Run more communities and get more express delivery
After returning to work, Zhao Zhengqiang’s working hours changed from 8 am to 7 am every day.
Zhao Zhengqiang is a delivery person at a branch of Best Logistics in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Because of the epidemic, many villages were closed. “There are half fewer colleagues at the site, and many of them are still unable to come out at home. Even if they return, they must be quarantined for 14 days before going to work.” Zhao Zhengqiang said.
He takes his temperature once a day at work, then puts on gloves and unloads the goods from the car with his colleagues. Because the outlets have accumulated a lot of express delivery before resuming work, coupled with the recent increase in the frequency of online shopping, Zhao Zhengqiang only takes about 2 hours every day to unload.
(logistics site with backlog in express delivery)
After unloading, he still needs to sort these courier to different communities with his colleagues one by one. “Unlike large companies like SF and JD. Their sorting is somewhat automated, but we have to pick them one by one, and it takes another two hours to pick the goods.”
While putting all the courier belonging to his own delivery scope on the trolley, Zhao Zhengqiang must work at least until 11 o’clock to start from the outlet.
On the way to the neighborhood, Zhao Zhengqiang will first buy a few buns at convenience stores along the way. “Otherwise, after starting delivery, there will be no time to eat.” Zhao Zhengqiang said that he would run in 5 quarters in the afternoon. In order to be able to deliver hundreds of packages to each district in one day, he could not stay in each district for more than 2 hour.
Every time, he was very envious of the SF brother who occasionally slapped him. “SF has more staff than us, and sorting does not require you to come by yourself. It will be at the gate of the community at 8 o’clock every day, and it will be easier to settle at 6 o’clock in the evening.”
As many communities have closed and semi-closed management,Residents are required to go out to pick up the courier at a fixed location. Therefore, after arriving at the community, most of the express brothers will put the express code on the floor according to the building number and unit number, and then call the recipients one by one to let them go downstairs to collect.
(Zhao Zhengqiang is distinguishing the building number for the express delivery in the car)
The mental state that the little brother expresses downstairs in the community directly reflects the tension of the people in their company. According to Zhao Zhengqiang’s observation, SF is the longest day in the community, which means that they have the most manpower and do not need to run multiple communities by themselves.
Jingdong, Yuantong, and Zhongtong are the next, but the express courier brothers like Shentong, Best, Yunda, and Post cannot stay for too long and need to hurry to the next community.
Sometimes, Zhao Zhengqiang will meet some anxious residents. He didn’t wait for his phone notification, but after seeing the information delivered to the community on the Internet, he asked Zhao Zhengqiang to find the courier for them.
“In this case, the courier may still be in the car. The courier in both the east and west quarters and the 20 buildings are in the car. He must ask me to find him out immediately. I really can’t help it.” In this situation, Zhao Zhengqiang could only explain to the residents with a grinning smile, and let the other party wait patiently, waiting for him to place all the pieces on the ground and then look for them.
(Cardboard boxes discarded everywhere by residents after delivery)
During the conversation, Zhao Zhengqiang’s ringtone never stopped. He called for a pick-up, and answered the phone to explain why some courier had not arrived at the outlet.
“Basically, customers who have bought masks and daily necessities online, but who is not in a hurry, you are anxious to receive the goods, and I am anxious to deliver. When is this day?
The courier is fast and the courier is slow
This epidemic has made express delivery a “slow delivery”.
But Zhao Zhengqiang feels that this is obviously not because the speed of the younger brothers has slowed down. On the contrary, he now has to sort more courier services and go to more communities.
Although the little brothers are diligent, the distribution of logistics is still stagnant.
Due to the shortage of masks in the store, Zhang Qiao dragged a friend to send her a box of masks a year ago. As a result, Zhang Qiao did not receive the box mask until the epidemic broke out and stabilized.
“Best Logistics Information has not been updated for a month.” Zhang Qiao has given up updating the logistics progress on the Internet every day. “I have already become a Buddhist student, and I don’t know if this box of masks can reach my hands after the epidemic”.
People like Zhang Qiao are not in the minority. Affected by the epidemic, many logistics companies have extended the date of resumption of work. Except for large logistics companies such as JD.com and SF, Shentong and Best Express only resumed work on February 10.
Taking Zhongtong as an example, its transfer center in Beijing said on February 9 that 100% of its work in the outlets has been resumed, and the employee arrival rate has reached 80%.
But even if the logistics resume, it does not mean that you can receive express delivery in time. Chen Xiaopeng placed an order for a seat cushion on Taobao on February 18, and Shentong Express took delivery in Shanghai.
However, the logistics information shows that this cushion finally “layed” in the Shanghai Aviation Department for more than half a month, and did not successfully board the flight to Beijing. It was not until March 2 that this cushion showed that it had just reached the Beijing Transit Center, but I don’t know how long it will be before Chen Xiaopeng’s hands.
Chen Xiaopeng also participated in the “Taobao Aid to Agriculture” campaign. With the idea of not letting farmers’ agricultural products rot in the ground, this event actually promoted many consumers to participate in the purchase of local agricultural products.
But it is also restricted by the decline in the speed of logistics and distribution, resulting in the oranges he bought on the farmer’s platform, 5 pounds of oranges.
It should have been “love to help the farmer”, but it has become “sad to help the farmer.” “I helped the farmer uncle consume the inventory, but in return they got a batch of rotten oranges,” said Chen Xiaopeng. In the process, the interests of consumers were also violated, but they could only eat the Coptis dumbly without knowing who to go to. Crying.
Everyone said that the epidemic prompted consumers to switch to online retail, but merchants, warehouses and logistics were unable to consume these surges in demand.
Although before the outbreak, the entire domestic logistics industry was already very large and the logistics network was quite dense. Logistics companies such as Easy Connect, JD.com, and SF Express were able to cover transportation up to 100 kilometers from branch lines and main lines. Delivery to the same city from 3 kilometers to 20 kilometers.
But this huge logistics network is full of labor and manpower needed to support the network. In other words, logistics transportation is an efficiency game from point A to point B. Once the labor force is in short supply, the efficiency between AB cannot be guaranteed.
In the past, the “30 minute delivery”, “fast speed delivery” and “half day delivery” issued by logistics companies could not be delivered on time. The delivery speed of the daily fresh food and Mr. Hema, which had been delivered “30 minutes” and must reach “within two hours”, also decreased. The latter even appeared once. Brother’s situation.
The inability to resume work in warehouses, logistics, etc., resulting in shortages of goods and delays in logistics, have anxious people at both ends of the transaction.
Insufficient manpower, share to come together
The difficulties faced by the express delivery industry in the epidemic are almost obvious.
In addition to the difficulty of rework, as a labor-intensive industry, the courier itself has a great demand for protective supplies for masks, goggles, and disinfectant, but personal purchase channels and quantities are limited.
A courier company and micro-story have calculated that if the current 10,000 arrival rate is calculated, more than 20,000 masks will be needed every day. In the face of difficult-to-find masks, the adequacy of masks often also means the availability of personnel.
Furthermore, the epidemic caused some local governments to carry out traffic control, which happened to be the courier company transshipment centers, which made it difficult for the courier business to ensure efficient progress.
Bao Shi Group Chairman and CEO Zhou Shaoning said in an interview with the media that “ The biggest difficulty currently comes from the impact of traffic control in areas such as closed cities, village closures, and high-speed traffic restrictions in key epidemic prevention and control areas. The staff are unable to arrive, and the return rate of outlets is affected to a certain extent . ”
As of February 10, the return rate of Best Express distribution centers and outlets was 50%, the return rate of express distribution centers exceeded 50%, and the return rate of outlets was 85%.
In order to solve the problem of staff tension, some companies think of a method of sharing employees. For example, on February 7th, Suning Logistics launched the “Talent Sharing Plan”, and more than 3,000 people signed up to assist Suning in delivering goods within three days.
The Cainiao supply chain joint logistics partner opened 20,000 jobs to the country during this period, while Hema Xiansheng cooperated with Xibei and other catering companies to share employees.
Jingdong Logistics opens more than 20,000 front-line positions to warehouses, sorters, couriers, and drivers. The Dada Express delivery platform under Dada Group also recruits knights for more than 2,400 counties, cities and counties across the country, and the first batch is intended to recruit 10,000 knights.
Employee sharing during a special period of time alleviates offline retailing, which is most affected by the epidemic, and can reduce the cost pressure on the company’s employees. On the other hand, it can also solve the problem of labor shortage in the express delivery industry, which has surged in demand. Letting people move according to market demand currently seems to be a two-pronged approach.
But this way to relieve stress is still temporary and limited.
Zhao Zhengqiang heard about sharing employees very early, but he didn’t plan to switch to sharing, and there were no “shared” colleagues on the site to help him deliver.
“The last mile is the most tiring,” said Zhao Zhengqiang. The delivery staff needs to have a good understanding of the geographical environment of their area of responsibility, and understand how the delivery route is the most efficient.
More importantly, most delivery people’s delivery vehicles are configured by themselves. “Few people will buy a delivery vehicle for a short-term delivery person,” said Zhao Zhengqiang. Therefore, most of the shared employees mainly gather in Hema, Meituan takeaway, and other fields that only need an electric car to get on the road.
Sharing employees is worse than “no” employees
The epidemic of the new coronavirus has now been brought under preliminary control.
As of press time, the number of confirmed new coronaviruses reached 80,303, of which 129 were diagnosed in a single day, and 2,783 were cured in a single day, of which 47,301 were cured and discharged.
But the impact of the new coronavirus is still severe.For imported cases in Afghanistan, Iran and other countries, epidemic prevention is still the first to ensure production and economic stability.
For the express delivery industry, epidemic prevention is a prerequisite to ensure all efficiency. The front-line courier brother handles thousands of packages every day and contacts hundreds of people. Once the epidemic prevention problem occurs, the virus will infect more people.
For example, some people questioned that during the epidemic, many courier services that could have been delivered to homes are now only allowed to be stacked on the sidewalks. The problems caused by courier services that cannot be placed, and the pick-ups getting together gradually increased.
The degree of technological innovation of logistics companies was fully exposed in the epidemic. At present, courier members including SF and Cainiao have adopted contactless delivery during the delivery process, and have set up self-pickup and self-courier delivery services in many communities.
Compared with drone distribution, improving the use of express cabinets is simpler and faster, and it can achieve safe disinfection. In addition, you can also try to operate as an unmanned convenience store and control the number of people entering, which can also reduce the concentration of personnel.
However, some new demands and new technologies arising from the prevention and control of the epidemic have further exposed the current shortcomings of the logistics industry, and also urged the logistics industry to carry out further reforms.