Takeout is the main way for white-collar workers in the office buildings in downtown Shanghai to get their lunch, especially in the sizzling summer in August. At the intersection of West Beijing Road and Jiangning road in Jing'an District, there is a dining zone called Shibohui, which brings together a variety of food outlets. There is also a young man named Zhu Ziwu.

(Zhu Ziwu at work [Photo/Shanghai Morning Post])

Zhu Ziwu, a 35-year-old rider with Meituan Takeout, lives near Taixing Road and Kangding road. In the morning, he rides his e-bike to buy two steamed buns before attending a routine company meeting, along with dozens of other riders. On the floor in front of everyone is a delivery box.

The morning meeting is divided into three parts, first calling the roll and then cleaning the delivery box together. Finally, the head of the Meituan Takeaway Jing'an Station, Xia Benyin, tells the riders how to deal with various emergencies in the delivery process. In the mid-summer, although each rider is equipped with sun-protective clothing, with a temperature of 35 degrees, some riders still only wear their T-shirts. A helmet is a must, and although it can be partially used to protect you from the sun, it's actually much hotter wearing it.

After the morning meeting, riders rush across the road to get their e-bikes, as if rushing to begin the cycling section of a triathlon.

The busiest time of the day is noon. This area receives mostly business office orders and from April to May Zhu Ziwu receives around 30 orders per day. However, in the summer, more white-collar workers are too scared of the heat to go out, so Zhu Ziwu’s workload increases to up to 50 orders a day.

The heaviest order is for a 15-person meal.

Meituan’s software sends orders to the riders’ phones based on each person's GPS location. If it is not convenient for them to take the order, they can automatically seek to transfer it to other riders. At 10:41 a.m. on this day, Zhu saw an advertising agency positioned around the city’s People's Square placing a large order to a Hong Kong restaurant. The order amounted to 780 yuan, and the list of dishes took a few screens to go through on his cellphone. It also included 15 bowls of rice!

It may be a big deal for merchants, but not for takeaway riders. Their commission per order is fixed, and the bigger the order, the heavier the load under the same income. Some customers will "reward" big orders, but not necessarily. Zhu Ziwu still took the order, and the map showed that the distance was 1.9km. But Zhu Ziwu knew this was not the actual distance: some sections of road were restricted, so the actual distance would be longer if the rules of the road were strictly followed.

When the order came, another order appeared in Zhu's phone. It was from an office block opposite Jiangning Road and as Zhu Ziwu had spare time he took the order. Although the distance was close, the order was also a bit troublesome: office building elevators are full at noon every day, so the rider can only go to the freight elevator nearby, but the freight elevator can be slow, he said. And customers who order takeout so close are generally reluctant to go downstairs, expecting the order almost to be placed on their desk.

After delivering the order, Zhu Ziwu rushed to the Hong Kong-style restaurant to collect the mammoth order. It took him two trips to get all the boxes out. Then his e-bike hit the street again and disappeared into the heavy traffic.

It's the busiest time of day, and usually his lunchtime is at 3 p.m.

Children are his biggest concern

Zhu Ziwu is a native of Xiushui in South China’s Jiangxi province. Before coming to Shanghai, he worked in a relative's factory in Xihai, Lushan. In the middle of last year, he came to Shanghai alone to become a delivery guy, aiming to give his wife and two children a better life.

He spent months familiarizing himself with every street, office building and restaurant under the administration of Meituan Takeaway’s Jing 'an Station. He no longer wasted time, and was no longer bothered by traffic restrictions. Now he knows how fast each restaurant can deliver food, and he can accurately calculate the time spent on each takeaway. He also experienced the hottest summer days last year when the highest temperature hit 40.9 degrees. Compared to last year, this year, although there’re still many hot days, he is used to the heat. He now thinks more about how to do the work better.

Every morning at the routine meeting, bottled water is given to each delivery guy who can also get water and a variety of other things to avoid suffering from heatstroke. But Zhu Ziwu only goes there occasionally because he buys himself two large bottles of mineral water every day, which add up to three liters. He also carries a small bag with him, which carries a heavy power bank. Since his mobile phone is constantly in use, it has to be charged frequently.

Zhu Ziwu has a pair of lovely children who leave him deeply concerned. The son is in primary school, while his lovely daughter is still at a pre-school age. Recently, his daughter longed for a princess gauze skirt. To satisfy her wish, Zhu Ziwu sent some money home. His wife sent a picture of her little girl in a blue princess dress, which Zhu looked at repeatedly on his phone.

It is reported that in the trade, most deliverymen are in their 20s and 40s. Those in their 20s are mostly young people who left their hometown seeking job opportunities, while those in their 40s rely on the job to support their families. Zhu said with a smile that he does this to support his family. His customer satisfaction rate remains 100 percent, and among all the deliverymen in Jing’an Station, Zhu’s performance ranked fifth this month, compared with last month’s 14th place.

Encounters with heartwarming people and things

In more than a year of food delivery experience, Zhu has encountered many emergencies and different kinds of people. Although it is hard, his work gets a lot of sympathy and understanding.

Deliverymen often take a break from their e-bike, sometimes for a couple of minutes. But when they return to the site, they often find that the food in the delivery box has been stolen. Zhu has encountered this situation a few times."Once I got off the e-bike to deliver a meal. Within two minutes, another customer's food had been stolen. Bystanders said they didn't see anyone take it. So I immediately contacted the customer, who asked me to send another order. When I returned to the restaurant, the restaurant had prepared the dishes and sold them to me at a discount. Finally, the order was about two hours late, but the customer didn't say anything and gave me a reward.”

If a deliveryman has the food stolen, sometimes the restaurant will sell them another meal at a discount or for free. Zhu is very grateful about that. But other times, he is not so lucky. One day, it was raining and the road was slippery. He accidentally fell off his e-bike. His leg was bruised and bled a lot. To deliver the takeaway as soon as possible, he delivered the meal on foot. On the way, the customer repeatedly called to urge him, but he said nothing when Zhu finally showed up, wheeling his e-bike in the rain.

Considering the recent high temperatures, some restaurants and customers are considerate of the hard work of delivery riders who often take the initiative to deliver drinks and water to riders. Zhu told the reporter one of his funny experiences:"A customer gave me a bottle of coke and I kept it. Later, when delivering an order for another customer, his drink spilled due to the bumpy ride. So I gave the coke to him as compensation."

He has also been forgiven by the traffic police. At the very beginning, as he was not familiar with the road conditions in Shanghai, he ended up on a vehicular road and failed to find a way out. After learning his situation, the traffic police gave him some education and let him go.

The mutual help and friendship between the riders also warm Zhu’s heart. Over time, he has even become familiar with peers from other companies. It's normal to help each other out. They also hang out together in their spare time.