The Never-Ending Exploitation of China's Delivery Drivers
In recent years, Chinese food delivery services such as Ele.me and Meituan have shot up in demand from customers. It’s easy to see why — anything you need or want to eat can arrive at your doorstep in a matter of minutes. The pandemic and China’s strict lockdown guidelines have also made people more reliant on these apps. However, this requires said delivery industry to hire an abundance of workers to keep up their pace. With so many employees, it isn’t quite possible to distribute equal, or even adequate, salaries. There are currently an estimated 6-7 million delivery drivers in China, many of whom work more than ten hours a day to earn around only $1000 USD equivalent per month. These deliveries are difficult, with couriers making dozens of orders a day, even multiple at a time. But with over a million items ordered daily in Beijing alone and the job market being harder to break into, it begs two questions. First, to what extent are people willing to go for a source of income? And second, how are these massive corporations exploiting this?
In 2021, a rumor surfaced that over 70,000 master’s degree holders work as delivery drivers in China. With a rising unemployment rate due to COVID-interrupted education and new graduates struggling to find jobs suitable for their degrees, many have turned to previously “undesirable” jobs for income. However, the 70,000 degree holders claim was denied by Shanghai Piyao, a site created by the Shanghai branch of China’s Cyberspace Administration and Jiefang Daily, a mouthpiece of the Shanghai Communist Party Committee. Shanghai Piyao’s statement has been debunked by Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL). After researching statistics released in 2019, AFCL found that the original estimate is credible.
Drivers are also constantly disadvantaged by the algorithms of Ele.me and Meituan. The apps assign orders and determine how quickly they must be made. On top of that, the competition between the two platforms to attract and maintain customers leads to unrealistic goals for the couriers. For the sake of customer satisfaction, said platforms often directly deduct 10 RMB (~$1.40) from drivers’ salaries per bad review they get. Even after much public backlash for their algorithms and policies, Ele.me and Meituan still refused to acknowledge the main issue – how their marketing strategies continuously sabotage their own employees. Instead, they responded by giving customers and workers a measly five to eight more minutes of waiting/delivering time.
Even so, drivers delivering in densely populated cities where orders come in nonstop have a risk to take – the gamble between income and safety. Because of the unrealistic time windows, they often have to go against traffic laws, surpass speed limits, etc. As of 2018, one delivery worker was injured or killed every day on average in Chengdu. When one courier died on the job in 2021, Ele.me, which is owned by multibillion-dollar corporation Alibaba, only offered around $310 as compensation to his family. Only after much public outrage did the company state that they will raise the payment to around $92,500. However, this is not the only case of corruption and exploitation in Ele.me. After two weeks of ignored protests from being denied a payment of $770, a Taizhou worker set himself on fire. After another wave of public backlash, Ele.me paid off the driver’s medical bills and launched an investigation on his former contractor.
But the issue with these corporations still remains at large. Workers are constantly exploited, and their stories are rarely acknowledged by their companies unless the public demands such. The government’s ban on independent unions, corporations never changing their policies, and consumers’ constant reliance on delivery workers is what keeps this cycle of suffering going. Until China’s unemployment issue is settled or the delivery platforms choose to treat their employees fairly, there likely isn’t another solution to stop this mass exploitation.
Sources:
https://restofworld.org/2021/automate-everything/
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/fact-check-deliver-drivers-12162022155355.html
https://radii.co/article/food-delivery-driver-salary
https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k97gx/china-delivery-worker-self-immolation