18 takeaway riders ran a red light in the wrong direction within 10 minutes at the first intersection in Beijing
Why does the takeaway boy "follow his life" and gallop?
On the street, takeaway electric scooters are speeding past among pedestrians and motor vehicles. While watching the navigation on their mobile phones, the riders are racing against time, even speeding, going in the wrong direction, and running red lights...
This is what a reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" saw during an interview in several business districts in Haidian District and Chaoyang District of Beijing recently.
Rider Guo Kun is one of them.
On November 4, the reporter met Guo Kun in a business district inside the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing, where he would wait for takeout orders at noon every day.
It was the peak time for takeout, and he took 4 orders, and it took 50 minutes to complete the delivery from pick-up to delivery.
Less than 2 minutes after he set off, Guo Kun got the first takeaway; after a quick transition, he took another 6 minutes to get the second and third takeaways; then, he ran non-stop to the electric car, He moved to the fourth takeaway, but this time it didn't go well. When he arrived at the store, he found that the takeaway hadn't been packed yet, and he waited for 4 minutes to get it.
It has been 12 minutes since the departure of the order, and Guo Kun needs to deliver 4 takeaways in the remaining 38 minutes.
According to the location of each order and the delivery time limit, he arranged the most time-saving delivery sequence, and one of the time-saving methods is to take a shortcut.
He began to ride the electric car to speed up, cross the dotted line in the center of the road, drive in the opposite direction, run a red light, and finally delivered the last takeaway to the customer before the time limit.
Throughout the delivery process, Guo Kun ran a red light twice and went against the road three times, and his speed exceeded 50 kilometers per hour many times throughout the whole process.
"Running a red light, going the wrong way, or speeding is not safe, but if you don't do it, you won't be able to deliver on time. Which rider has never run a red light? If the delivery exceeds the time limit, the deduction will be more than what should be earned." Guo Kun Very helpless.
In fact, this is an "open secret" among riders.
With the rapid growth of Internet ordering, food delivery is becoming more and more convenient for people's lives, but at the same time, the pursuit of speed leads riders to ignore traffic laws, and the incidence of accidents is high.
According to the statistics of the reporter, the common traffic violations of takeaway riders include running red lights, using motor vehicle lanes, driving in the wrong direction, speeding, etc., and some riders also have distracted driving behaviors such as watching mobile phones and answering calls during driving.
Experts interviewed pointed out that to control the traffic violations of food delivery riders, it is advisable to strengthen supervision, joint management, and early and strict governance. The responsibility for traffic law compliance is assigned to the platform company and becomes a prerequisite for its operation. Traffic law compliance is regarded as part of the entry threshold for riders. More importantly, the "life-threatening" rules of food delivery must be changed and regulated.
Explosive modified vehicle speeding retrograde
Diagonally crossing the road and running a red light
At 5 pm on November 9th, it was the peak time for food delivery riders.
At an intersection connecting shopping malls and many office buildings and residential buildings in Chaoyang District, Beijing, takeaway riders walk through the traffic.
The reporter found that more than 30 riders passed by the intersection within 10 minutes, and as many as 18 of them went against the road, crossed the road diagonally, and ran a red light.
There are many restaurants around the intersection, and dozens of takeaway trucks occupy the sidewalk, and pedestrians can only walk along the side of the road.
After the riders took the order and picked up the meal, they rode the electric bicycle and drove directly along the sidewalk and into the road.
Rider Li Hong often delivers food in this area, with a delivery radius of up to 5 kilometers, and the delivery time of an order ranges from 30 to 60 minutes.
He told reporters that a rider has six or seven orders at the same time during the peak period, and the delivery time almost overlaps. If he wants to avoid overtime, he can only compress the delivery time of each order as much as possible.
The system will provide route guidance for each order, but the delivery time is calculated based on the shortest route, and the shortest route includes the retrograde section.
If there is no retrograde, it is impossible to deliver every order on time.
If the order is overtime, the price is very high: according to the overtime period, a certain percentage of the delivery fee will be deducted, sometimes as high as 70%.
"Riders earn hard money and have to be fast, so running red lights, going the wrong way, and speeding are not surprising." Li Hong said.
Part-time rider He Tingting wanted to "obey the traffic rules honestly" when she first entered the industry, but she was "seriously late" many times.
Her most impressive lateness happened on the 30th day of delivery.
That morning, after she got up, she turned on the takeaway order receiving system, set the order receiving range to within 5 kilometers, and received the first order of the day.
After receiving the order, she found that the system sent her to pick up a fried chicken cutlet from a place 5.9 kilometers away, and then delivered it to a company door about 2.7 kilometers away. The time could not exceed 45 minutes.
It took 35 minutes to arrive at the shopping mall where the food was picked up, and 5 minutes to find the fried chicken restaurant on the first floor of the shopping mall. At this time, there were only 5 minutes left in the delivery countdown.
He Tingting's new national standard electric car has a top speed of 25 kilometers per hour, which cannot be driven very fast. There are still many intersections to wait for traffic lights during the 5.9-kilometer journey.
In the end, she was overtime for 11 minutes, and the shipping fee of 4.8 yuan was deducted 3.8 yuan, and the proportion of overtime fines reached 79%.
Once when delivering fried chicken in the city, He Tingting met a rider by chance. The rider saw her car and said, "Your car is not good, it can't run at all." He Tingting asked him, "How fast can your car go?" The reply speed is 68 kilometers per hour, and it is said that some riders can reach a speed of more than 85 kilometers per hour after modifying the electric vehicle.
Explosive modification of electric vehicles is illegal, but if they are not modified, although they are compliant, they will exceed the time limit.
"Riders have to be fast, because we live in the sound of urging every day, being urged by merchants, customers, and algorithms. We have no choice." He Tingting said in her official account "Stranger Portrait Project" and "Rider's Diary" wrote.
Traffic accidents are on the rise
The rights of riders and passers-by are damaged
Riders often speed, go the wrong way, and run red lights. The direct consequence is that the number of traffic accidents involving riders continues to rise.
Taking Shanghai as an example, public data shows that in the first half of 2019, a total of 325 road traffic accidents involving the express delivery industry occurred in Shanghai; from the beginning of 2020 to December, more than 400 road traffic accidents involving the express delivery industry occurred.
On the morning of November 10, the reporter witnessed a traffic accident caused by a rider.
At about 11 o'clock on the same day, in a community in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a takeaway rider riding an electric scooter focused his attention on the mobile phone navigation, and a passerby walked in front of him. To the roadside guardrail, the takeaway in the incubator was scattered all over the place, and the rider also fell to the road.
He Tingting has seen many such scenes.
She once saw a delivery boy who had two traffic accidents in one day; she also saw a rider speeding while turning, and when he encountered a car that was also fast, he was thrown out after the collision.
For riders, compensation is difficult to achieve after an accident.
Rider Liu Lin had a 5cm-long scar on the outside of his arm, which was left after he was hit by a car while delivering food.
"The driver has insurance, and the insurance company asked me to provide a proof of income to calculate the lost wages. My monthly income was about 10,000 yuan at the time. When I asked the platform to issue a proof of income, the platform said that it had nothing to do with them. In the end, the insurance company based on the minimum wage standard. The compensation has been paid," Liu Lin said.
He Tingting saw a photo in the rider social group, which was an electric car with a broken front and fell to the ground.
It was a selfie sent to the group after a rider had a car accident at an intersection.
He was riding an electric scooter straight ahead, but the turning car on the opposite side did not slow down. The rider slammed on the brakes and collided head-on with the car. The front third of the electric scooter was lost.
The rider slumped on the ground, bruised, and killed.
The solution given by the insurance assessor is that if you are in a hurry to go back to make money, you can negotiate a settlement, pay as soon as possible, and compensate for two days of lost work, 300 yuan.
Those whose rights and interests cannot be guaranteed include passers-by who were hit by delivery riders.
Not long ago, Wang Pingping, who was working in Beijing, was injured by a takeaway rider on the way to start her business. The contract had to be canceled and the loss was not small.
After the accident, the traffic police judged the rider to be fully responsible for the accident, but the rider himself could not afford it.
She wanted to find a platform company, but the other party ignored all responsibilities.
"In order to avoid injury, we can only stay as far away from the takeaway rider as possible." Wang Pingping sighed.
Zhang Cheng, a Beijing citizen, feels the same way. When he walks on the road in the evening, he tries to stay away from the takeaway riders as much as possible. Even so, he often hears a takeaway electric car whizzing by.
Once, when he was thinking about something while walking, a takeaway electric car drove up from behind at a very fast speed. More than 80 kilometers."
The assessment mechanism is behind the scenes
Data Compression Delivery Time
What is the reason for the takeaway rider to "desperate" for speed?
The reporter interviewed many riders and found that they did not hesitate to take risks and repeatedly violated the traffic regulations. On the one hand, they wanted to receive more orders and make more money, and on the other hand, they wanted to avoid overtime penalties.
At present, most food delivery platforms implement piece-rate wages. The income of riders mainly comes from the commission of "running orders". The more orders received, the more they earn.
In addition, the rider's identity level depends on the rider's "bee value", and "bee value" is calculated from multiple dimensions such as attendance rate, order volume, response rate, and favorable rate. The more orders.
Riders are desperately running to secure data and compete for "bee value" because it is closely related to income.
The opposite of data care is data punishment - riders will be deducted for overtime; customers will also be deducted for complaints or bad reviews.
From June this year to the present, Guo Kun has overtimed about 50 orders.
The specific amount deducted will be determined by his platform based on the time: 10% to 20% of the delivery fee will be deducted for more than 8 minutes; more than 1 hour is a serious overtime, and the deduction ratio will be calculated separately.
If you are complained due to ordinary overtime, you will be fined more than 50 yuan.
Some riders also pointed out that there are many unreasonable aspects of the platform’s distance calculation algorithm. For example, the delivery is calculated according to the distance, and the time will not be judged according to the speed of the merchant’s delivery or the size of the meal.
Chen Long, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology of Peking University, once joined the team of takeaway riders to explore the reasons behind the chaos of riders riding.
He found that during the rider delivery process, the platform system collects data from riders, consumers, merchants, and business circles through smartphones and platform software, and applies these data to delivery pricing, rider matching, estimated time, route planning, The whole process of monitoring, quantitative assessment and other management are in progress.
In this management model, riders are strictly controlled.
In the system setting, delivery time is the most important indicator, and in recent years, the delivery time of riders has been continuously compressed by the system.
"The average delivery time of an order dropped from 38 minutes in 2015 to 31 minutes in 2016, and further shortened to 28 minutes in 2017...Constantly compressed time means that the speed of rider flow is accelerating. On the one hand, time compression is The result of technological progress, on the other hand, must be realized through the object of technological application—the rider.” Chen Long proposed in the paper.
He Tingting also noticed the problem of the platform.
In her most impressive late experience, the combined distance of pick-up and delivery was close to 9 kilometers, but the system only gave her 45 minutes.
"Nearly 9 kilometers away, there are many intersections, which means that as long as I obey the traffic laws, every time I wait for a traffic light, half a minute or a minute will disappear in the countdown. In addition to various scanning codes and finding ways, I put the electric It took more than 11 minutes to drive the car to the top speed." He Tingting said that such orders are not uncommon at ordinary times, and they appear in the food delivery system row by row, and there are even orders for pickup and delivery of up to 10 kilometers, requiring riders It was delivered within 28 minutes, and it was short of hitting "Midnight Speed" on the public screen.
Dong Laichao, an expert in traffic law practice and chief lawyer of Beijing Kaiya Law Firm, has long been concerned about the rights and interests of takeaway riders. He concluded that the reasons for frequent traffic violations by riders are that, in addition to riders’ lack of awareness of traffic rules and lack of safety education, the platform dispatches Patterns and algorithms are the main reason.
"The delivery model of the platform is unreasonable, and the order deduction fee is too high. The monthly income of the takeaway rider basically depends on the commission of the delivery fee. If the delivery fee is calculated based on the delivery fee of about 5 yuan for one order, then if 30 orders are delivered a day, the rider You can earn 150 yuan; but if it is overtime, the rider will usually be deducted a certain percentage of the delivery fee; if the customer cancels the order, the rider will have to bear all the losses.” Dong Laichao said, in addition, the platform has a single algorithm, and the calculation of the estimated arrival time is too fast. Short, the rider needs to run as fast as he can.
In order to appease users, some platforms display rider arrival times on their mobile phones differently from riders’ arrival times. The time on users’ mobile phones is often one to two minutes earlier. gallop.
In Dong Laichao's view, the merchants who provide food delivery are also one of the factors. "Many merchants are slow to deliver meals, and they may have clicked 'food preparation completed' before the meal is served, which will cause riders to wait longer. The time on the road is naturally squeezed."
Platform rules urgently need to be optimized
Joint supervision is urgent
It is imminent to balance the contradiction between "speed reduction" and "income" for takeaway riders.
A person in charge of the China Bicycle Association pointed out that compared with ordinary consumers, the electric bicycles of takeaway riders are no longer just means of transportation, but production tools. They rely on the high speed and long mileage of electric bicycles to deliver and receive orders quickly. Get the job done to survive.
In the future, it is necessary to develop and launch electric bicycle products suitable for takeaway riders, and continuously improve the relevant standard system.
Dong Laichao suggested that the platform should adjust the assessment rules and optimize the algorithm. "At present, the food delivery platform has not established a complete set of mechanisms to motivate food delivery riders to reduce traffic violations, such as rewarding delivery riders who have not committed traffic violations. Big data intelligence can be fully utilized. Analyze, formulate standards, remove time spent in traffic jams from rider evaluation, and disregard unreasonable bad reviews.”
A number of interviewed experts and industry insiders pointed out that joint supervision is inseparable from the control of traffic violations by takeaway riders. The first is the supervision of the platform, and the second is the supervision of the riders.
In Dong Laichao's view, it is urgent to improve relevant laws and standardize the legal relationship between platforms and riders.
"At present, the management entities between riders and platform companies are not clear, and there are complex social management models, such as special delivery model, labor dispatch model, crowdsourcing model, individual model, agency model, etc., resulting in loose and slack management. Therefore, it needs to be improved Legislation clarifies the subject of management, and when the rights and interests of riders or platform companies are damaged, they can get reasonable and legal social relief." Dong Laichao said.
He also found that there is almost no compulsory traffic insurance for electric bicycles on the market, and many takeaway riders have not purchased insurance or the insurance amount is low. When a traffic accident occurs, it is very difficult for the injured party to recover compensation from the rider himself or from the platform. Therefore, it is proposed to set up "electric vehicle traffic compulsory insurance".
"It is imperative to tighten the entry system for the food delivery rider industry. It is recommended that riders hold certificates to work. Determine a social management body to train riders. The annual review cannot be passed in the next year, and effective supervision can be formed through source management." Dong Laichao said.
Zhang Zhuting, a professor of the Management Cadre Academy of the Ministry of Transport, believes that traffic violations by takeaway riders are a public safety issue, and the level of public safety governance should be improved, and a large safety framework should be established to promote the transformation to pre-prevention. social governance system.
"Takeaway platform companies must earnestly assume their supervisory responsibilities, incorporate rider traffic safety into the safety production system, establish a double prevention system for safety production risk classification assessment and hidden danger investigation and management, regularly carry out road traffic safety knowledge training for takeaway riders, and regularly publish road traffic safety regulations. Warning films and warning cases, etc., enhance the traffic safety awareness of takeaway riders and the awareness of the rule of law. At the same time, the vehicles used by takeaway riders are strictly controlled, and the vehicles are distributed as much as possible, and the safety of vehicles is regularly inspected.” Zhang Zhuting suggested, public security traffic The management department can also conduct investigation and evidence collection based on the dynamic cruise equipment of the platform company, and investigate and deal with the rider according to law.
As a enjoyer of the food delivery service, although Zhang Cheng has some objections to the speed of the riders, he also pointed out that customers should have a reasonable expectation of the estimated delivery time of the food delivery, fully consider the time spent in traffic congestion, and give riders more understand.
However, the speed of the rider should be regulated, such as the speed per hour in the dead of night, and the speed per hour during rush hour.
He also put forward an idea, whether it is possible to consider the establishment of "takeaway express rail" or "takeaway special lane" in urban traffic planning, "in this way, it will not grab the space of pedestrians and motor vehicles, and can better ensure the safety of takeaway riders ".
(Rule of Law Daily reporter Wen Lijuan, the riders in this article are all pseudonyms except He Tingting)