The rise and fall of the country's first deaf-mute delivery team
Spread the palm of the left hand flat upwards, extend the index and middle fingers of the right hand, and quickly swipe over the left palm from the side close to the body. This is a "hand out" action, which can also mean "express delivery" in sign language.
36-year-old Zhang Xiaoshan (pseudonym) is a deaf-mute courier in Shanghai.
Sorting, scanning, packing, and delivery do not require any complicated language. Zhang Xiaoshan can put the courier in the courier cabinet or knock on the door to deliver it upstairs according to the recipient's habits, and the delivery will be successful with a single courier.
But when the "accident" appeared, the language barrier appeared, "Why didn't you answer the phone?" "Why did you put the courier in the courier cabinet without permission?" "Why did I not receive the courier, but it shows that it has been received? ?" The problems that sound people can explain one by one in words have become an insurmountable problem for deaf-mute couriers.
Words such as complaints, fines, incomprehension, and inability to communicate were repeatedly mentioned.
Each complaint will be fined 60-100 yuan, and the cost of sending a single express is 1.5 yuan.
Zhang Xiaoshan missed the previous years. At the peak, there were more than one hundred deaf-mute couriers at his express site. They communicated in sign language on a large scale together. Only they could understand each other in the entire express site.
The site where he is called "Wusheng Express" has received widespread attention because of the formation of the country's first delivery team for the deaf and mute, and the media has also flooded in.
But in less than a year, on August 15 this year, "Wusheng Express" announced the suspension of business.
The original boss made it clear that he would no longer be involved in the express delivery industry, and the deaf-mute couriers also left. Now, only Zhang Xiaoshan and another deaf-mute person are still insisting on being a courier.
Relevant experts said that the case of "Wusheng Express" shows the practical dilemma of the employment of persons with disabilities. On the one hand, different occupations have their own career thresholds, and persons with disabilities should also find a career path that suits them; on the other hand, it is social Tolerance needs to be further improved to provide more help for the disabled.
Deaf delivery staff
At 6:30 in the morning on October 29, at a courier sorting point in Putuo District, Shanghai, the transportation belt was quickly occupied by parcels from all over the country.
The couriers on both sides of the conveyor belt stared at the address on the courier, found the parcels in their jurisdiction, put them behind them, and it didn't take long for them to pile up into a hill.
Eight boxes of apples arrived on the conveyor belt. A courier looked at the address on the order number and said with a smile that Zhang Xiaoshan was going to suffer this time.
He explained that the cost of express parcels is the same regardless of size or weight.
When the eight boxes of apples were transported to Zhang Xiaoshan, he didn't show much expression. He couldn't hear these sound people's comments, and everything around him had nothing to do with him.
Zhang Xiaoshan is nearly 1.8 meters tall, tall and strong, and he has always been wearing a peaked cap.
In the crowd, he was wearing a big red coat with "Deaf and Mute Delivery Man" printed on the back of the coat.
According to regulations, they must complete sorting, scan code storage, and sorted loading before 8:30 in the morning.
Zhang Xiaoshan squinted and saw that the people around him began to scan the code into the warehouse, and he consciously accelerated his actions.
When each courier scans the code and enters the warehouse, the mobile phone will make a beep, and the sound person quickly confirms whether the warehousing is successful with this sound.
Zhang Xiaoshan could only read the text on the phone screen, and the scan was fast. He was not sure if there was any omission just now, so he could only rescan one by one.
At 8:30 in the morning, Zhang Xiaoshan loaded the sorted and packaged express delivery into the truck.
Zhang Xiaoshan placed a basket on the exposed iron frame in the back seat of the electric vehicle, and placed large, unpressurized fruits in it. On the basket were placed two large bags of express delivery, which could be put into the express cabinet. .
The longer express delivery is placed on the pedal.
Finally, it was secured with a rope, and the express delivery of a district was all pressed on the car.
The electric car turned its handle to the end, and Zhang Xiaoshan quickly drove away from the site.
He delivered to the two communities of Zhongning Road and Liquan Road in Putuo District of Shanghai and some retail investors in the surrounding areas, which were less than five kilometers away from the express delivery point.
At about nine o'clock, Zhang Xiaoshan arrived at the first community. He and the door guard smiled and said hello.
The express cabinet is the gathering place for the delivery staff of several express sites. They greeted each other. Zhang Xiaoshan couldn't hear what everyone was talking about. He handed the cigarettes and smiled.
Then log in your account in the express cabinet and enter the express information.
After more than half an hour, the two large bags of express were in the cabinet.
The courier in the backseat basket needs to be delivered upstairs piece by piece.
In order to save the 40 cents storage fee charged by the express cabinet, the couriers try their best to deliver it to the door, but Zhang Xiaoshan likes to use the express cabinet to reduce communication with the recipient.
When he first delivered the express, he put all the express in the express cabinet and received many complaints.
Later, he took note of which household agreed to put the express locker and which household had to send it upstairs.
He knows the places designated by each household for express delivery, on the carpet, on the shoe cabinet, and in the electric box.
When he arrived at the house with eight boxes of apples, he knocked on the door, and the people in the house opened the door. He pointed to the apples. The recipient wanted to say something, but when he saw it was him, he didn't say anything. He pointed to an open space at the door and gestured. He can put it here.
"Deaf-mute people earn money to cultivate the next generation"
Zhang Xiaoshan is reluctant to talk about his past. From the descriptions of people around him, he can outline his past experience: He is from Jiangsu. He was an assembly line worker in a factory in his hometown and earned 4,000 yuan a month.
He "has many friends" in the circle of deaf-mute people, and later started a small business under the leadership of his friends.
When we encountered an epidemic last year, we lost a lot of money.
He needs to earn money to support his parents and his daughter who is still in elementary school.
He heard from a friend that Shanghai recruits deaf-mute couriers, and if they do a good job, they earn more than 10,000 yuan a month. He came without much hesitation.
The express delivery site for deaf-mute people is called "Wusheng Express". According to media reports, "Wusheng Express" is known as the country's first express delivery site for deaf-mute people.
"No deaf-mute person has delivered an express before." Gu Zhong, the founder of Wusheng Express, recalled.
Before that, Gu Zhong contracted a charity supermarket on a street in Shanghai and hired two deaf and dumb people to take care of the goods.
In the face of the epidemic, the turnover of the supermarket plummeted, so he tried to develop the express delivery service in the supermarket so that the deaf and dumb could deliver the express delivery.
"The effect is quite good," Gu Zhong said. After that, he began to cooperate with some courier outlets to train deaf and dumb couriers.
In October last year, Gu Zhong partnered with others to contract a delivery website in Putuo District to hire deaf-mute people.
Gu Zhong’s parents are deaf and mute. He repeatedly mentioned his childhood experience. When he was in junior high school, he knew that his family had no money for him to study at university. Work-study.
"Children from deaf-mute families are easy to go wrong." Gu Zhong hopes to use the job of express delivery to change disabled families. "Deaf-mute people earn money to train their next generation."
It is not easy for deaf-mute people to find a job.
They are often people running with work, and wherever they are willing to recruit deaf-mute people, they go straight to that city.
24-year-old Shi Ronghua graduated from a university in Henan with a major in design in June this year.
His major is for the deaf and mute, and the whole class is deaf and mute.
Shi Ronghua has long hair and looks a bit of an artist's temperament.
He is not completely deaf and mute, wearing a hearing aid can restore a little bit of hearing.
When the school started last fall, Gu Zhong went to their school to introduce the work of the courier, and told them in sign language, "You can make 10,000 yuan a month." Shi Ronghua was moved.
Soon the school teacher took him and seven other classmates to Shanghai.
Shi Ronghua recalled that when he arrived in Shanghai, there were already more than 30 deaf-mute people from the north and south of the country. The expression of express delivery alone was very different. Some used the gesture of "hand out" to represent express delivery like him. , Some people make bull's head shape with both hands, which is a posture of riding a motorcycle, which means express delivery.
Gu Zhong told reporters that, except for very few college students like Shi Ronghua, most of the couriers they hire are social deaf and mute people who have not graduated from elementary school and junior high school. "The voice" is to break the traditional notion that the public need pity and help for the disabled. Deaf-mute people, like normal people, can change their destiny through their own labor and get equal pay for equal work."
Get started
During the break-in, "Wusheng Express" started.
At first, Gu Zhong asked the courier to deliver the goods to the door as much as possible, but encountered various problems.
The nearby neighborhood complained that the deaf courier knocked on the door too loudly and disturbed the people; after knocking on the door, the people in the room asked, who is it?
They couldn't hear it, and kept knocking. The old man in the room was afraid of being a bad person and didn't dare to open the door.
To this end, Gu Zhong asked someone to record a voice: "Hello, I am a deaf delivery person, and your courier has arrived." But because he couldn't hear it, the deaf-mute delivery person could not confirm whether someone in the house responded, and could only repeat it over and over again. Repeat playback.
Unable to receive the recipient’s call is a big problem. Deaf-mute people are accustomed to using text messages to communicate, but often text messages are sent for a long time and no one responds; or when a customer is in a hurry, a call is made and the deaf-mute express The members were at a loss.
Gu Zhong contacted a disabled base in Ningxia and hired 6 people with physical disabilities as remote customer service. Through call forwarding, the call from the recipient was connected by the customer service in Ningxia, and then they sent the recipient. The request was sent to the courier in the form of text.
After three or four months of running-in, the daily delivery volume of Wusheng couriers is basically the same as that of healthy couriers, and the team has grown from more than 30 people to more than 100 people.
Some media reported on Wusheng Express, saying that these deaf-mute people "are people who need help, but they have become people who help others."
Because the express delivery got smoother and smoother, Shi Ronghua didn't go home during the Chinese New Year. He was able to get a salary of eight to nine thousand yuan every month-an income that most deaf and mute people cannot reach.
Shi Ronghua is the only deaf-mute person among all the couriers on the site who can communicate with a sound person. He wore a hearing aid when he was 14 years old. He bought this hearing aid for 27 thousand and has been wearing it for seven or eight years. Broken, only the right ear can hear the other party's speech in a quiet environment.
In February 2021, he went to the counter to try on the latest hearing aids, which can connect to Bluetooth and make calls. He plans to "work hard to make money and try to buy the best hearing aids."
Can't do it anymore
But Shi Ronghua did not wait to buy a hearing aid.
One day in early August this year, Gu Zhong asked Shi Ronghua to have a meal. At the dinner table, Gu Zhong told Shi Ronghua: Wusheng Express "can't do it anymore."
In the reporter's interview, Gu Zhong and some deaf couriers mentioned the following reasons.
The first is a large number of fines.
After the recipient complained to the customer service of the courier company, the most direct consequence for the courier outlets and the courier was a fine. The fine for a complaint in August was still 60 yuan, and now it has risen to 100 yuan.
Shi Ronghua recalled that the most depressing time for him was when he delivered the courier to the recipient’s home. The elderly at home signed for the courier. Without knowing it, the recipient directly complained to the courier company that “signature was not delivered”. He quickly contacted the recipient to explain.
The recipient contacted his family to confirm that he received the courier. After learning that the complaint would result in a fine, he contacted the customer service to cancel the complaint, but the fine was generated, and Shi Ronghua was eventually deducted 60 yuan.
Shi Ronghua feels that compared with healthy people, deaf-mute people receive more complaints by express delivery. The biggest problem is that they cannot communicate. "Deaf-mute people are used to staying in their own silent world. It is difficult for them to communicate with healthy people. I'm afraid, I don't know how to communicate."
The grammar and word order of deaf-mute typing is different from those used by healthy people, such as "how much", they will be labeled "how much".
People can only understand by guessing.
The recipient also has distress.
Sometimes I want to return the goods and I don’t know how to do it. The courier can’t understand or speak, so he can only type and communicate, but he can’t understand what a deaf-mute person types out.
Many deaf couriers also find it difficult to understand "fines".
Some deaf-mute couriers think that whether they are placed in the express cabinet or delivered to the customer’s door, it is all "delivery". Why should a fine be imposed?
Gu Zhong was also very helpless. "The express company fined us more." In mid-July 2021, the typhoon "Fireworks" transited Shanghai. The courier was unwilling to deliver the express in bad weather. "Even if it is delivered, be careful not to Let the rain wet the express, otherwise the courier will have to compensate." "We took pictures and uploaded them to explain the reasons, but the people of the express company said that we failed to take pictures and the express company is headquartered in Shanghai. Can they not feel the typhoon?" Gu Zhong Said that the site was fined a large sum of money because many couriers were not delivered on time that day.
"There are many reasons for the large number of fines. On the one hand, deaf-mute people are more difficult to manage. They do not understand the regulations of the courier company. When people receive express delivery, they will also charge a little more handling fee, and take it by themselves. On the other hand, the express company has more fines, and I don't understand many fine items." Gu Zhong said.
Gu Zhong said that sometimes in order to appease the couriers, the outlets bear the cost of complaints for some unfounded complaints.
According to him, until May 2021, Gu Zhong will advance a monthly fine of 60,000 to 80,000 for the courier.
After some couriers resigned, the fines they owed before could only be borne by the company.
"I told them to abide by the rules, and they wouldn't listen. Starting in May, I will say whoever pays the fines." Gu Zhong said, and this in return was a large number of deaf couriers leaving.
A person from the public relations department of the courier company that Wusheng Express belongs to told reporters that they will assess the quality of service. The service quality of Wusheng Express sites is the lowest in the country. "There are indeed more complaints about unanswered calls. In June, July, August and March A total of more than 100,000 yuan was deducted from the Wusheng express site. In addition to fines, it also included the purchase of reusable bags and site operations. These were all for the site, not the individual courier."
"Quality assessment includes customer complaints, delivery rates, etc., and we will also adopt complaints based on specific circumstances. Now the express delivery company is also adjusting the management model of penalty management." The express company employee said.
Tang Shuai, a lawyer from Chongqing Huadai Law Firm, who has long provided legal services to the deaf and dumb, believes that the act of fines on couriers by express companies is unreasonable.
"The act of fines by express delivery companies can also be called escrow with penalties. Using penalties to replace some reasonable management obligations that the company should have is illegal. It also violates human ethics and morality." Tang Shuai said, " This practice prevents deaf-mute people from obtaining effective employment and work."
The other is management issues.
"Deaf-mute people themselves are not easy to manage, and their discipline is very poor." Gu Zhong said that most of the deaf-mute people they recruit are "social deaf-mute people," who have not studied at university and have a low level of education. The delivery rate of the express delivery in this area, etc.; the recipient wants to deliver the goods to the door, but some deaf couriers are afraid of communication, so they still put the express in the express cabinet.
It didn't take long before the recipient's complaint came.
Many people in the express delivery industry believe that the bankruptcy of Wusheng Express is related to Gu Zhong’s unfamiliarity with the operating rules of the express delivery industry. “Gu Zhong himself has never been in contact with the express delivery industry. I understand that there are industry thresholds in the express delivery industry. He has just started contacting and hired deaf and dumb people, so management problems will inevitably arise."
According to Jiaozhong, in addition to the overwhelming burden of various fines, in May this year, he had a conflict with his partner, who left Wusheng Express.
He calculated the company's losses and lost more than three million yuan.
On August 15 this year, "Wusheng Express" announced the suspension of business.
Now, only Zhang Xiaoshan and another deaf-mute person continue to work as couriers at the new delivery point.
Career threshold
A Hao, who used to be a deaf courier, now works as a delivery worker in Shanghai. He thinks that the complaint penalty system in the express delivery industry is "not good". When they deliver food, they occasionally encounter complaints about "can't answer the phone", but they can appeal. , "It means that the person is deaf and dumb, and the complaint of not being able to answer the phone can be relieved."
Shi Ronghua left the courier outlets until September 30, and he is now working as Chuan Caisheng in a hot pot restaurant.
Shi Ronghua originally planned to be a courier for three years, saving a sum of money to return to his hometown in Hebei to do a little business.
The sudden closure of Wusheng Express disrupted his plans.
Shi Ronghua also thought about his future seriously. He likes to dance, especially street dance. He often performs on stage when he is in college. He likes the feeling of standing on the stage, "I will be very excited."
After Shi Ronghua left, fewer people could communicate with Zhang Xiaoshan.
Zhang Xiaoshan plans to change jobs after the New Year, "Now there are only a few deaf and mute people on the site, unhappy and meaningless."
Gu Zhong was unwilling to get involved in the express delivery industry, and decided to continue to return to his original job-a communication platform between companies and deaf people. Recently, he was helping a Shanghai company to recruit remote customer service personnel in Ningxia. "This might help. To more people with disabilities."
The relevant data of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation National Employment and Vocational Training Information Management System for Disabled Persons shows that as of the end of 2018, among the 16.948 million disabled persons in the employment age group holding a disability certificate in China, 9.484 million have been employed, with an employment rate of 56. %.
“It’s a good thing for people with disabilities to try to deliver express delivery. However, when people with disabilities are employed, they should consider their own advantages.” said Yang Lixiong, a professor at Renmin University of China and deputy director of the China Social Security Research Center at Renmin University of China. When the dumb and the able-bodied communicate smoothly, the deaf-mute is not suitable for entering the express delivery industry, which requires relatively high communication. This is not a discrimination against the disabled. Different occupations have their own career thresholds."
An insider in the express company told reporters that the express industry actually hires many disabled people, such as those with physical disabilities who work as couriers if they are able to do so. There are also polio and dwarf patients in IT, customer service and other positions. well-done.
"If you care for the disabled, you should not only let them be couriers, but you should combine their personal interests and give play to their strengths."
"This incident of Wusheng Express reflects two problems. The first is that social tolerance needs to be further improved. The second is that relevant units such as the Employment Service Center for the Disabled should provide assistance to the disabled to help them find and develop themselves. Advantage." Yang Lixiong said.
On the streets of Shanghai in the golden autumn season, the sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance is so sweet and greasy.
On November 4, Zhang Xiaoshan delivered 503 express items, and he sent the text "I'm exhausted, I can't bear it."
Fortunately, he did not receive any complaints on this day, and no surprises, if a single express is 1.5 yuan, he will earn 754.5 yuan on this day.
At 8:40 in the evening, Zhang Xiaoshan delivered the last express parcel, and the basket of the electric car was empty. He drove into the night, and behind the red clothes read: My voice express, deaf and mute delivery man.
Beijing News reporter Chen Yajie