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Text/Tang Yahua
Source/Shenrancaijing (ID:shenrancaijing)
“I can also receive express delivery during the Chinese New Year. I really love the merchants and express delivery that do not have holidays during the Spring Festival”, “The flowers I bought arrived at the site on the first day of the first day of the new year, but they were not delivered. They will not be delivered until after the sixth day of the new year”…
This Spring Festival, many people received the courier as usual, and many people complained that the courier card was not delivered at the site. Some netizens came out to explain: “The express delivery service does not close during the Spring Festival, which only means that the transfer station does not rest. Whether you can send and receive express delivery depends on whether the outlets near your home are closed.”
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2023, courier brothers were recruited with a daily salary of 1,000 yuan, and news of high salaries to retain couriers continued to spread. In order to keep the courier brother, the courier companies and franchise outlets have tried their best: the most basic operation is to double the delivery fee, which is usually 1 yuan per order, and it will be increased to 2 yuan during the Spring Festival. Few companies give cash subsidies ranging from 1,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan, as well as full attendance rewards, and extra rewards for reaching a certain number of orders. Some companies have launched activities to pick up family members to celebrate the New Year together. City, you can get a subsidy of 3,500 yuan.
Roughly estimated, during the 10 days before and after the Spring Festival, the courier brother can get a daily salary of 1,000 yuan, with a total income of tens of thousands of yuan. Even so, the vast majority of courier brothers chose to go home. The reason is also very simple, “I didn’t go home because of the epidemic two years ago, but I will go back anyway this year”, “There are old and young in the family, as the pillar of the family, I must go back”, “I have been tired for a year, and I want to take a break “, “Money can be earned at any time”…
Going home during the Spring Festival is a very delicate thing, as some netizens said, “How excited you are before you go home, how boring you are after you go home, but you just want to go home, even if you don’t do anything, just go back and watch Just take a look and come back.”
The courier brother was reluctant, and the courier outlets were also aggrieved. Normally, the profits of the outlets are thin, and the delivery fee is doubled. The outlets will lose a few cents if they deliver less orders, and more than one yuan if they send more orders. But if the salary is not improved, no one is willing to be on duty.
Employing and retaining people has always been a big problem in the express delivery industry. Every Double 11 and Spring Festival, the topic of recruiting people with high salaries will appear. To solve this problem, the express delivery industry and even the whole society still need to do a lot.
“With a daily salary of 1,000 yuan, I still want to go home”
Qiangqiang, a courier from a branch of ZTO Express in Beijing, has been working in the express delivery industry for five or six years. He is a veteran and delivers an average of three to four hundred orders a day. There are 50 or 60 delivery guys in Qiangqiang’s outlet, and about 10 people will be on duty this Spring Festival. Usually, the delivery fee is 1 yuan per ticket (order), and during the Spring Festival, the delivery fee is doubled, 2 yuan per ticket, and an additional 2,000 yuan subsidy is given. If you are on duty during the Spring Festival, you can also take 7 days of paid annual leave after the year.
Qiangqiang said that if you want to earn more money during the Spring Festival, you can still pick up other people’s work after delivering your own order, and it’s only two yuan for someone’s delivery, and you can even pick up work from other outlets. It has been a long time and I am very familiar with the business. As long as I am willing to deliver, there will be a lot of orders. Generally, those who stay on duty are veterans, and they can run in most areas.”
Lixin, the little brother of Beijing Dada Express, told Shenran that he is in the crowdsourcing business, which is regarded as a part-time job. The benefits given to him on duty during the Spring Festival in 2023 are that he will be given a subsidy of 50 yuan every day when he goes to the station to check in, and the delivery fee for each order starts from 1 The yuan has risen to 2 yuan. In the 10 days before and after the Spring Festival, more than 160 orders are delivered every day, and a reward of 1,000 yuan is given. In addition, the headquarters has a one-time subsidy of 3,500 yuan for bringing children to Beijing to celebrate the new year.
Lixin delivers about 200 orders every day. According to this amount, the delivery fee is about 400 yuan a day, and the receipt is more than 3 yuan per order. Each person has 20-50 yuan a day, and the average daily income is about 500 yuan. “Adding the 3,500 yuan family subsidy, the 1,000 yuan reward, and the 500 yuan check-in subsidy (based on ten days), this is 5,000 yuan, which can basically achieve a daily salary of 1,000 yuan.”
At the end of the year, he noticed that many couriers took their children to Beijing to play for a few days, some stayed here to celebrate the New Year together, and some went back after playing.
Li Zi, a courier from SF Express, mentioned that the Spring Festival duty rules of their outlets are five times the salary in the first three days and three times the salary in the next four days. The receiving commission is relatively high. About 10 yuan can be raised for one order. , During the Spring Festival, part of the premium subsidy of the courier fee was given to the courier brother.
The naked eye can earn thousands of yuan a day, and during the Spring Festival, they can earn more than 10,000 yuan, but most of the couriers who communicate with Shenran still want to go home.
“Eighty to ninety percent of the people go home this year, and I don’t want to keep them. I haven’t been home for three years, and I don’t usually rest. After a year of exhaustion, I take advantage of the Spring Festival to take a break. And although the daily salary is high, only 7 days, that is, earning a few thousand yuan more.” Lizi said.
Qiangqiang mentioned that because of the epidemic last year, few people went home and there was no shortage of manpower. The subsidy was 1,000 yuan, and the benefits were not as good as this year. Despite this, he still chose to go home for the New Year, and left on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. “I have children at home, and I didn’t go back last year and the year before. I have to go back this year no matter what.”
Lixin has not returned to his hometown for three years, and his family members want him to go back, and they have been urging him for years. And in his opinion, in the express delivery industry, if you want to make more money, you can usually do it. Sometimes he finishes delivering the package at 11:30 in the morning, and picks up some at 3 in the afternoon, and it will be delivered at 4 or 5 o’clock. To make money, you can take some more and give it away for a whole day, not bad for the few days of the Spring Festival. “Money can’t be earned, and you should go home or get it back.”
Of course, since the express delivery industry is promoting the Spring Festival non-closing activities, some people must go home, and some people must stick to it.
The courier brother of a certain Jingdong branch in Beijing has to stay on duty. This quota is determined by lottery, because everyone wants to go home. As the person who was drawn, he was very helpless, but he had no choice but to hope to make more money, and he would take a rest after the year when the staff were in place.
The courier brother of a branch of Deppon Express claimed to stay because he didn’t plan to go home, so he stayed on duty.
A courier at a branch of Yunda Express told Shenran that the delivery fee of their branch during the Spring Festival was 50% higher, and there was a red envelope of about 2,000 yuan. During the Spring Festival, they could earn about 5,000 to 6,000 yuan. There are usually about 20 people in the outlet, and there are four or five on duty during the Spring Festival.
But he didn’t stay here solely to make more money. “I stayed voluntarily. I didn’t have ‘yang’, and my family didn’t have ‘yang’. There were many people on the road, and I was a little worried about infection, and I was also afraid of bringing it to my family. Virus. In addition, I am still single, and I don’t have much to do when I go back. Since I don’t plan to go home, I will do it if I have work.”
“I lost a dollar for sending an order, so I have to bite the bullet”
A daily salary of 1,000 yuan may not be able to retain the courier brother. In fact, the courier outlets are also under great pressure to face such a high salary.
Zhang Wenyuan, the person in charge of a franchised outlet of a Tongda department in Shanghai, said that the non-closing event for the Spring Festival was conveyed by the company headquarters, and the franchised outlets need to complete it as much as possible.
To retain the salesman is nothing more than to increase wages and benefits. The practice of their outlets is that from the 29th of the twelfth lunar month to the sixth day of the first month, the delivery fee is doubled, usually 1.5 yuan per order, and 3 yuan per order during the Spring Festival; at the same time, the Shanghai government provides a subsidy of 150 yuan per day for each courier. In addition, the courier punches in every day to ensure attendance will have a subsidy of 100 yuan, and they can also draw red envelopes for the Spring Festival, up to 2,000 yuan. Based on the delivery volume of 200 votes per day, my brother’s income is about 1,000 yuan per day.
Zhang Wenyuan agrees that express delivery does not close during the Spring Festival, because in a city like Shanghai, foreigners are almost inseparable from food, clothing, housing and transportation. If all foreigners return to their hometowns during the Spring Festival, the city may be “paralyzed”, especially for livelihood industries such as express delivery.
But how to let the courier boy stay is a headache for him. “The Spring Festival is different from other festivals. Except for illness, the courier brother usually has no rest throughout the year. Many people have parents and children at home and want to go home at this time. It is said that 1,000 yuan a day is not low, but many people earn It’s a year’s worth, and I don’t care about these seven days.”
After Zhang Wenyuan announced that the Spring Festival would not be closed, none of the courier boys asked to stay on duty. Later, he talked to everyone alone, promising that after the seventh day of the new year, when others came, there would be enough manpower, and the person on duty would go back to rest for about ten days. In addition, he usually has a good relationship with everyone, so he convinced some people.
There are 42 people in his branch, and 14 people are on duty this time. “I haven’t been home for the New Year for three years, so I have no choice but to set an example for myself,” he said.
The courier brother was retained to ensure healthy operation during the Spring Festival, but the outlets were not happy. “In addition to the subsidy from the headquarters, the cost of the delivery fee is borne by the outlets. In fact, the income from an order to our outlets is less than 2 yuan. The usual delivery fee is 1.5 yuan per order, leaving less than 2 yuan for the outlets. A profit of 50 cents, and a delivery fee of 3 yuan per order during the Spring Festival, not to mention that the outlets do not make money, but also pay more than 1 yuan.”
Zhang Wenyuan said that during the Spring Festival, if the express outlets are not closed, it must be at a loss, and they can only maintain the loss. “Fortunately, the time is not long. After all, a lot of investment has been invested in the construction of outlets, and the business still has to continue, so that it won’t stop doing it because of a loss in a special period of time.”
However, the work during the Spring Festival is not easy to do. Zhang Wenyuan noticed that in the ten days before the Spring Festival, local residents began to purchase daily necessities on a large scale. There were a lot of large items such as whole boxes of fruits and New Year’s goods, and they had to make several trips more than usual to deliver them. In addition, many couriers with far-flung homes returned home three or four days earlier, and their daily orders had to be distributed by others, which put a lot of pressure on them.
“I had a total of 1,600 tickets on the first day of the Lunar New Year last year, and this year is about the same. A courier delivers about 200 pieces a day, but it is enough for one person to deliver one area. Now that most people go home, one person has to bear three. A large area for one person or four people is also very tiring,” Zhang Wenyuan said.
There are also express outlets, because the Spring Festival can’t keep people, so it’s a holiday.
Just on the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, Yuanyuan, who lives in Tongzhou District, Beijing, found that she had not been able to receive some couriers. One of them had arrived at a branch near her home, and returned it to the merchant. Yuanyuan asked the merchant and learned that it was because the branch could not delivery.
Later, Yuanyuan contacted a courier boy at the site, and the other party said that he had quit, and no one delivered because there were not enough courier cabinets near the area, and he had to climb stairs to deliver the parcels. There are too many fines, and there is no time to rest, so everyone is reluctant to continue working.
It can be seen that even if the express outlets reluctantly offer high salaries, it is still difficult to retain the express delivery brothers during the Spring Festival and to ensure that the consumer experience is not compromised.
Yang Daqing, an expert in the logistics industry, analyzed that the original intention of express delivery during the Spring Festival is to take advantage of the Spring Festival to improve brand favorability and enhance user stickiness. The delivery rate of express delivery companies is generally insufficient, and the manpower and capacity guarantee of main line transportation and terminal distribution are shrinking. In addition, the decrease in demand during the Spring Festival has made some outlets unbalanced in the delivery of parcels. For some franchised express outlets that “accept less and send more”, they are not motivated to maintain normal operations.
Why is it so difficult for couriers to keep people?
Many people in the industry believe that the main reason for express delivery to stay open during the Spring Festival is to meet the needs of the public to purchase New Year’s goods and gift delivery through e-commerce. At the same time, this importance lies not only in the people’s needs for express service itself, but also in the trust in express service since the epidemic. and the need for emotional dependence.
“I may not necessarily use the courier service provided during the Spring Festival, but if you tell me that there is no courier service, I will definitely feel flustered”, representing the voice of many users.
Wang Yong, an expert in the express delivery industry, said that the non-closing activity of express delivery during the Spring Festival reflects a new round of service quality competition among express delivery companies after the price war. Express delivery companies that can meet demand at this time can better seize opportunities Improve user reputation and market share. As the main carrier of the “first mile” and “last mile”, express delivery companies are the carriers for the normal operation of the entire supply chain. Added fuel to the consumption boom during the Spring Festival.
“Nowadays, people regard express delivery as a basic social service, a service for people’s livelihood security, and a service that cannot be separated from daily life. This is the embodiment of the characteristics of the express industry in serving people’s livelihood.” Zhang Nan, a senior express delivery industry expert, said.
Although there are losses, for the outlets, the incentive measures not only guarantee the service during the Spring Festival, but also solve the problem of resuming work after the festival to deal with orders after the year.
According to Yang Daqing’s analysis, judging from the performance of various companies in the industry, direct-operated express delivery companies such as China Post, SF Express, and JD Express directly subsidize terminal manpower, etc., and have outstanding advantages in ensuring non-stop business hours. In addition, some franchised express delivery companies can also achieve non-closing hours by coordinating human resources in first- and second-tier cities.
As for increasing salaries and benefits for couriers during the Spring Festival, on the one hand, express companies are implementing national laws and regulations, and on the other hand, they also want to use incentives to retain couriers.
“Express delivery does not close during the Spring Festival, and it cannot be realized by excessively sacrificing the legal and reasonable rights and interests of the courier brothers. Many courier brothers work almost all year round, and their work intensity is very high. Affected by the epidemic, a considerable number of courier brothers have been working during the Spring Festival for many years. If there is no reunion at home, we should focus on giving them enough care from material and humanistic perspectives.” Wang Yong said.
Even if a daily salary of 1,000 yuan is given during major festivals, there is still a shortage of courier brothers in the industry. Zhang Nan pointed out that in fact, not only during the Spring Festival, but also from the perspective of long-term economic and social development, the ebb of labor dividends is an inevitable phenomenon. The number of courier brothers is bound to be in short supply for the needs of express business development.
Of course, there are many reasons: such as the integration of migrant workers (household registration, housing, children’s schooling, living costs, etc.), the income and treatment of courier brothers, welfare security issues, social status image issues, working environment and labor intensity issues, etc. All need to be improved and improved. “In recent years, the State Post Bureau and the China Express Association have been actively taking various measures to strengthen care and care for couriers. At the same time, we also hope that all sectors of society will pay attention to and care for the group of couriers.” Zhang Nan appealed.
The shortage of people in the express delivery industry in recent years is the norm. Zhang Wenyuan started recruiting in June 2022, and by January 2023 he had not recruited a single person. In his view, the very important reason is that the industry rules are not perfect, and there are no protective measures for the courier brothers. “During the Spring Festival in 2022, we sent my brother to deliver two packages to the customer’s door. The other party said they didn’t receive it, and my brother lost 6,000 yuan.”
In addition, courier boys who come to big cities from other places are discriminated against from time to time and cannot be recognized. If there are too many such things, the boys with bad mentality will not want to do it. “In fact, as long as you are willing to endure hardships, the income of express delivery is much better than that of the factory. The old salesmen of our outlets can earn nearly 20,000 yuan a month, and this line of work is technical. It takes at least half a month to get familiar with an area, and temporary replacements The speed is slow and it is easy to lose items. Once there is a shortage of people, it is difficult to find temporary workers to replace them,” Zhang Wenyuan said. “To alleviate the shortage of courier brothers, what is needed is the protection of industry rules and social respect.”
Wang Yong believes that in addition to subsidies, it is necessary to increase rotation, job promotion, and welfare improvement. At the same time, express delivery companies and outlets must intervene and prepare early to increase localized short-term and temporary employment. In addition, it is necessary for the entire express delivery industry to make reasonable optimizations to alleviate the pressure on express outlets and couriers, and to substantially improve the difficult situation in different links.
Until the day when the profession of courier is respected enough, the shortage of people in the courier industry may be truly alleviated.
*At the request of interviewees, Qiangqiang, Lixin, Lizi, Yuanyuan, Zhang Wenyuan, and Zhang Nan are pseudonyms in this article.
This article is reproduced from: https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/csj/2023-01-26/doc-imycnrwq9309167.shtml
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