete more orders.

Compared with the delivery fee of less than 10 yuan per order, the punishment faced by the rider is not low. According to the latest punishment rules for riders sent by Meituan on the site obtained by round-the-clock technology, the platform will assess the riders from five aspects: bad reviews, overtime, order cancellation, advance delivery and other punishments, with a penalty of up to 500 yuan per order.

Punishment rules for Meituan delivery riders at a certain station in Shanghai

In addition, administrative rules have been issued on the above sites, and riders will be punished if they are late for morning meetings, absenteeism and smile action (spot checks and tests of riders by the platform, requiring them to wear overalls, badges and helmets). Will be punished.

This past April, Shen Jun worked for 30 days and ordered more than 40 orders a day. Due to serious overtime and other problems, he also received a fine of dozens of times that of a single dispatch order, eventually averaging only about 8.15 yuan per order, with an actual salary of less than 9500 yuan.

Tian Xia, a former Meituan takeout rider, also told all-weather technology that when he was a rider (in the summer of 2020), he not only ran red lights many times, but also was fined by the platform for overtime because he was not familiar with the road and dispatched orders on the platform. as he became familiar with the business, he was able to take multiple orders at the same time without speeding, and the punctuality rate remained 100%. But he believes that it is still "very difficult" to earn more than 10,000 yuan.

Will the platform be under more pressure?

As of 8: 00 p.m. on May 23, Shen Jun had run 61 singles that day, but he still could not stop, and the station was still assigning tasks to him. But as a special delivery rider, he could not refuse to accept the order.

"the site is not forced and there is no way, because everyone can't stand it (don't want to take the order). For example, if there is no subsidy on a rainy day, it is easy to have an accident if you run hard. "Shen Jun said.

Under the dual effects of algorithm-driven and spontaneous single-handedness, takeout riders have become one of the contemporary high-risk occupations.

In September 2018, Guangzhou traffic police investigated and dealt with nearly 2000 traffic violations committed by takeout riders. Tian Xia learned by consulting Meituan's crowdsourced App insurance section that as of August 2020, 157483 people had settled claims through Meituan takeout rider App insurance products, with a cumulative compensation of 1.13 billion yuan.

At the expense of safety, thousands of couriers pursue the practice of distribution limitation and delivery order quantity, which makes many people sweat for them, and the voice of asking the platform to buy insurance for riders is getting louder and louder.

In fact, the cost that Meituan spends on catering takeout riders has increased year by year in recent years.

According to the financial report, Meituan's catering takeout business income reached 66.265 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for 57.72% of the platform's total revenue. Meituan's cost on catering takeout riders has also increased more than 170-fold from 280 million yuan in 2015 to 48.692 billion yuan in 2020. By the end of 2020, more than 9.5 million riders have increased their employment income in Meituan.

In the recent discussion of Meituan, there was a voice: Meituan could not afford insurance for his riders.

Is this really the case? To solve this question, we must answer a key question, that is, "according to what standard should Meituan pay insurance to riders?"

If you pay the three insurances in "social insurance and house fund" (old-age pension, medical care and unemployment), according to the proportion of unit contributions are 21%, 9% and 2% respectively, the platform needs to pay about 32% of the extra wages.

It is estimated that the manpower outsourcing fee for Meituan catering + non-food takeout in 2020 is about 54.3 billion yuan, which is equivalent to the total income of all kinds of riders.

Roughly assuming that Meituan's special riders contributed about 60% of the orders, the calculation shows that about 32.5 billion yuan is obligated to pay social security, and Meituan needs to give back 5433.32%, 60% = 10.4256 billion yuan.

The reference basis of another algorithm is the "guidance on standardizing the Labor of Catering Network Distributors under the New form of Employment (trial)" issued by Nanjing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. It is considered that "platform enterprises" should mainly pay industrial injury insurance for "specially sent riders". Then, in accordance with the national regulations on the premium rates paid by different industries, the insurance premium rate of takeout distributors will be reduced to 1.1% of the premium payable by the "transport industry". Moreover, the algorithm also limits the payment of insurance to the group of "dedicated riders".

According to Citic Construction Investment data, there are currently more than 1 million daily active riders in Meituan, of which special delivery riders account for about 40%. According to a rough calculation, the cost that Meituan needs to pay is only 486.9240% and 1.1% ≈ 214 million yuan, which is a far cry from the calculated results.

However, it is not known whether the documents based on the second algorithm can be adapted to major cities across the country; in addition, whether crowdsourcing riders and jogging riders should pay insurance has also aroused widespread discussion in society.

In view of this, the outside world still needs to give more responses to the problems related to the takeout riders.

It is reported that since the Spring Festival in 2021, Meituan takeout has held 22 rider talks, during which a total of more than 50 rider feedback suggestions have been collected, of which 19 have completed or entered the process of improvement.

Riders are looking forward to more improvements to the platform on issues of real concern.

The sky cleared up after the heavy rain, but Shen Jun's heart was still low. Just yesterday (May 23), one of his colleagues was injured while delivering food and paid his own medical expenses, but it is not known how to pay for it in the end.

(Chen Jie, Li Wen, Guo Dong, Shen Jun and Tian Xia are all aliases in the article)