Booming food delivery brings new job opportunities for Yunnan locals

Photos from Kaiping News app

“From a long-distance truck driver to a food deliver, it’s not only the change of job, but also the shortened distance to home,” Huang Chunhong said. To take care of her families, Huang decided to buy a scooter and join the food delivery workers earlier this year.

Huang, 42 years old, is from west Yunnan’s Dali. For years, she made a living, together with her husband, by driving long-distance trucks. Most of the time, they had to leave home and send goods to other provinces. Things began to change earlier this year when Huang learned that the food delivering industry boom in Dali and the deliverers have stable income. For the luckiest, the monthly salary can reach 10,000 yuan.

As the internet development brings more business and employment opportunities, the online transaction increases in Yunnan province. Last year, the province’s online retail sale reached 77.941 billion yuan, a year on year increase of 40%. With the development of food delivery industry, more deliverers are needed.

25-year-old Li Chaokun is from southwest Yunnan’s Licang City. He worked for many years in first-tier cities like Guangzhou and Shanghai. At the beginning of this year, Li returned to Kunming, capital city of Yunnan province and became a food deliverer. “In the past, I could only return home once a year. Now, it is more convenient for me to go home and the income is higher,” Li said.

According to the person in charge of Kunming market of the online food delivery service platform ELEME, 85% of food delivery workers are Yunnan locals in the Kunming branch of the company. Results of a survey shows that 93% of deliverers think that being closer to home is the most important reason for them to choose to work in the industry.

“More and more jobs are created in the take-out industry,” said the person in charge of ELEME Kunming market. The platform provides orientation trainings for newly recruited delivery riders, offers rewards for those who have done excellent jobs.

Text from Xinhua; Trans-edited by Zu Hongbing; Photos from Kaiping News app, Wechat pubic account: Qingchun Dali