Did the three questions of the US Mission uncover the bitter inside story of takeaway?

Recently, an article was popular on the Internet, so I was lucky enough to read it. After reading it, I had a lot of ideas. In fact, the view expressed in this article has caused great controversy among many people, that is, focusing on the delivery staff accurately, whether the system algorithm is threatening the delivery staff or the delivery staff is trapped by the algorithm. Is it too impersonal behind the accurate algorithm? If everything is calculated and arranged in advance, what is the difference between people and machine tools?

When did takeaway become a high-risk occupation?

In fact, before talking about the above things, let's talk about why there are three questions about the US group's takeaway recently:

First of all, why is the delivery time getting shorter and shorter? The original one-hour delivery time was finally reduced to the nearest 50 minutes, then to 40 minutes, and even to 30 minutes in some places. Some food delivery staff even said that it takes time to deliver food, so what is the significance of shortening the delivery time blindly? Do you really force us to run a red light or take delivery with our lives?

2 complaints and unreasonable deduction of money, whether it is due to the business or the takeaway itself, or never consider the weather, traffic conditions, congestion, etc. It has been accurately measured by the system from the moment when the takeaway chooses to take the order, and through big data analysis, the fastest time, regardless of rush hour, road traffic and weather conditions, is just a mechanical dispatch. Once delayed, the money will be deducted directly.

(3) The commission is diluted, and the platform conditions are more and more harsh. Compared with the previous era of national takeaway, the current takeaway industry is highly saturated. If you want to earn more than 10,000 yuan a month, you really need to work hard. You can barely reach the threshold of earning more than 10,000 yuan last month by working for more than ten hours a day. Moreover, with more and more people entering, the commission amount of a single takeaway continues to decrease, and there is no platform subsidy. Only by constantly trying to prolong the time and increase the delivery.

In fact, the current takeaway is not as glamorous as expected. They often shuttle around the city, taking the expressway on the road in order not to be delayed or complained. Even in order to deliver takeout to customers within the scheduled time, it is necessary to run a red light, or avoid the traffic police, and sometimes even overtake, which undoubtedly brings great risks and burdens to many takeout workers, and even makes more and more takeout workers take huge risks in order to make money.

Are those takeaways trapped by the algorithm cage or by the service?

In fact, as an algorithm, the original essence is to serve the takeaway and platform. One is to calculate the actual time required for each takeaway from order taking to final delivery to users through the calculation and statistical analysis of big data. Therefore, the suggested time also works in two ways. The first one can realize the rapid turnover and transfer of take-away orders, so that each take-away can realize the delivery of more take-away orders during the peak meal period. It will not be idle, and at the same time, for the platform, the algorithm can be continuously optimized to ensure the reasonable delivery time. In addition to being faster, it can also ensure that the delivery staff can pick up the goods at home, so that customers will not catch a cold after receiving them and will not be dissatisfied with the platform.

But I don't know when it started, the algorithm gradually deviated from the original intention, and only emphasized the advantage of speed, which really improved the efficiency of reaching users from the side and reduced the customer complaint rate, but it was a devastating blow to the middle delivery staff. Because the cooking time of merchants is fixed, but the total delivery time is decreasing, there is only one place to save time. The delivery staff just try their best to speed up, but sometimes the final delivery time will greatly exceed the system limit due to the weather, traffic control, rush hour after work, and even the slow cooking of the merchants here.