"Transitional Labor": Deciphering the Real-Life Stories of Food Delivery Riders
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"Transitional Labor": Deciphering the Real-Life Stories of Food Delivery RidersChina generates over 100 million food delivery orders daily, fueled by a hundred million deliveries by food delivery riders. The rise of the platform economy, with its algorithm-driven gig economy, is transforming our lives
"Transitional Labor": Deciphering the Real-Life Stories of Food Delivery Riders
China generates over 100 million food delivery orders daily, fueled by a hundred million deliveries by food delivery riders. The rise of the platform economy, with its algorithm-driven gig economy, is transforming our lives. In 2020, the article "Food Delivery Riders, Trapped in the System" sparked heated discussions, prompting platform algorithm reform and elevating the study of food delivery riders from a marginal topic to a burgeoning field of research. In 2021, "Meituan," a major food delivery platform, publicly disclosed its riders' delivery time algorithm, bringing issues of algorithmic ethics and platform worker rights into the public eye.
Sun Ping, a young scholar with an "e-value" of 99.9%, focused her doctoral research on this group of food delivery riders. Over the past eight years, she and her research team have visited 19 provinces in China, delved deep into rural areas, and interviewed over 300 food delivery riders, ultimately capturing the findings of her fieldwork in her book, "Transitional Labor: Food Delivery Riders in the Platform Economy."
"I started researching food delivery riders in 2017," Sun Ping recalls. "That year, I had just joined the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the food delivery industry was booming. At the time, subsidy wars were rampant, a single order could earn you 20 yuan, and the media was reporting that many delivery riders were earning over 10,000 yuan a month."
Seeing riders bustling through the streets, each juggling a delivery with their phone, Sun Ping realized that delivery riders presented a worthy subject for in-depth study.
"It was pretty hard to integrate into the field at first," Sun Ping admits. "Initially, I went to a porridge shop near the university and hung around, but the owner noticed I was always there, talking to riders instead of eating, so he kicked me out. Later, I realized I should eat there first and then chat with the riders."
Sun Ping's team discovered that the group of food delivery riders was incredibly diverse, with 70% belonging to the migrant worker population. Communicating with them required flexibility and an informal approach.
"Once, one of our students went to chat with a rider. He started by saying, 'I'm a student from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and I'd like to interview you.' The rider was so scared he fell off his chair and ran away quickly," Sun Ping says with a chuckle. "After that, we shifted our strategy. We'd go up to the riders, strike up a conversation, maybe ask them how many deliveries they'd done that day, and quickly break the ice. Some riders actually had a lot to say, and our friendships lasted for a long time."
Through hundreds of rider interviews, Sun Ping discovered that they came from various backgrounds migrant workers, failed entrepreneurs, indebted sole proprietors, as well as college students and white-collar workers.
"We asked them, 'Why are you delivering food?'" Sun Ping says. "Almost everyone answered, 'I want to transition for a bit.' This is the common state of gig workers today. They're seeking a buffer zone in this rapid turnover and uncertainty. Delivering food isn't their ultimate goal."
The concept of "transitional labor" that Sun Ping introduces in her book encompasses three layers of meaning:
- Temporary and Transitional: Many riders view food delivery as a temporary job, hoping to accumulate capital or seek new opportunities through it.
- Transition of People: Most riders come from factories, construction sites, and after joining the food delivery industry, it's difficult for them to return to their previous jobs. The "freedom" of food delivery is relatively more appealing to them.
- Transition of Platforms: Even after leaving food delivery platforms, riders jump to other digital platforms, for example, from Meituan to Ele.me, then to Flash Delivery. In this constant transition, they gradually fall into a state of sustained, perpetual transition.
Since conducting questionnaire surveys in 2017, Sun Ping's team has observed that the average working hours of riders have steadily increased.
"Initially, food delivery was more of a part-time job, but now it's becoming increasingly full-time," Sun Ping explains. "The economy is declining, and it's difficult for everyone to find work. More and more people are joining the food delivery industry, creating a situation where there are more people than jobs, and competition is fierce. The number of orders per person has decreased, so to reach their income goals, riders have to actively extend their working hours, spending more and more time on the platform."
While some riders in big cities still manage to earn over 10,000 yuan a month, overall income is declining. In contrast, riders in smaller towns and counties enjoy relatively stable lives, with average wages higher than restaurants, and they find it easier to see their families and children.
"Food delivery is a job where you stop working, you stop earning. Delivery riders who come to big cities to work are generally filled with anxiety," Sun Ping emphasizes. "To maximize their earnings, they engage in serious self-exploitation."
In her book, Sun Ping also refers to Guy Standing's concept of the "precariat," referring to the unstable class in Western societies. However, the situation in China is different, with a history of gig economy dating back to the Qin and Han dynasties.
"I read a research paper that found even during the most prosperous period after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the working class with stable guarantees only accounted for less than 40% of the total population," Sun Ping introduces. "The semi-worker-semi-farmer population gradually transformed into the migrant worker group with the mechanization of production. The emergence of a large number of internet workers in China today is actually a transformation from traditional migrant workers."
Currently, China has 200 million people engaged in flexible internet employment, and this number could reach 400 to 500 million by 2035. This means that in the future, 1 out of every 3 to 4 people will be engaged in gig work.
After the pandemic, employment pressure increased, and the proportion of female riders has risen.
"Food delivery is actually a labor that highlights masculine traits, such as in peak hours, you need running ability, driving speed, stress resistance, and the ability to lift heavy objects. Physiologically, women are at a disadvantage," Sun Ping says. "So I have immense respect for those women who can put on helmets and ride electric scooters through the streets of big cities."
Sun Ping's team's research and interviews revealed that female riders have various reasons for choosing food delivery:
- Debt Repayment and Livelihood Pressure: Similar to male riders, some women choose food delivery due to debt repayment or livelihood pressure.
- Consistent Goals as Couples: Some women come to big cities because their husbands are also working in the same city. They form a food delivery couple partnership, aiming to quickly save money for elder care, their children's tuition fees, building a house, paying off debts, etc.
- Divorce, Family Changes, Bankruptcy: Some women have to turn to food delivery due to divorce, family changes, or bankruptcy.
Sun Ping remembers Ailan's story vividly.
"When we met Ailan, it was still during the pandemic. Her WeChat profile picture was a side view of a girl with a beautifully adorned hairstyle. I asked her who it was. She said it was a bride who came to her for a hairstyle. She thought it was particularly beautiful, so she used it as her profile picture."
Ailan was originally a hairdresser and the owner of a hair salon. One day, when she went to the hospital to pay her medical bills with her card, staff told her the balance was insufficient. She didn't believe it, so she tried another card, but the balance was still insufficient. She went to the bank, and the bank staff gave her four or five hundred pages of statements, some with a few hundred yuan and others with two or three thousand yuan. It turned out that her husband had developed a serious internet addiction over the past six months, gambling away all the 1.7 million yuan she had saved, leaving her with tens of thousands of yuan in debt.
Ailan was forced to sell her hair salon. She even considered divorce, but after months of reflection, she decided to deliver food with her husband.
"For Ailan, she was once the owner of a hair salon, and food delivery was quite humiliating for her," Sun Ping says. "We saw her with red eyes every time we met her. It took her a long time to accept the change in her life. She's also quite self-conscious about delivering food, so she'll go to a food street 10 kilometers away from home. She says, 'This way, I won't run into anyone I know.'"
For many female riders, taking to the streets requires immense courage.
"In traditional family settings, women are typically seen as a stabilizing and coordinating role. For example, they wake up early to cook, dress their children, and take them to school," Sun Ping says. "But food delivery is a very scattered and on-demand job. You have to be ready to go whenever there's an order. If there
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