WHY SOME CHINESE DELIVERY COURIERS WORK WHILE EVERYBODY HAS GONE HOME

It's the Spring Festival in China, also known as the Chinese New Year. During this period, most people return to their hometowns to celebrate with their families. Movies such as Last Train Home have documented the largest annual migration in the world caused by this.

While big cities go quiet, many 'locals' remain, as do some young people who prefer not to have to explain to their families why they don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend yet. These people will continue to order food and groceries online, but that poses a problem...

Most delivery couriers are 'migrant workers' from smaller cities, towns, and the countryside, and most have left the big cities. As a result, grocery and food delivery companies are facing capacity problems. To address this, they incentivise drivers to stay in the city and work during the Spring Festival.

An instant retail-focused WeChat account I closely follow sheds some light on the financials for the couriers. They usually get paid based on the number of orders per month (on average, 2,000 orders and RMB 4,25 per order, making RMB 8,500, about $1,200). Usually, there are bonuses for sticking with a company or being a high performer each month. There are also extra bonuses for heavy orders and distant delivery addresses.

During different weeks around the Spring festival season, couriers can earn bonuses, as shown in the table below. Bonuses are based on the number of days they work and a minimum number of orders. The whole system makes for a tricky calculation, but the average extra pay is around RMB 2,050 during a 20-day period. That might not seem much, but it is a significant incentive to many couriers, corresponding to a temporary pay raise of 36%.

The extra costs are compensated by charging customers RMB 3 per order during the festive season.

And if they are fortunate, they might get hired by a Meituan Xiao Xiang warehouse in Beijing that was so desperate for couriers that it offered a bonus of RMB 20 per order...