Recently, an emerging job called online-booking distributor (网约配送员) is increasingly prevailing in first- and second-tier cities in China. Online-booking distributor refers to a service person who receives orders from clients on mobile Internet platforms and delivers items to the certain places, according to the route designed by the platforms, in an appointed time. For example, Meituan has the service “running errands & buying on behalf” (跑腿代购), which implies that platform users can place an order that asks to send or buy for them, and a nearby online-booking distributor may either automatically receive the order or take it by him/herself. It shows on the platform that “orders will be received faster if customers add some tips”. The flexibility of the way distributors get an order and the amount of money they earn from it make them different from traditional takeaway riders——they are largely assigned with orders and they get fixed paid from each.
In February this year, online-booking distributor was listed as a new formal occupation in the national classification of occupation. After the outbreak of the pandemic, while many residents stayed indoors, online-booking distributor became remarkably significant, promising the public the basic supply of necessity and meals. It is said that some users make an purchase order while noting “help me kill the cockroach”, “unblock the toilet for me plz”, suggesting that on one hand the working time of distributors are more flexible than riders, on the other hand they could provide many convenience services beyond imagination. Thus, comments like “online-booking distributor are the new core constitution of the infrastructure of local life” thrive online. As Larkin argues, “Infrastructures are built networks that facilitate the flow of goods, people, or ideas and allow for their exchange over space. ” Essentially, this emerging job is supported by an advanced real-time logistic network, which should be considered as the infrastructure that effectively operate the labor of the distributors. This network features planning of the delivery route, estimation of time, and real-time locating, etc. These technologies are distinguished from infrastructure in a sense that infrastructure “are objects that create the grounds on which other objects operate, and when they do so they operate as system”.
Distributors, as an entity, could be seen as physical infrastructure under the control of the logistic network. As infrastructure’s ontology lies in the facts that “they are things and also the relation between things”, distributors serve as bridges between stores and customers, people and people. But when considered as individuals, they are undoubtedly human rather than objects. Although no distributors want delivery timeout happens, they sometimes encounter unexpected incidents on the way of delivery and to avoid having their wages deducted, they are forced to break traffic rules or cut across alleys that electric bikes are not allowed to enter, drawing on their social relationship——they may succeed if they have a good relationship with, for example, the security guards. Overall, they have to conform to the logistic system unconditionally once they are involved. Nevertheless, the engineer of the top-level design would constantly “improve” the system by setting new regulations to reduce “inappropriate behaviors” like rule-breaking and cutting-across, neglecting the safety and workload of the distributors. In this case, high-tech infrastructure is perfecting, leaving the underneath human infrastructure in chaos.
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