Film vs. Reality: What Are Delivery Riders’ Lives Really Like? | Food Talk Vol. 38

This episode of Food Talk welcomes Yuyang, a new colleague at Foodthink, as our special guest. He is not only a fresh addition to the team but also someone with a rather unusual background: in 2021 he spent four months working as a food delivery rider. He has a keen interest in the labour process behind delivery, but he is quick to stress that he did not sign up to “experience life”. In the summer after being admitted to a postgraduate programme at Peking University, he faced very real pressures over his livelihood. Combined with experiences similar to those of his fellow riders, he quickly settled into the rhythm of life on the road.

In this episode, we follow Yuyang’s perspective to gain an in-depth look at the daily reality of delivery riders. As an Ele.me dedicated rider, from the end of the morning briefing through taking orders and making deliveries until calling it a day at night, Yuyang faces all manner of challenges almost every minute of his intensely demanding shift, needing to make split-second decisions. Navigating between the delivery station, merchants and customers, contending with the mechanisms of order dispatch, complaints and attendance tracking, he has to rack his brains to devise his own strategies – all for just a little more speed, a little more income and a few fewer complaints. At the same time, as a real person rather than a machine, Yuyang cannot simply execute tasks on autopilot. In the rapid interactions between people and the system, the emotions and feelings riders carry within them form another dimension that outsiders can barely perceive.

Through Yuyang’s observations, we also catch a glimpse of where delivery riders living far from their hometowns occupy in society. Faced with economic pressure and the tensions between freedom and constraint in their work, how do they find balance? With extremely high staff turnover, what attitudes do delivery workers actually hold toward this job?

We also consider: how do platform algorithms shape riders’ work patterns? Under the control of the platform’s algorithm, can acts of sympathy from consumers genuinely help delivery workers? Looking at things from a rider’s perspective, one might well arrive at rather different conclusions.

Delivery riders as a group have attracted a great deal of extra public attention through media coverage, becoming a microcosm of workers in the gig economy. But compared to secondhand accounts filtered through various channels, first-person narratives and reflections deserve to be heard. We hope this episode will give you a direct, grounded understanding of what the lives of delivery riders are really like.

This Episode’s Guest

Yuyang

An INTP youth who grew up at Livestock Farm Division No. 2 in Bayan County, Heilongjiang Province, and currently adrift in Beijing. His main interests lie in digital technology, agricultural technology and sustainable development. He has published the article “What Beyond the Algorithm? A Discussion on the Labour Autonomy of Delivery Workers” in The Paper’s Ideas Market.

Xiaojing

Host of Food Talk.

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This Episode’s Podcast Team

Production and coordination: Xiaojing

Music: Banong

Cover art: Wan Lin

Photos: Yuyang

Editor: Wang Hao

Contact: xiaojing@foodthink.cn