High mobility, mismatch between income and labor intensity
Express brother (data map)
Beijing, March 24 (Reporter Feng Shuo) According to the report of China Voice "News Horizon" of the Central Radio and Television General Station, waiting for express delivery, receiving express delivery and sending express delivery-for many urban residents, the courier brother has become a "familiar stranger" who deals with each other almost every day but doesn’t know much about it. Some people say that the courier brother is like a hardworking little bee, which holds up the last mile of express logistics in the whole city all year round.
A few days ago, the "Investigation Report on the Current Situation and Job Satisfaction of the National Courier at the Grass-roots Level in 2020" was released, which analyzed the professional portrait of the courier brother in China. The survey was conducted by online e-questionnaire, with 19,260 valid samples, of which 29% were managers and 71% were couriers, covering 11 whole-network postal express delivery enterprises.
According to the survey report, at present, the main force of couriers are "post-80 s" and "post-90 s", accounting for 42.81% and 41.74% respectively, and those with less than three years’ experience in express delivery account for 61%.
Judging from the number of dispatches, over 40% of couriers send less than 100 pieces a day, and 80% of couriers send no more than 200 pieces a day. The innovation at the end has greatly improved the delivery efficiency of couriers, and the proportion of delivering more than 600 pieces per day has exceeded 1 percentage point.
From the perspective of income level, the monthly income of over 50% couriers does not exceed 5,000 yuan, and only 1.3% of them earn more than 10,000 yuan.
Judging from the satisfaction of complaint handling, one-third of the grass-roots outlets are basically satisfied with the results of various complaints handled by the headquarters, and about 18% are very satisfied; Among the couriers, the overall satisfaction rate with the company’s handling of complaints exceeded 70%. So, how do we understand this series of data, what are the pain points in the development of the industry that need to be solved urgently, and where is the future space?
Xiao Zhou, the courier of Shentong Express Company: "I send more than 200 pieces at most every day. I have to get up after 6 o’clock every day and have been busy until the evening. Basically, I don’t have much rest."
Like Xiao Zhou, there are such figures coming and going around us every day. They are hailed as the capillaries of the city and the last bridge for everyone to buy and deliver goods online.
The report shows that at present, the main force of couriers in China is "post-80 s" and "post-90 s", accounting for 42.81% and 41.74% respectively, and those with less than three years’ experience in express delivery account for 61%. This set of data reflects from the side that the courier’s job mobility is very large.
According to Xu Yong, vice president of China Communications and Transportation Association Express Branch, high mobility will bring about a decline in service quality. He believes that the express delivery industry needs skilled workers who can work for a long time.
Xu Yong said: "The express delivery industry belongs to a skilled type of work. The longer it takes, the more familiar he is with this industry, and the better his service will be. We have too many novices, and the training is not in place. When new employees take up their posts, they are old (employees). If they are short of people, they may take a week. (New employees) will work independently immediately, and it is easy to have some (service quality) deficiencies. This is one of our shortcomings. "
The reason why people can’t stay in the field of express delivery is that most express delivery brothers are not local laborers, and the city where they work can’t provide corresponding protection for them.
Xu Yong said: "In the urban structure, especially in the first-tier and second-tier cities in the east, more than 95% of (express delivery) employees are from rural surplus labor, which is a major reason for the high turnover rate. Coupled with welfare benefits (problems), when they reach the age of marriage, they do not have a stable residence after marriage, which is also easy to cause loss. "
The high-intensity work of the courier brother has also become one of the reasons why a large number of express parcels cannot be delivered to your door in the first time. In this regard, Xu Yong suggested that the last link of delivery should be changed from outlets to different communities to delivery within communities.
Xu Yong thinks: "Bringing courier service into the service category of property can reduce the labor intensity of courier brother and let courier brother have a fixed residence. I think this is a development direction."
In addition, in recent years, news such as "a courier earns tens of thousands of dollars a month" is frequently seen on the Internet, and the salary offered in the recruitment information of many logistics companies is also quite attractive. It seems that the courier brother has become a high-income group. However, the report released this time shows that from the perspective of income level, the monthly income of over 50% couriers in China does not exceed 5,000 yuan, and the monthly income exceeds 10,000 yuan, accounting for 1.3%.
Zhao Xiaomin, an expert in the express logistics industry, told reporters that the income of the courier brother is not high and it is closely related to the profitability of the outlets.
Zhao Xiaomin said: "We think that more than 50% of the postal area is still good, and 20% is breakeven, and more than 30% does have losses. In some areas of the non-postal area, the loss exceeded 50%, and the situation of wage arrears in some outlets increased. "
According to Zhao Ping, vice president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Research Institute, the price war between express delivery companies in recent years has lowered the price of each express delivery and reduced the income of the courier brother.
Zhao Ping said: "The single ticket price actually refers to the price to be charged for each ticket. The courier’s salary is the basic salary plus the delivery commission plus the receipt commission. According to my estimation, in the case that the price of a single express ticket drops by more than 20%, the salary of the courier will drop by more than 10%. "
Judging from the characteristics of global express delivery development, the concentration of express delivery industry in Europe, America and Japan is very high, with the top three express delivery companies accounting for 95% of the market share, while the top 10 express delivery companies in China can only achieve the same market share together. It is true that many courier companies have stimulated the intensification of market competition and reduced the delivery price, but the meager profits are transmitted to the courier brother, which has caused the courier brother to pay a disproportionate amount of labor and get paid. The phenomenon of meager profit, unprofitable and loss-making in the courier industry is also a pain point in the industry in recent years.
In order to protect Xiao Ge’s income rights and interests, improve employment satisfaction, and then promote the healthy and orderly development of the entire express delivery industry, Xu Yong said that the key lies in the urgent need for mergers and acquisitions and the survival of the fittest in the industry.
"At present, the industrial concentration is too low. Everyone fights price wars, and e-commerce controls prices. After these two factors are superimposed, there are many bottlenecks in the development of express delivery companies. I think (in the future) we should provide better service, improve quality and efficiency, and upgrade consumption, so that couriers can enjoy a better working environment. From the past outlets (sorting) to cycling on the street, it will be sent to the community by car, and the community will be sorted and sent. I think this is our development direction. " Xu Yong said.
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