Cheng Gang, 36, came to the provincial capital from his hometown to work more than a month ago with his cousin through a friend's introduction. This was the beginning of his rich part-time career, and for more than ten years after graduating from high school, he repeated the process of returning from one city to his hometown, taking a short break and then going to another.
Plans are always full of uncertainties, and in the course of a month, Cheng Gang tried to run takeaways and deliver express deliveries, but they all ended in giving up. Truck driver is the third job he has come into contact with since coming to the city. In just half a month, it is not enough to improve his understanding of the entire industry, but through his personal intuitive feelings, supplemented by information collected from other channels, we were able to restore the daily work of freight drivers, and then get a glimpse of the employment status of some freight industries.
01
Outside of platform regulation
At around 9:40 a.m., Yang Qian received a text message notification from the moving platform, telling her that the moving driver who had made an appointment two days in advance could not arrive for some reason and had re-dispatched.
A few minutes later, Yang Qian received a call from the replacement driver to reconnect with the time and place of the move, and her destination was the city center of the city next door.
At around 10:20 a.m., Cheng Gang rushed to the agreed place.
According to the information submitted by Yang Qian on the platform, he needed to help move his luggage from the stairs on the seventh floor to the car, including three large woven bags, three large cardboard boxes, a Xiaoice box, a computer chair, and some miscellaneous items in the handbag. Fortunately, there is an elevator in the moving area, and this heavy work only needs to be done once.
The platform will generally clearly mark the price
The handling fee and the journey fee are added up, and then some discount subsidies are received, Yang Qian needs to pay a total of more than 800 yuan, while Cheng Gang saw that the income from his system interface is more than 700 yuan, and the commission commission of no less than 10% is already the norm in the industry.
Cheng Gang proposed to return the platform's orders and trade offline, and Yang Qian only had to pay him 700 yuan, but he respected the other party's opinion. In this case, customers will generally say yes when they hear that they can pay less, and this time is no exception.
Coupon collection has been a regular operation of the platform to attract customers
When asked if he violated the rules, Cheng Gang responded naturally, "This is very common, customers can go to the platform if they don't want to, in fact, it doesn't affect our income, this is for their consideration." ”
This operation has a more professional term - "skipping orders", that is, avoiding the intermediary platform by the direct transaction between the buyer and seller of the service, which is usually the hardest hit area of platform supervision, because the offline transactions between drivers and customers are difficult to monitor, and the platform can only record the telephone communication process between the two parties at most.
However, out of the supervision of the platform, customers can only bear their own risks, and the problems that occur in the process of moving, such as temporary price increases, traffic accidents, etc., cannot be defended to the platform, and whether the move can be smooth depends on the driver's personal professionalism.
However, the platform will also monitor the number of driver chargebacks, and the platform will deduct points for too many cancelled orders, and the lower the score, the lower the rating, resulting in the impact of model downgrades, for example, a medium-sized van can only take orders for small vans, and the corresponding revenue will also be reduced. But this has little restraining effect on drivers, because private transactions do not affect the driver's income, but also cultivate repeat customers, accumulate private domain customers for them, and even more, follow the platform to run orders for a few years and jump out directly.
The model can be selected, and the capacity and price point are different
Cheng Gang revealed that in fact, those who generally do not agree to offline transactions are office moves, they need to issue invoices, and it doesn't matter how much they spend, and most of the people who agree to private transactions are personal moves.
The platform stipulates that the costs incurred by the customer shall be borne by themselves. If she takes the expressway, Yang Qian needs to spend nearly 200 yuan in additional high-speed fees, accounting for a quarter of the total order, which is already beyond her moving budget. Seeing the other party's hesitation, Cheng Gang proposed: "If you are not in a hurry, you can also take the national highway to take your time, which can save the highway fee." ”
For the driver, no matter how he drives without bearing the toll, but the arrival time of the outbound trip will affect the progress of his return to work, and he doesn't care about it, "I can go any way, mainly for you." He repeatedly stressed.
In communication, Cheng Gang has been using a few experiences to show his thoughtfulness, in his own words, that is, the society has been mixed for a long time, and there is always a kind of "old fritters" temperament, who is not afraid of tossing if he can save money, and is also good at finding activity space at the boundary of the rules.
At around 11:15 a.m., Yang Qian got into the passenger seat of the freight truck. The medium-sized van was left with only a front seat, and a baffle was installed at the back, all used as cargo boxes.
Approaching the beginning of summer, the noon sun scorched the earth, and the smell of rubber and sweat of the seats, mixed with the smell left over from the cargo box, came to the face under the agitation of the air conditioner, and went straight to the heavenly spirit cover, which was an indescribable torture for the motion sickness party. The smell of ride-hailing has been a source of discussion on social media, but what few people know is that the smell in the trucks is even worse.
During the conversation, Cheng Gang was very excited to receive this cross-city order, "More than 20 people grabbed this order with me, and I grabbed them all." ”
In fact, drivers don't like to run trivial orders in urban areas, one is that the income received after the platform is not much, and the other is that the road conditions in the urban area are busy and complex, delaying time, and frequent docking with customers is exhausting, so it is better to simply drive to save trouble. In contrast, the cross-city order income is high, the driving time is long, and only one customer needs to dock, which can be called "one order is stronger than six orders", and this 700 yuan cross-city order has naturally become a "sweet and sweet" in everyone's eyes.
In addition to the advantage of distance near the place where he moved out at that time, another key to Cheng Gang's success was to recharge VIP. In fact, the practice of charging drivers for a second time through membership authority has gradually become a common practice for online car-hailing, specifically, to let drivers recharge VIP on the platform, so as to enjoy the benefits of priority dispatch, which is essentially the right to pay for orders.
As early as three years ago, some people complained that this kind of "membership + commission" double payment is "the driver's wool", the explanation given by the cargo lala is that this model can avoid the driver from bypassing the platform transaction, so as to ensure the quality of service, and the total charge ratio of "member + commission" does not exceed a reasonable range, and the platform does not force the driver to recharge.
After being interviewed by the relevant regulatory authorities, Lala adjusted the proportion of membership fees according to the local situation. In the past few years, Lala has turned losses into profits by relying on "mixed realization", and has submitted three forms to be listed in Hong Kong, and the membership model has radiated to the whole industry.
When Cheng Gang lamented the high membership fee, he calculated the account with us. In half a month, he received about 5,000 yuan, and according to the same intensity, he could achieve about 10,000 yuan in the case of continuous months, but he needed to remove the 3,000 yuan of car rental, as well as other costs such as vehicle maintenance and charging, and the net profit was five or six thousand yuan.
Unfortunately, this expectation may be too optimistic.
02
The routine of a car rental agent
Cheng Gang happened to see the recruitment information of a freight driver when he was watching the live broadcast on Douyin, and he had just given up his job as a courier at home, and the process of giving up was not pleasant.
Because the customer asked for home delivery, but could not agree on the time at home, Cheng Gang proposed to put it in the nest cabinet to pick it up, and later the nest cabinet overtime needed to pay a fee, both parties were a little emotional during the phone call, and the customer complained in anger. Cheng Gang resigned after explaining the ins and outs to the site, and then asked for half a month's salary, but was refused, the reason given by the site was that it was less than a month, and finally Cheng Gang was successfully paid under the mediation of the police.
The trucker's chance was like rain in time to rescue him from the rental house, "I thought I had nothing to do anyway, so let's try." "Who knew that as soon as I came, I was told that I needed to pay a deposit of 3,000 yuan, and after renting a truck, there would always be some deduction items that I didn't know about before from time to time, and the income flow was locked, and I could only withdraw money on a monthly basis, which made Cheng Gang, who had just arrived, a little stretched. The introducer still sells him loans to buy cars from time to time, saying that he will not have to pay rent in the future, and the money he earns will be his own.
Cheng Gang's experience is not unique, under the fancy tricks of intermediaries, many hired people step on the pit with hatred.
Liang Jie is one of the representatives, "They first asked if there was a car that could go to work and run freight, and if not, they said that the company provided the car and paid the rent every month, but they had to take out a loan." Later, he realized that if it was really the company that provided the car and only paid the rent, it should be deducted from the salary, rather than letting the driver take out the loan himself.
According to Liang Jie's recollection, the company told him that the total price of the car was 90,000 yuan, and the interest for three years was more than 10,000 yuan, which may add up to about 110,000 yuan. The normal loan should be a principal of 90,000 yuan and an interest of more than 10,000 yuan, but the company proposed a principal of 110,000 yuan.
After two or three months of normal work, Liang Jie was told that there were not many goods in the warehouse, because the salary was a piecework system, no goods meant no wages, and there was no way to go out to run loose orders to make some money, but this income was still limited. Later, Liang Jie wanted to change careers and go out to find a job, and someone from the company came to contact him again and said that he would rent the car to the company, and the company could lease it at a low price and sign a lease contract.
"For example, the car loan is 3,800 yuan a month, the company charges 3,000 yuan a month, and then they go and rent it to the next person. But the intermediary who does this for you here will also charge you an intermediary fee of 3,000 yuan. Liang Jie mentioned that the price of the intermediary fee is consistent with the rent, and he has to agree in order to lose a little less. So now not only does he have to lose 800 yuan a month, but he also earns 3,000 yuan in intermediary fees.
What's even more surprising is that the company will give rent normally at the beginning, but after two or three months, he said that there is a problem with the account, let him go to someone to get cash, the other party's attitude in the process is very negative, WeChat, phone calls do not return, whether to get cash is all up to luck, if you can't receive the loan or have to pay it back, and the car is still being used by the company. The consequence of not having the money to pay back is to be on the credit blacklist, and finally end up with both people and money.
Many drivers do not react until the last link, while the blue-collar group is constrained by the level of education and usually lacks the awareness to retain evidence and raise questions.
It wasn't until the communication with his peers gradually increased that Cheng just realized that he might have been "cheated". Fortunately, he was not induced to take out a loan, but the opacity of the fee was enough to make him worry about the flow of cash, whether he was lucky or not, whether he encountered a scam company, and it would take half a month to know.
But at least, compared to his days as a courier, he was quite satisfied with the status quo. Cheng Gang poured his saliva and lightly talked about the news that has recently circulated among his peers in the city - two online ride-hailing drivers died of heat stroke due to lunch breaks in the car.
"Turning on the air conditioner is too electricity-intensive, so I guess I want to save money." He guessed.
In front of these living cases, Cheng Gang didn't ask too much.
On the way to move, it coincided with the rainy season in the south
The weather in late spring is unpredictable, with torrential rains and a damp patch on the narrow national highways. At this time, it was past dinner, and he received a call from his cousin on the way, a forty-year-old person who doesn't know how to use a smartphone, let alone order takeout, Cheng Gang's tone was a little helpless, and he asked his cousin to go downstairs and buy something to eat by himself.
On the other end of the phone was in a shared house in the fourth, and the brothers rented one of them together, and after two single beds were placed in the small room, there was no space to support other activities except sleeping.
Cheng Gang hung up the phone, the white earphone cable was already a little black because of the long-term group in the storage box, and then the music sounded in the earphones, he hummed a song out of tune, and the worries aroused during the conversation just now seemed to be swept away by the sudden heavy rain, and it may have been diluted by the joy of arriving at the destination.
In the evening, the suburbs were beautiful, and the roads were wide and flat beside the rows of industrial parks, and he began to take a closer look at this strange city.
03
arrival
It took more than eight hours from handling, departure to arrival, and half an hour for two charges on the way. The return journey saves the link of transportation, coupled with factors such as fewer cars at night and good road conditions, it takes five to six hours, and even if he arrives on time, it is already early in the morning when Cheng Gang returns home.
The immediate feedback of the excess exercise of moving to the migrant worker is a malaise that lasts for a few days, but for him, it is just the most ordinary day.
If you want to cut a picture to end this journey, the most appropriate moment is the moment when you enter the city after the rain stops. At the beginning of the day after the rain, the water vapor is permeated in the streets and has not yet dissipated, and the sunset is obliquely shining, and the distant mountains are like daisies.
Cheng Gang said he remembered his hometown.