When takeaway riders are laid off

This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account:Portrait of strangers project (id: inlens), Author: Miss Geometry, the original title: "Rider Diary Series: When Riders Start to Be Layoff", the first picture comes from: vision china.

Cherry blossoms in Beijing are blooming and pollen is flying all over the sky.

Kevin, a platform runner, began to be allergic to pollen. It was only in the last two years that he discovered that he was allergic to pollen, because two years ago, when he was an engineer in a big factory, he had no time to get in touch with pollen because of the pace of working in an office building.

He used a search engine to search the time of pollen explosion, and found that it was the time period with the highest pollen concentration and the most likely to cause allergies during the seven hours from 10 am to 5 pm. At that time, including the two peaks of the rider’s food delivery and afternoon tea delivery, he must attend.

Photo courtesy of the author

Maybe even Kevin himself didn’t expect that as an employee of a big factory who is proficient in algorithms, he was laid off by the system one day when he delivered takeout for half a year and successfully got involved in the rider brand "Le Run" directly operated by the platform. Or strictly speaking, according to the weekly contract mode of the odd-job system, it can’t be called layoffs.Only next week, the platform will not sign a contract with him on the grounds of the last elimination.

The team leader has a high emotional intelligence and tells him privately that he will have the opportunity to sign back next week. Kevin sent more than 350 meal orders last week, of which 7 were overdue. I didn’t expect that it was because of these 7 orders and the overtime rate of 2% that he ranked lower in the hands of the happy riders in his area.

Happy riders all ride by flying, and Kevin is no exception. On the day he overtime, it was because he met the traffic control section and artificial traffic lights. Because the lights at the intersection were waiting for a long time, a series of orders were overtime like dominoes.

However, the platform will ignore this explanation, recruit new riders by rolling, and continue to select the "fastest" rider. Kevin said that there is no special reason, but it is actually "rolled up."As an engineer, he has been training the algorithm in the reverse direction in the process of running orders in the past few months, in order to get the system to send orders to himself in a familiar area that he expects.

However, after changing the area back, the algorithm that was operated with care before may fail. There are not many controllable parts in the game between man and system. The system has been changing, and people in it, like standardized components, have been moved around or simply replaced.

Kevin’s pollen allergy irritates his eyes and always tears in the wind. He thought, leaving the platform temporarily, just to take this opportunity to have a rest. However, for those riders who are waiting for the rice, this week’s failure to sign a contract because of the last elimination or the large number of people is a kind of unemployment, which will bring strong frustration and very specific income decline.

The rider who was kicked out of the happy running team first will find that he suddenly has no order. Although you can also take orders as a crowdsourcing rider, you can’t grab a few orders when you walk into the order hall. Secondly, the price of crowdsourcing orders is very low, mostly for orders that are far away and difficult to send.

There are various brands around the rider on the platform, but no matter what the brand name is, the logic behind it is really sorted out.Self-employed riders, agent riders and more scattered crowdsourcing riders.

The largest number of riders is dedicated riders, which are operated by agents in various regions. The work is divided into districts, and the assessment standards are strict. The order price is the highest among all rider brands, but the punishment for mistakes is also varied because of the different management levels and values of agents.

The largest number of orders is the happy rider who Kevin used to work for, and there are a steady stream of orders, but at the same time, he has to accept the condition of lower unit price and exchange income for more work. Because the system gives enough orders, as long as the rider runs fast, is willing to work overtime and is strongly bound to the platform, the income is not bad.

But the corresponding price is to run faster and make fewer mistakes, or you will be eliminated.

The first-line manager of Le Run is the squad leader, who is also a rider, and should participate in the work of running the list. The people they report to are white-collar workers on the platform. Those people never show up, only talk to the squad leader. Kevin said that at first glance, those people were employees of big factories they were familiar with, because they conveyed some management standards with a little pride and poor empathy.

At first glance, I just don’t understand the job of a rider.

A man looking up at the platform HR is still recruiting 500 new riders for the new brand to be launched in April. It is said that it is a new brand, but it is actually a new way of calculating salary. The commission is linked to the single quantity, and the platform-guaranteed rider has about 1100~1400 orders a month. This model increases the length of service award, and after six months, you can get 600 pieces of length of service award.

Because I don’t know whether this salary calculation method can make money for the time being, the riders are still watching with a cautious attitude. However, the design of this new brand shows that in the highly mobile rider system, as long as they have worked for 6 months, they are old employees.

In order to ensure the stability of the platform capacity, in operation, the special delivery rider is bound to the operator, the happy running rider is bound to the platform, and the crowdsourcing rider who is the most free and the lowest unit price is a variable.

Crowdsourcing is like a container, which contains all the people who want to be riders.

In the end, due to the influx of crowdsourcing riders and fierce competition, the operating unit price of each order will be lowered, thus further reducing the platform distribution cost. Anyway, the customer can’t feel what kind of rider delivers his takeaway.

It is difficult for newcomers to bear the work intensity of special delivery at once, and they can’t meet the admission standard of Le Run. So when more and more people join riders, in fact, they just join crowdsourcing riders. There are many crowdsourcers, and the low price, such as a delivery fee of a few cents a kilometer or a dollar, diverts the pressure of order delivery.

This makes ROI the most cost-effective for the platform. At the same time, the services enjoyed by customers are the same. It’s just the full-time happy riders who were initially promised the order quantity by the platform, and their order quantity is not so sufficient. The mode of signing a contract week by week obviously considers the peak and valley changes of the order volume. When the order is reduced, some riders are dynamically refused to sign the contract based on standards such as the last elimination or overtime rate.

In this way, the rest of the riders who are bound to the platform will enter a new balance. When the orders rise in peak season or holidays, we can sign more riders with high cooperation to achieve the balance and stability of distribution capacity. That’s what Kevin and his team leader said. Wait till next week. Come back when you have the chance.

Perhaps, there is a real opportunity next week. Perhaps, next week, the team leader said that there is no shortage of people. It is also possible that Kevin will choose to change a district and change a squad leader.

There are only so many choices for riders. But the platform will never be short of people.

Every day, a group of people who have heard that riders earn more than 10,000 yuan a month flood into this industry. They bought cars and equipment, made some contributions to crowdsourcing, found that they couldn’t make any money, and then left voluntarily. In the rider group, every day are those who resell rider equipment.

This industry never tells you about layoffs, but in fact, riders experience layoffs or layoffs every day.

When Kevin, who is proficient in code, met with the familiar bottom elimination in such a seemingly limitless job, he could only smile helplessly. We can only have a rest.

He brushed the crowdsourcing order system yesterday and found that there was only one order to grab in the CBD area of the Third Ring Road in Beijing. He didn’t move. After dozens of seconds, the order was taken away by others.

This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account:Portrait of strangers project (id: inlens), author: Miss Geometry