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* Xiqing Xu: 244842241@qq.com
How can millions of Chinese food delivery riders be managed in
an orderly way: Based on the labor process theory
Xiqing Xu1 and Tianhe Jiang2
1School of Marxism, Hohai University, 210098 Nanjing, China
2School of Public Administration, Hohai University, 211100 Nanjing, China
Abstract. Ordering food through smartphones brings millions of laborers into a new occupation - food
delivery rider. To date, insufficient research has focused on this group of population in platform economy.
This paper examines the management mechanism of Chinese food delivery industry based on Marxist labor
process theory and its extensions. Three main findings are revealed. First, the food delivery platform strictly
set online and off-line institutions to manage food delivery riders; second, riders are involved in an illusion
of flexitime but indeed provide more labor forces; third, riders are not free as they are constantly monitored
by platform’s algorithm driven by big data. Given this, the conclusion suggests that all platform enterprises
should abide professional ethnics and undertake social responsibility and to liberate food delivery riders’
nature.
1 Introduction
Along with the development of Internet technology and
the pace of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the
popularization of smartphones in China has largely
promoted development of online food delivery industry.
One of the new occupations, food delivery rider
(hereinafter called “rider”), is recently emerged and
rapidly expanding in urban and suburban regions. Riders
generally accept retail tasks through online platform, and
literally ride electric bicycles to deliver freshly-cooked
food to anywhere within a set distance, including families,
offices, outdoor locations, etc.
Considering the number of registered platform
accounts in 2019, there were more than 10 million full-
time or part-time riders in China and nearly 40% of them
work for Meituan ([1]), China’s largest unicorn company
specializing in take-out industry. This high-volume
occupation absorbs vast young labor forces, and
effectively promotes daily life service, employment
structure and urbanization transformation. China’s
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security even
defined riders as “new infrastructure” of modern life.
Given the huge number of riders in food delivery
industry, many relevant research questions are thereby
aroused. Among them, a new and unsettled question is that,
how can a food delivery platform well organize the
registered riders, reduce employment disputes and form a
methodical labor order? To date, some scholars analyzed
this issue politically and economically. However, only a
few of them conducts theoretical research on labor process
from the perspectives of institutions and technological
transitions.
To address this gap, Karl Marx’s labor process theory
has been employed as a theoretical tool in this work to
clarify labor process of riders and underlying mechanism.
This theory links the inter-correlation between production
system and formation of technology through a lens of
labor politics ([2]) and points out the mechanism of
capitalism labor control. Nanjing, a metropolis in
southeast China is selected as the research area as it has a
prosperous foundation of food delivery industry.
In the reminder of this paper, a brief review of Marx’s
labor theory and its application is provided in section 2.
The section 3 is the research method. Through interview
and analysis, we draw our findings in section 4. Finally,
conclusions and suggestions are remarked in section 5.
2 Literature Review
The labor process theory was put forward by Marx and has
been improved or modified by Braverman, Friedman,
Edwards, Brower et al. in their contributive works.
Marx pointed out that labor force produces value far
beyond the productivity itself under the control of capital,
and that is surplus value ([3]). Modern technology
promotes mechanization and routinization of the labor
process. Through the division and cooperation of labor,
separation of concept and implementation, bureaucracy,
internal labor market and internal state, labors’ skills and
resistance ability are constantly eroded ([4]).
Following Marx’s labor process theory, Braverman
([5]) indicated that “control” (including labor control and
capitalist control) is central to any management system. In
Braverman’s view, workers were disobedient, but their
struggles against management control were not taken into
account. Thereafter, Friedman ([6]) proposed two
management strategies, direct control and responsibility
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© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License 4.0
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autonomy, which plus “tension” analysis into labor control
theory. Based on this, the famous “three elements” of
control system were proposed by Edwards ([7]). Guiding,
evaluating and rewarding/punishing became a threefold
mechanism that widely used in Western countries. In pace
of practices, subjectivity of labor was highlighted in
subsequent studies on laborer identification ([8]).
The classical theories above-mentioned have been
employed in empirical research in China. First, the control
of Internet platform economic pattern over labor process
is fragmented and invisible compared with traditional
labor process control, but the outcomes of labor control
become more effective. Platform economy is virtual rather
than substantial as it is built on big data and algorithm that
decompose orders. However, intangible platforms make
riders manageable. Although riders seemingly possess a
certain degree of autonomy, once they log on to the
platform and be ready to take orders, the instructions and
regulations over their work process are all-pervasive ([9]).
Second, the development of big data technology has
led to more “initiative” participations of riders. Given the
digital and precise management, riders unconsciously
participate in management of his own labor process ([10]).
To raise efficiency of riders, platform companies also
create a flexible working field and effective incentive
working mechanisms such as “order grabbing” and “order
postponing” so that riders would be more initiative during
their working hours. Such substantive control over labor
process create more recognition than dissatisfaction, more
cooperation than resistance, so as to realize capital
reproduction ([11]).
Last, there is an appeal of ethical examination for food
delivery platforms. As other algorithm-based technology,
platform economy is supposed to promote true freedom
rather than an instrumentalist space to profiteering ([12]).
In summary, although there has been some
contributory knowledge, it is still of value to excavate the
essence of Marx’s labor process theory to carry out further
research. This evergreen theory would enrich the
understanding of fragmentation, invisibility, refinement
and self-consciousness over the labor process in new
research settings
3 Methods
Interviews, logs, and direct observation were adopted in
this research. Considering the differences of the
interviewees’ understanding and cooperation, the authors
mainly used semi-structured interview which was divided
into five topics: demographical information; employment
process; operation pattern; income levels and personal
opinions.
The interview followed three basic principles. Firstly,
daily management and operation of the site were
understood from details of the work and life of riders, and
overall characteristics of platforms were explored from
part to whole. Secondly, adhering to true reflection of the
interview content, the authors pay attention to riders’ self-
statement, and deeply understand the key information
hidden in the dialogue. Thirdly, the authors construct the
proposition of superficial freedom by means of grounded
theory and tries to enrich the theory.
All fieldworks were conducted during January 2021 in
Nanjing. Nanjing is an ideal research area as it has
maintained a remarkable speed of economic development
and a leading edge in science and technology innovation
in recent years. Its GDP in 2020 was about 1,482 billion
RMB, and the Internet penetration rate of Nanjing reached
65.2% by 2019, and mobile phones usage rate of theses
netizens was almost 99%. Moreover, platform economy
and the amount of riders are developing rapidly in Nanjing.
Therefore, choosing Nanjing’s riders as research objects
can reflect labor characteristics of the industry in a more
comprehensive way.
Totally 120 riders were randomly interviewed in three
sample sub-districts of Nanjing, including the most
prosperous Xinjiekou (XJK) pedestrian zone in downtown,
Xianlin (XL) university town in suburban area and
Zhongyangmen (ZYM) sub district which was the
secondary center before a decade. The interview time for
each rider lasted about 10 minutes.
Table 1. Sample features (N=120)
Features Classification Proportion
Sample area Downtown area (XJK) 35.0%
Old-city area (ZYM) 32.5%
Suburban area (XL) 32.5%
Gender Male 87.5%
Female 12.5%
Age ≤25 16.7%
26-35 62.5%
36-45 16.7%
≥46 4.1%
Education
background
Junior school or below 10.0%
High School 45.8%
Junior College 39.2%
Bachelor or higher 5.0%
Birth place Local 5.0%
Non-local 95.0%
NVivo software was used to sort out the qualitative
materials and investigation logs, SPSS was used to
calculate the quantitative data. All the interviewees were
informed of intention of the interview, and their full names
were hidden for privacy protection.
4 Results and discussions
According to our survey, the management mechanism of
platform companies over the labor process of food
delivery riders shows three representative characteristics:
integrated management of online and offline, flextime
system and big data monitoring.
4.1 Integrated management of online and offline
Take-out platforms adopt a comprehensive online and
offline pattern to manage, motivate and restrain riders
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(Fig.1). Online management is based on the interactions
among multi agents while offline management is attached
on sites and stations throughout cities.
Fig. 1. Platform management chart
In online management section, food delivery platforms
formulate a series of institutions to manage and constrain
every rider, so that they can identify with the platform and
its rules and voluntarily be controlled by the system
management of platforms.
For a food delivery platform, a rider’s professional
background, educational background or hometown of
them are not that important. The vital aspect is whether
they can accept the management pattern of the platform.
This could be reflect on the recruitment process. The
relative low threshold attracts laborers from different
sources, including rural-urban migrants, unemployed or
professional workers, or college students, etc. The
commitment to obey the arrangement as well as the
acceptance to criticism and punishment are key element
during their entry interviews.
In fact, candidates only need to meet the three
conditions of good health, being able to ride an electric
car and use a smart phone. The key is to express loyalty
and obey management in the interview. Thus they can
enter the job. (Online recruiter, LN1210105)
Grading rules, salary ranking and incentive system are
formulated. The higher level of riders, the better orders are
dispatched by platform systems, and more bonus per order
would be delivered. This institution makes riders feel that
the growth of labor returns is not linear, but cumulative.
Therefore, riders actively participate in the labor process,
especially for new low-level riders. It has generated
considerable driving force.
The unit price of order delivery made by my site is 6
RMB, and 50 RMB is deducted for a complaint. This is
fixed. But the amount of the reward depends largely on
level of the rider. (Rider, YSS210201)
Offline management of platforms adopts station
management. There are two basic ways of order
management: exclusive delivery and crowd-sourcing
delivery. Under exclusive delivery pattern, the station
conducts direct management on riders, including holding
morning meetings, reporting on personal work in each
month or quarter, etc. In crowd-sourcing pattern, station
implements indirect management on riders, which
includes analyzing riders’ running order data and timely
adjusting labor rules to formulating delivery unit price.
Handling accidents or abnormal orders are intersection in
both two offline management pattern.
Crowd-sourcing delivery is not directly responsible for
riders, but indirectly manages them. The duty of the station
is to analyze the data of riders’ running orders in the
region and adjust the labor rules in time, such as unit price
of orders, delivery time, reward and punishment
mechanism and so on. (Rider
，
GL210131)
In the sense of labor process, there is no significant
difference in the degree of labor freedom as riders are all
subject to the interest-first management philosophy. That
is to say, both online and offline management are
essentially based on “three elements” for labor control that
were proposed by Edwards ([7]) in The Field Full of
Struggle. The only change is the emerging platform
economy provides new forms for specific control patterns.
4.2 Flextime system
In platform economy, timeliness is an important basis for
food delivery platforms to provide high-quality services.
([12]) Therefore, platform companies have formed a
performance appraisal system around Key Performance
Indicators (KPI). Platform corporations usually adopt a
working time system that combines compulsory and
flextime. The all-day market demand allows riders to
choose to participate in the labor process at any time.
Theoretically, a rider can work 24 hours a day if he is
willing to do so ([11]).
Generally speaking, those riders try their best to pick
up orders for 10 hours a day, get familiar with the road
conditions, and are not afraid of wind, rain and traffic
peak. Their monthly income can reach 8000-10000 RMB.
(Rider, JN210202)
Superficially, riders seem to have the freedom to
control their working hours in flextime system for food
delivery. When this flexibility becomes tense, the average
monthly salary of a hardworking rider (working more than
10 hours a day) is about 8600 RMB, which is nearly twice
the average monthly salary of 4600 RMB in Nanjing.
According to the respondents who are willing to disclose
their income, the nexus between working time and income
is drawn in Fig.2.
Fig. 2. Scatter plot of working time and income (N=64)
Ideally, flextime make riders rationally arrange their
working and rest time. Some riders might tend to spend
time with their family at the expense of squeezing their
working hours. It means that they can adjust the
relationship between salaries and consumption relatively
freely in the labor process through flextime system, so as
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to obtain a more balanced work and life arrangement.
However, the boundary between the riders’ working
time and life time becomes blurred in this flextime system.
Both working time and leisure time of riders can be turned
into working hours. Therefore, under the seemingly free
flextime system, a 24-hour work system that transcends
the boundary between working time and life time is
produced. In the name of giving riders freedom to work,
the platform seems to provide riders with more job
opportunities on the individual level, but they have
obtained more labor for capital operation on the overall
level.
Marx once analyzed industrial labor time in Das
Kapital, and regarded labor time as an important element
to reveal the capitalists’ exploitation of workers’ surplus
value. However, 24-hour market needs ever-bright city in
the post electric power era. Smart phones and ordering
platforms become more and more popular in the era of big
data. It makes 24-hour flextime system become a new,
well-packaged method of labor control and labor
exploitation. Because of the convenient flow of
information today, this method has been rapidly improved.
Constructed quantitative and standardized system makes
the food delivery riders become executors of external
labor instructions. Their subjective factors gradually
disappear, and the labor becomes more and more objective.
Riders are potentially alienated into labor machines in the
process of objective labor ([5]).
4.3 Big data monitoring
Through big data technology, platforms carry out real-
time monitoring and data collection on the labor process
of food delivery riders, forming labor control under
accurate calculation.
To be specific (see Fig.3), platform system keeps track
of food pick-up and delivery through the Global
Positioning System in smart phone carried by each rider,
which can cover the whole process of indoor food pick-up
and outdoor food delivery. What is more, platform are
connected with the movement recording module of the
rider’s smart phone, so that the age, height, weight and
other characteristics can be easily obtained. These data can
be combined with traffic, weather and other data to form a
black box of precise calculation. Calculation results of the
black box (including delivery order of recommended
meals, specific routes, latest delivery time, parking points
and traffic safety reminders, etc.) are directly instructing
millions of riders. These figures are calculated to regulate
labor process of riders in time and space. Riders’
flexibility in space and time is greatly limited. If riders
adjust the route on his own and suffer a complaint from
consumer, rider will take the main responsibility and face
the punishment from the platform. On the contrary, if food
delivery is carried out completely according to the results
of the platforms, the platform will give a certain degree of
tolerance to delivery mistakes. More riders have no choice
but to accept the platforms big data control due to the cost
of time occupation, the domino effect (which affects the
delivery of the next order), and the loyalty crisis of defying
data control.
Fig. 3. Flow chart of riders’ labor process under digital control
Different from the numerical control in industrial
automation production, the platform system uses data to
realize the digital control of the riders. The characteristics
of digital control are as follows. First, the object of digital
control is the rider. Second, data has the value of analysis
that exceeds itself in the context of big data and Internet
plus. The analysis results are applied to the management
of matching, time estimate, route planning, space and time
supervision and so on. Third, the data of digital control
exists everywhere. Riders, consumers, merchants, road
sections, weather, etc. have all become the data basis for
maintaining the labor order. Finally, the digital control
process is secret. Platforms secretly collect and analyzes
data and uses it to manage food delivery riders so that the
control of the labor process is hidden and intelligent.
5 Conclusion
With the promotion of the platform economy, labor control
of capital has extended to new industries, such as food
delivery services. Huge and orderly delivery system is
convenient for consumers, but prosperity is based on the
unreasonable control of capital over laborers. Based on
Marx’s labor process theory and related research results,
this paper conducts an empirical study on the labor process
of millions of Chinese food delivery workers.
This research finds that the platform combines online
and offline comprehensive management, flextime system
and big data monitoring to manage millions of drivers
work in order. External manifestation of these
management is to assist and guide the food delivery work,
but it is actually the invisibility of labor control
management. It not only weakens riders’ willingness to
resist, strengthens subordinate degree of workers to the
platform, and even makes the food delivery riders
misunderstand freedom.
The ultimate value of the Marxism’s labor process
theory is the realization of the free and comprehensive
development of human beings. Therefore, we need to
further explore that under the platform economy.
Technological development should avoid making humans
become machines and even slaves of capitals.
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Furthermore, platform companies should actively assume
social responsibilities and pay attention to honesty and
moral integrity.
The authors suggest that platform companies should be
people-oriented and take social responsibilities in system
construction and technology application. To realize the
fairness and justice of the system based on the interests of
hired laborers, they should have the quality of integrity
and do the right thing. Therefore, platforms must observe
social integrity, enhance business ethics, eliminate
technological alienation and deprivation to realize the real
freedom of millions of food delivery riders might
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