"Many people don't know how an order can arrive at their home in just one day. In China, home deliveries are a craze. Everyone orders things all the time. The Asian giant has the largest online commerce market on the planet, with an average of 125 packages per person, per year. That's one order every three days. Companies compete fiercely. And the deliveries are handled by an army of motorcyclists on electric scooters, each with a metal box on the back."
"These individuals have low-paying jobs with extremely long hours. They're often migrants from rural areas, who travel to the cities to earn a living, while residing in tiny apartments on the outskirts. These wage earners in what are called new forms of employment which include delivery drivers and ride-hailing app drivers number 84 million in China."
China averages about 125 packages per person per year, driven by intense platform competition and consumer demand for rapid deliveries. Millions of deliveries are executed by motorcyclists on electric scooters carrying metal boxes, who park outside buildings and bring parcels to doors. Delivery work commonly features low pay, extremely long hours, and precarious living conditions, with many drivers migrating from rural areas to reside in tiny outskirts apartments. Workers in new forms of employment, including delivery and ride-hailing drivers, total roughly 84 million across the country. A middle-aged Beijing driver embodies the physical strain and precarity of this labor.
Read at english.elpais.com
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