China City News
"Riders often perform’ speed of life and death’ when delivering takeout, and we can’t stop it at all." Wang Liru, a traffic persuader at an intersection in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said. Every afternoon and evening rush hours, Wang Li can always see many take-away riders "flash by" in front of her eyes-whether it is a red light or a green light; I have also seen many take-away riders have traffic accidents.
Guo Kun, a rider, is one of the "speeding experts". He admitted to the reporter that he once ran red lights twice and went backwards three times in a delivery process, and the whole speed exceeded 50 kilometers per hour many times. "Of course I know it’s not safe, but if I don’t do it, I won’t be able to deliver it on time. If the delivery is overtime, more money will be deducted than it should be earned. " He said, "As a rider, which one didn’t cross the red light and which one didn’t exceed the speed?"
With the development of Internet food ordering industry, take-away food delivery is more and more convenient for people’s lives, but at the same time, the pursuit of speed leads riders to ignore traffic regulations, and the accident rate is high.
It is very common for riders to ignore the red light and go retrograde at intersections.
At 6 o’clock on the afternoon of July 17, the take-away rider delivered food at the peak time. At an intersection connecting shopping malls with many office buildings and residential buildings in Chaoyang District, Beijing, the reporter observed that more than 70 riders passed by the intersection within 30 minutes, including as many as 35 people who went backwards, crossed the road obliquely and ran red lights.
There are many restaurants around the intersection, and dozens of take-away electric cars fill the sidewalk, so pedestrians can only walk along the road. After the riders took the order to take the meal, they rode the electric car and drove directly into the road along the sidewalk.
Guo Kun often delivers takeout in this area, with a delivery radius of up to 5 kilometers, and the delivery time of an order ranges from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. He told reporters that a rider may have six or seven orders at the same time during the peak delivery period, and the delivery time almost overlaps. If you don’t overtime, you can only try to compress the delivery time of each order. The system will provide route navigation for each order, but the delivery time is calculated according to the shortest route, and some shortest routes even include retrograde sections. If you don’t go retrograde and overspeed, it is impossible to deliver every order on time.
Once the delivery is overtime, it will be costly: according to the overtime time, a certain proportion of the delivery fee will be deducted, sometimes as high as 70%. "Everyone earns hard money and has to be happy." Guo Kun said.
Zhang Yi, who works as a security guard in Beijing, will work as a part-time rider during the holidays. "I definitely want to send more orders and earn more money." He said that the maximum speed of the national standard electric vehicle is only 25 yards. Normally, only two or three orders can be taken at a time. If you want to send more orders and speed up, you have to take risks to modify the electric vehicle. In order not to exceed the time limit, we must always keep an eye on the time during the delivery process, and it is inevitable to run a red light and go backwards.
Luo Yu, a part-time rider from Guangzhou, Guangdong, faces the same dilemma. He only runs for three or four hours every day, focusing on lunch and dinner. On average, he completes more than a dozen orders a day. There are systematic orders and his own orders. Although there is a risk of overtime in taking more orders, Luo Yu still hopes to take more orders, because taking more orders means making money. When there are more lists in hand, it is common for him to run a red light and go backwards.
The number of traffic accidents has increased, and the rights and interests of both parties are difficult to protect.
Riders speeding, retrograde and running red lights lead to an increasing number of traffic accidents.
According to the staff of Changsha Traffic Accident Handling Center in Hunan Province, a large part of traffic accidents involve take-away riders, most of which are running red lights and driving in the opposite direction, especially the phenomenon of watching mobile phones while riding. In recent years, the traffic accident rate of take-away riders is on the rise.
On the evening of August 1, the sky was raining. The reporter witnessed a traffic accident in a residential area in Chaoyang District, Beijing: a take-away rider wore a raincoat with a rain hat half covering his eyes, riding while answering the phone, completely ignoring the passers-by walking ahead. After he reacted, he turned sharply, the electric car slipped directly, and the take-away in the incubator was scattered all over the floor.
For riders, once an accident occurs, compensation is often difficult to achieve.
Liu ling, a rider in Beijing, was once hit by a car while delivering takeout food, leaving a 5 cm scar on the outside of his arm. "The driver has insurance, and the insurance company asked me to provide proof of income to calculate the lost time. My monthly income at that time was about 10,000 yuan. When I could find a platform to prove my income, the platform said that this had nothing to do with them. Finally, the insurance company paid according to the minimum wage standard. "
The rights and interests cannot be guaranteed, and there are passers-by who are injured by takeaway riders.
Wang Pingping, a Beijing photographer, was injured by a takeaway rider on his way to work. After the accident, the traffic police decided that the rider was fully responsible for the accident, but the rider could not afford it, so he went to the platform company, but the other party completely ignored the responsibility. "In order to avoid injury, you can only try to stay away from the’ flying’ takeaway rider in the future." Wang Pingping said.
Many factors lead to chaos platform algorithm needs to be improved.
Many interviewed riders mentioned that on the one hand, they made more money in order to take more orders, on the other hand, they did it for platform performance evaluation and to avoid being punished for overtime.
The reporter learned that at present, most take-away platforms implement piece-rate wages, and the income of riders mainly comes from the commission of "running orders". The more orders you take, the more you earn. In addition, the rider’s identity level depends on the rider’s "bee value", which is calculated by attendance, order quantity, response rate, favorable rate and other dimensions. The higher the "bee value", the more orders are sent. Riders are desperately running for the data and fighting for the "bee value" because it is closely related to income.
Wu Jie is the stationmaster of a delivery platform outsourcing distribution company in Taian, Shandong. He told reporters that the take-away platform is usually only responsible for merchants’ entry and order generation, and the distribution service is outsourced to distribution companies, and then the local sites below each distribution company provide distribution services.
"The reward and punishment systems of different distribution companies are basically similar, but the calculation rules are different. For example, in 4 yuan, the average unit price in Shandong, the reward and punishment system is relatively loose, and in 6 yuan to 8 yuan, the average unit price in Beijing, the reward and punishment system is more strict. The most important things in rider performance appraisal are punctuality rate, satisfaction rate, violation rate and attendance rate. " Wu Jie said.
"Regarding complaints and bad reviews, if full-time riders encounter such situations, they can either negotiate with customers or only accept fines." Wu Jie said, "Part-time riders deduct personal credit points according to the situation. When the credit points are insufficient, it is forbidden to take orders. You need online training to answer questions to restore the right to take orders. In more serious cases, the title will be permanently sealed."
Some riders have also suggested that there are many unreasonable places in the distance algorithm of the platform. For example, the delivery time is calculated according to the distance, and it will not be judged according to the speed of the merchant’s meal, the small meal, and the presence or absence of special circumstances on the road.
Dong Laichao, an expert in traffic law practice and the chief lawyer of Beijing Kaiya Law Firm, has long been concerned about the rights and interests of take-away riders. He summed up the reasons for the frequent traffic violations of riders. Apart from the riders’ poor awareness of traffic rules and lack of safety education, the unreasonable platform dispatching mode and single algorithm are important reasons.
It is urgent to supervise and control chaos with certificates.
In fact, as early as 2021, the Guiding Opinions on Implementing the Responsibility of Online Catering Platforms and Effectively Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Take-away Food Delivery Personnel was jointly issued by the General Administration of Market Supervision, the National Network Information Office and the National Development and Reform Commission. It was proposed that the platform should not take "the strictest algorithm" as the assessment requirement, and the assessment factors such as order quantity, punctuality rate and online rate can be reasonably determined through "algorithm selection" and the delivery time limit can be appropriately relaxed. Online catering platforms and third-party cooperative units shall participate in social insurance for take-away food delivery personnel who establish labor relations according to law, and encourage other take-away food delivery personnel to participate in social insurance.
The reporter observed a take-away platform and found that its pilot changed the "estimated delivery time point" to "estimated delivery time period", and set up "punctual treasure" to guarantee the delivery time of the order. If the rider fails to deliver within this time period, the platform will pay the corresponding amount according to the overtime. However, on the rider’s order page, it still shows how many minutes it is required to be delivered, which has strict time limit. However, the rider can extend the delivery time by reporting that the merchant is slow to eat, and the delivery time is calculated from the time the order is received.
It is urgent to balance the contradiction between "slowing down" and "income" of takeaway riders.
A number of interviewed experts and industry insiders pointed out that controlling the traffic violations of take-away riders is inseparable from joint supervision, one is the supervision of the platform, and the other is the supervision of the riders.
Dong Laichao suggested that the platform adjust the assessment rules and optimize the algorithm. At present, many take-away platforms have not established a set of mechanisms to encourage take-away riders to reduce traffic violations, such as rewarding take-away riders who have not committed traffic violations; We can make full use of big data intelligent analysis, formulate standards, remove the time spent on traffic congestion from rider assessment, and ignore unreasonable bad reviews.
In addition, in his view, it is urgent to set up a strict industry access system for take-away riders, and it is recommended that riders be certified. For example, a social management subject is determined to train riders, and after the training, the riders are certified to work, and the riders are assessed every year. If the traffic violations reach a certain number of times, the annual review will not be passed in the next year, and effective supervision will be formed through source management. (The parties in the text are all pseudonyms. Transferred from Rule of Law Daily, with deletion. )