Being chased by the "Jitu" - the "involution" daily life of a Yiwu courier

Yiwu, a major express delivery town, condenses the various aspects of the domestic express delivery industry.

The last time the express delivery industry made news was the first-quarter financial report that generally suffered huge losses; secondly, several companies were fined in Yiwu due to low-price competition. There is a completely different reason behind the two: the emergence of a brutal disruptor - Jitu Express.

In Yiwu Internet celebrity e-commerce village Beixiazhu, Yinshi Finance reporter followed the courier of Jitu Express to deliver express for a day. In Yiwu, a small commodity city where everyone is thinking about "making money", with a logistics network extending in all directions, we saw couriers who were overwhelmed by the chaotic price system.

In the confusing price war in the express delivery industry, there are not only various express delivery leaders, but also spoilers and front-line personnel at the bottom. Behind them are also e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and Alibaba, which makes the originally complicated The situation is even more difficult to solve. However, there is still no solution to the "involution" of the industry caused by low-price competition.

"12 hours a day, monthly income of over 10,000, no future"

Wang Lei (pseudonym) is from Sichuan. After his birthday this year, he will be 35 years old and works in the express delivery industry. for nearly ten years. Before working as a courier at Jitu Express, Wang Lei worked for SF Express for almost seven years. After arriving in Yiwu, he worked in all "four connections and one connection".

With a height of just over 1.70 meters and a weight of 50 kilograms, Wang Lei looks thin, but he is the highest-paid courier in the outlet. Because he keeps delivering parcels every day, not getting enough sleep is a normal part of Wang Lei's life, and sometimes he can't even spare time for lunch.

Wang Lei rides a three-wheeled truck very fast, often rushing to the opposite intersection at the last second of the traffic light. Because he has more experience and can deliver items quickly, Wang Lei is responsible for a larger area than others. No matter how complicated the address on the express delivery manifest is, with just one glance, Wang Lei can subconsciously plan the best route, and then quickly put the express items on the car in order of delivery.

Moving goods, reading orders, starting a battery tricycle, and flying between buildings in different communities...this is Wang Lei's daily life.

This kind of daily routine starts at 7:30 in the morning, and usually it takes until after 7:00 in the evening to have some free time. It is basically necessary to work for 12 hours. Wang Lei can earn a monthly income of about 10,000 yuan by working continuously.

On the day when the reporter followed Wang Lei, Wang Lei didn’t have dinner until 8:30 pm. On this day, General Manager Wang Lei delivered 315 express delivery orders, breaking the delivery record in the area he was responsible for after arriving at Jitu Express.

Ten years of service did not bring him many career advantages, and Wang Lei did not dare to neglect it. In this industry of "relying on physical strength to make a living", only hard work will yield results.

Moreover, age has brought him new anxieties.

"Let's find a job as a security guard now." Late one night, Wang Lei posted a joke on WeChat Moments. After front-line couriers retire, finding a job as a security guard is a common transformation path for couriers around Wang Lei. Wang Lei has wanted to "liberate" himself from the courier job countless times, but he has asked himself countless times: "What else can I do besides being a courier?"

"3" is a "high hurdle" for Wang Lei ". "The express company I have worked for the longest is SF Express, which is pretty good, but there is nothing I can do about it. SF Express here does not want couriers like us who are over 30 years old." Wang Lei sighed deeply and continued to deliver the goods one by one. The package is loaded onto a tricycle. "SF Express has the best pay in the industry, but there are age restrictions for recruitment. Older couriers like me are the ones left behind."

In the express delivery industry, good physical strength is required It is the most basic professional quality. Every employee in the transshipment center is like a spinning top. Logistics and express delivery from all over the country are continuously received, packaged, sorted and distributed here. One person is responsible for 100 to 300 express parcels a day. .

In this Jitu Express outlet, Wang Lei is the oldest courier there, and his colleagues who run express delivery with him are all "young people" born after 1990.

In Wang Lei’s own words, this kind of low-quality work that requires constant running to meet the standards consumes energy and destroys passion. In addition to physical fatigue, Wang Lei also felt that he could not see the future. What was even more "terrible" was that Wang Lei did not have "five insurances and one housing fund."

The most stressful time for Wang Lei is the time when delivery ends at night. "At night, many customers will call the courier when they get home from work and find that they cannot find the courier. We are responsible for helping customers find couriers and bear the responsibility for lost items, but I can't wait for you after get off work."

While saying these words, the steamed dumplings ordered by Wang Lei were brought up. He put down his chopsticks after eating only half of the plate. He told reporters that his appetite had not been very good. After speaking, he took out his mobile phone. The screen saver was a picture of a child. He smiled and said: "This is my daughter."

The "victim" of the price war

Physical fatigue is actually In Wang Lei's opinion, it is not the most difficult thing, but the "monthly income of over 10,000 yuan" that seems to be good but is actually built on quicksand is the most troublesome.

The salary of front-line couriers is generally composed of "basic salary + delivery commission". For Jitu Express, where Wang Lei works, the commission for single-piece express delivery fluctuates around 1 yuan, which is 0.3 to 0.5 yuan less than other express companies. But this is exactly Jitu Express’ strategy of “exchanging price for volume” and grabbing the market at low prices. At the beginning of its establishment, Jitu Express relied on its cooperation with Pinduoduo to quickly open up the market with a strategy of large volume and low price.

"My basic salary is only 1,800 yuan a month, and I do about 250 express delivery orders a day, so I can earn about 300 yuan a day." Wang Lei has only joined Jitu Express for a few months. But in the past few months, Wang Lei has clearly felt the rapid growth of Jitu’s shipment volume, and this growth is also supporting him.

"In the beginning, the area I was responsible for had about 200 orders a day, and later it increased to 250, 280, and 300 orders. A large volume of orders means more commissions, but it also means longer working hours. . ”

Experience has taught Wang Lei that the high income supported by piecework volume will not last long. A year ago, when he worked as a courier on JD.com, Wang Lei could get a commission of 2.3 yuan per unit. However, as the low-price competition in the express delivery industry intensified, the commission for couriers fell to 1.5 yuan per unit, and most of his income was cut off.

"We didn't know that the commission had been reduced until the wages were paid into the card. They were 'cut first and then pay later.'" When Wang Lei moved to Jitu Express, in less than three months, the original 1.1 yuan The per-unit commission has been reduced to 1 yuan per unit. "For every 1 cent reduction, our monthly income will be reduced by 600 to 700 yuan."

There is another layer of Wang Lei's worries: the increase in sales in the past two years. The express delivery price war is becoming more and more fierce. From the receiving end to the delivery end, everyone is struggling to make ends meet. These problems will eventually put more pressure on front-line couriers.

As early as 2019, there were media reports that STO took the lead in lowering the price of express delivery orders to 0.9 yuan. The headquarters was once depleted of cash flow and could not pay wages. Tongda Group had a bloody battle. After a round of negotiations, the price was raised to about 2.5 yuan through negotiation.

The disruption caused by Jitu Express has revived such a bloody price war, and the scene a few years ago has repeated itself. In 2020, media reported that Yiwu’s Jitu Express agent advertised “8 hairs across the country”. Such prices made other express delivery companies afraid to increase their prices at all, and could only follow suit and lower their prices.

"Last year I heard that express delivery outlets in some places were out of stock. It was not because of the large volume of express delivery during shopping festivals such as 'Double Eleven', but because of the issue of profit distribution. The receiving outlets had no money to make. The delivery side will naturally lose money, and the commission will become less and less, and eventually the network will collapse," a courier from the Tongda Department told reporters.

This "collapse" is also reflected in the mentality of front-line couriers. "Originally, the commission for parcel delivery has been reduced, and different companies will have different rules. For example, some companies stipulate that if you put the express delivery in the express locker, we have to pay 30 cents out of our own pocket; another example is that we do not call customers. If you put the express mail in the locker without permission, you will be fined 300 yuan.

"The above-mentioned courier said frankly that front-line couriers who receive and deliver packages have the least say, and sometimes they don't even know why their wages have been deducted.

During the reporter's visit, some couriers said , Jitu’s price war lowers the price at the receiving end and damages the customer’s experience. It is a matter of the e-commerce platform and the express delivery company, and has no impact on the courier.

Wang Lei doesn’t think so. "Not to mention that when express delivery companies engage in price wars, they will reduce the commissions of couriers in order to save costs. The entire industry is in bad shape now. Every company is losing money. If the industry does something bad, the people at the bottom will take over. , that’s us. "

During the conversation, Wang Lei kept emphasizing to reporters that the "bitterness" of these couriers is a common phenomenon in the industry, not only in Jitu Express, but also in other express companies, " For us, SF Express and JD.com are only relatively better. ”

Crazy “Rabbit”

The initiator of this round of anxiety in the entire express delivery industry is Jitu Express from Southeast Asia. And Yiwu is the city where Jitu Express started. There is news that Jitu Express intends to place its regional headquarters in this area.

A boss who has been in the clothing business in Yiwu for more than ten years pointed out to reporters that Beixiazhu Village is now a popular Internet site in Yiwu. The No. 1 Shang Village is even called the “No. 1 Live Broadcasting Village in China”, surpassing the previously famous Qingyan Liu Village. Logistics companies in Beixiazhu Village gather together to do express delivery, including Jitu Express. There are so many people doing business that many courier tricycles can be stuck in traffic when the market is busy, packing and shipping, dispatching and receiving goods, and it is in full swing. ”

The reporter has visited various trade cities in Yiwu many times, from the high-end International Trade City to the down-to-earth street stalls in residential areas. However, when the reporter walked into Beixiazhu Village, I am still shocked by the scene in front of me.

Strictly speaking, this "e-commerce town" is composed of residential buildings, and the ground-level shops in each building have become a variety of Internet celebrity commodities. The supply collection, with an average of less than 20 square meters on the first floor, forms a distribution center for e-commerce supplies across the country. What is even more eye-catching is the signboards displayed by the merchants, which are full of "Internet celebrities" within the reporter's sight. E-commerce live broadcast lingo such as "hot trend", "Douyin delivery", "cloud warehouse supply chain", "dropshipping" and other e-commerce live broadcasts.

At the entrance of every store, there are almost piles of goods that have been packaged or have been packaged. Goods and freight transport are busy on the narrow streets. Every other street, there will be an express delivery company station or express delivery and delivery outlets, while "Sly Rabbit" chooses to set up locations in more peripheral places. Jitu has a cloud warehouse here, but its centralized transshipment operations are elsewhere. "A courier boy told reporters.

The reporter randomly walked into a popular snack shop in Beixiazhu. The owner told the reporter: "We use Jitu Express. "As for the reason for using Jitu, the shop owner bluntly said that it is because it is cheap. "Jitu small items cost 1 yuan and 70 cents per kilogram, while other express delivery prices are more than 2 yuan. If you ship a piece on behalf of the customer, it will cost an additional 4 yuan. The gap is quite big. Of course, if your platform has a large volume and has negotiated prices with other express delivery companies, our small merchants will definitely not have such a large volume, so it is still very cost-effective in comparison. "

Regarding the service quality, the store owner complained more than compromised. "Jitu can't even deliver to some places now, and the background logistics information is updated very slowly, and it can only be uploaded on Pinduoduo's background. It shows that the delivery speed is also very slow. When we send an express package to Harbin, other express packages arrive in basically three days, and Jitu takes at least four or five days. However, the products sold in our store have low unit prices, so Jitu still saves a lot of costs. ”

A shoe store owner in Beixiazhu told reporters that there are many large and small cloud warehouses here. Generally, cloud warehouses will cooperate with multiple express companies, mainly providing packaging, shipping, and warehousing. and other services. According to his understanding, using Jitu is a choice under "specific circumstances." "If it is not a merchant from Pinduoduo, other merchants will actually consider the overall cost-effectiveness. The unit price of Jitu is cheap, but there are many complaints about subsequent logistics services. , the processing cost is very high. If you choose other express delivery, if the volume increases, you can also negotiate a good cooperation price.

”

“However, being cheap is still very attractive. The price of a single order is only a few cents cheaper, which seems small. With the volume of thousands of orders a day, you can save a lot of money in a month.” Of course, if you don't run a cloud warehouse and sell goods on your own e-commerce, you can do dozens of orders a day. You would rather choose the four-way one that is a few cents more expensive, and you can afford the cost. ”

According to the official website of Jitu Express, in January 2021, Jitu completed 20 million daily orders. It took an average of more than ten years for such a number to reach “four connections and one connection”. Achieved. Even SF Express, the big brother in the express delivery industry, has to admit that it underestimated it at the beginning.

“How can a new species enter the market without relying on price competition? Without a price advantage, how can you capture the market share that others have spent decades building? "An employee at a Yunda Express outlet told reporters that the homogeneity of the express delivery industry is very serious. It is difficult to win the market by relying on service and differentiation. "Low price" is the most direct.

And Jitu Express The conspiracy with Pinduoduo is already known to everyone. According to the person in charge of a Jitu Express outlet in Yiwu, more than 90% of Jitu’s orders are now from Pinduoduo. The order volume of other e-commerce platforms is relatively small. “In the early days, Jitu subsidizes the recipients, and will force Pinduoduo merchants to use Jitu. It will also charge higher prices for couriers, so it will naturally start to work. ”

According to Pinduoduo’s 2020 financial report, the number of orders for the whole year reached 38.3 billion. Orders of this magnitude have accelerated the expansion of Jitu Express.

“Our prices cannot be lower than Jitu, they are too ruthless, I don’t know if Jitu will lose money, but we are losing money anyway. "The above-mentioned employees of Yunda Express outlets said that even if they don't compete with Jitu, the current express delivery industry is still losing money. "I don't have any opinions on Jitu. Everyone has their own way of living. Now everyone just thinks about how to survive. ”

Ji Hare was “grabbed by the ears”

The seemingly lively Beixia Zhu is actually undergoing a migration, and the seemingly wild Ji Hare is also being supervised. and the market "grab their ears"

Due to the increase in storefront rent, shopkeepers in Beixiazhu are moving to Bai'antou Village in Yiwu. "The rent of a store now costs more than 200,000 yuan. In the past few years, there were only tens of thousands of yuan, which was no longer affordable. People are slowly moving to Bai'antou. The stores here are being sublet, and the ones over there are for rent, but the road there has not yet been repaired. "The owner of the above-mentioned Internet celebrity snack shop told reporters.

As for Jitu Express, she said, "If Jitu Express raises its price to the same level as other express delivery, we will definitely not use it because of the quality of service. There it is. ‘Four connections and one connection’ is a neutral position. We can choose whichever express delivery we want. However, it is said that many merchants in Pinduoduo are forced to use Jitu, which I find objectionable. ”

In fact, the current Jitu Express has been forced to slow down, and the extremely low price has been difficult to maintain.

Previously, due to low price dumping, Jitu Express It was punished by the Yiwu Postal Administration, and some media reported that some of Jitu's outlets in Yiwu were closed for rectification.

The reporter opened the map search function and found Qingxi East Road 2 kilometers near Bai'antou Village. , there is a Jitu Express operation site. The on-site staff are very wary of strangers visiting and constantly urge reporters to leave. When reporters asked whether they had received penalties from relevant departments for suspension of operations some time ago, all the staff present remained silent. Answer.

“It was said that it was stopped some time ago, but I don’t know the specific point. "A staff member of a Yunda Express outlet near Beixiazhu told reporters that Jitu's low-price competition is too fierce, and no express company can beat them. "When low-price competition reaches a limit, there will always be macro-control, and the Post Office will Who cares, wasn't it blocked before? ”

“Now the express delivery fee in Yiwu is not as cheap as before. It is said that Jitu did not dare to quote too low a price after being fined. However, the price system for small express delivery orders has always been relatively Chaos, prices go up and down, and change frequently. "The owner of a shoe store in Beixiazhu told reporters.

Jitu Express's fine is not only inevitable in the eyes of the market, but also seems to be an unavoidable fate in the eyes of its own employees.

Wang Lei’s evaluation of the new owner was quite unkind: “So far, a complete system has not been established, and there are no standards for management regulations. Express packages are littered on the ground. This is why Jitu currently does not do personal business on the parcel delivery side. ”

Wang Lei emphasized that doing personal business is to collect bulk items, which is different from e-commerce customers. It requires a different set of standards, including first weight, business proposal, collection and delivery process, etc. However, Jitu's current infrastructure cannot keep up, and the transfer operation can only bear the current e-commerce shipments.

"The salary at SF Express will be higher, and the management will be more standardized. When I was at SF Express, I had to bend down when putting items on and off the car. I couldn't stand up straight." , Wang Lei bent down to pick up the express delivery on the ground and delivered it to a store.

The reporter came to a Jitu Express outlet. As a clothing store owner, he wanted to cooperate in the logistics of e-commerce items. The person in charge of the outlet told the reporter: "We only do Pinduoduo, not Alibaba. , if you accept that there is only logistics information in Pinduoduo’s backend, that’s okay.”

The person in charge of Jitu Express believes that the advice he gave is quite pertinent, and he is also confident about Jitu’s carrying capacity. He knows very well, "If your unit price is high, we won't accept it. We can't afford to pay for lost items. Like the orders we make here, each item only sells for a few or dozens of yuan. If it is lost, it will be lost." ”

Obviously, whether it is ultra-low prices or service quality, Jitu’s current model is not a long-term solution. How to transition from low-price volume exchange to refined operations is a difficult problem that weighs on Jitu.

However, in the eyes of the courier guys, the market disrupted by Jitu has actually been "chaotic" before. "Price wars are nothing new. This is how this industry is. We can only use more work in exchange for lower income than before." At around nine o'clock in the evening, after dinner, Wang Lei rode on a three-wheeled minivan and drove with him. The reporter said goodbye hastily. He said he didn't know how many more years he could deliver express.

Will the industry turning point come? Wang Lei couldn't answer this question.