A photograph of a delivery driver forced to kneel before a neighborhood security guard in Hangzhou has inspired widespread calls for better labor protections for China’s working class. The viral image of the kneeling driver struck a chord on Weibo, where it shot to the top of trending rankings in mid-August: 

A police report released after the incident went viral held that the conflict occurred after the driver was detained by the security guard for bumping into the complex’s bar gate. Concerned that this might cause them to be late in other deliveries, the driver knelt to ask for forgiveness. The police explanation did little to quell public anger about the incident. At the BBC, Kelly Ng reported on the anger over the treatment of the driver: 

The incident on Monday drew huge crowds of angry delivery riders to the building in downtown Hangzhou, leading the police to dispatch dozen of officers to manage the situation – including from the special weapons and tactics team.

[…] At one point, they start belting out China’s national anthem.

“Why do delivery riders break traffic rules so often? It’s simple. They will be fined if their deliveries are delayed,” [one Weibo user wrote.]

“This is the power of the platforms they work for. And so the riders work as hard as they can and risk their lives in order to complete what they have to do. 

“It’s exactly how sweatshops function.” [Source]

The conflict between local security guards and delivery drivers is long-running. In 2023, a delivery driver was stabbed to death by a neighborhood security guard after a conflict about moped parking. While much discussion focused on the driver’s prestigious education (some pointed to him as a modern day “Kong Yiji”), others focused on the increasing power of apartment complex security guards. One blogger tagged them as a “capricious, unsupervised, and unscrutinized form” of outsourced state violence. This incident has sparked similar reflections, with one WeChat writer lamenting the “false superiority” of security guards. Another writer, the well-known reporter Zhang Feng, speculated that pandemic-era movement controls had given guards “a taste of power.” He continued, “They live in a pathetic delusion.” 

One of the main points of conflict between drivers and security guards is over the right to use the front door of apartment complexes. Drivers are put under incredible pressure by delivery app algorithms to make orders on time and trips to back doors or delivery entrances can compromise timely deliveries. An entirely new job, “last-mile runners,” has sprung up to bridge the gap. “Last-mile runners” are localized to a specific building, where they take orders from drivers on the ground floor then take the elevator—or sometimes run—to get the order to customers’ front doors. At Rest of World, Viola Zhou reported on how “group orders” are pushing delivery drivers to the limit: 

Meituan customers spent an average of 48.2 yuan ($6.7) per order in 2021, the last time the company disclosed the data. As the dominant delivery platform, Meituan needs to offer something cheaper if it wants to grow its user base, especially in the lower-income populations, Li Chengdong, head of Chinese tech think tank Haitun, told Rest of World. Having users from the same area order as a group allows each person to save on delivery costs, he said. The rider Wu, for example, was paid 1.8 to 2.5 yuan (25 to 35 cents) for delivering each Pinhaofan meal in late 2023, compared with 5 yuan (69 cents) for a regular order.

[…] Riders said they occasionally make good money from Pinhaofan: If people from the same school or office join a group order, workers deliver only to one location. But in many cases, they are picking up from one restaurant and delivering to customers living in different buildings. On social media and in Chinese media reports, riders have spoken of long elevator wait times and sprawling apartment complexes as reasons why they struggle to deliver orders on time. 

“The rate was too low,” a 27-year-old former delivery rider from Sichuan province, who requested anonymity for privacy reasons, told Rest of World. “I could accept it if I didn’t have to climb up buildings. The walk-ups were brutal.” The single mother spent three months delivering Pinhaofan orders before quitting. [Source]

What’s more, door access is a matter of dignity to some drivers. After this latest Hangzhou incident went viral, The Paper, a Shanghai-based state media outlet, covered the case of a delivery driver who is suing a Beijing property management company for “discrimination on the basis of occupation.” To underline his point, the plaintiff wore his delivery uniform to the first hearing in the case. “This clothing is not representative of anything [negative], you can even wear it to court,” he told The Paper.

Another recent gripe among drivers is a new regulatory amendment that came into effect on March 1. Its requirement that delivery drivers notify customers where they have dropped off packages has also caused grief for workers. Failure to comply can result in a fine of up to $4,200. China Labour Bulletin, an organization that tracks labor action in China, has documented multiple cases of collective action taken in protest against what drivers see as an unfair burden.

Despite the size of the delivery industry, which is worth over $208 billion and reportedly employs around 84 million people (including couriers, food delivery drivers, truckers and ride-hail drivers, among others), there are no independent unions for delivery drivers. China has no independent labor unions, and labor organizing can be perilous. In July 2018, 30 people—including Marxist student activists from Beijing’s prestigious Peking University—were arrested after launching a unionization petition at a Shenzhen factory. Would-be organizers of delivery drivers have met similar fates. In 2021, the delivery driver-organizer Chen Guojiang was detained on the charge of  “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a favorite “pocket crime.” Those who tried to fundraise to cover his legal fees were reportedly threatened by security agents who ordered them to stop. Nonetheless, Chinese researchers at Fudan University and Sun Yat-sen University have discovered that drivers do engage in covert, small-scale strikes. From The Economist:

The research was carried out by Bo Zhao of Fudan University in Shanghai and Siqi Luo of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. One of the authors spent 18 months working as a delivery driver in southern China. During this time they witnessed five small-scale strikes, none of which was known to the public. Rather than taking to the streets, upset drivers simply logged out of the app that assigns deliveries during a period when demand was high, such as at lunchtime. That was enough to cause delays to snowball, forcing the company to reject orders.

Even the threat of such action causes some supervisors to bend rules on when drivers get fined, says the study. Another piece of research, from 2021, found that small-scale strikes were sometimes effective in convincing contractors to increase (slightly) how much they pay. [Source]

State regulators propose a different solution to delivery drivers’ woes: increased love, loyalty, and obedience towards the Party. A document issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation in June called for increased political consciousness among drivers, while also mandating that neighborhoods create air-conditioned rest areas where drivers can eat, drink, and recharge their phones.