Chen Hu finally learned a despairing truth from the deliveryman. This deliveryman had indeed been a rider for Dida Delivery, and even a month ago, he was still one of the last 500 riders in the entire city.
But in the end, the deliveryman left because Dida Delivery suddenly announced that all riders would be equipped with brand-new uniforms. These uniforms were said to have excellent sweat-absorbing properties and strong windproof capabilities.
At first, the riders were happy, but later they were informed that these uniforms were not given for free but were to be sold to all riders at a price of 200 yuan per set.
The riders thought they could endure it, but then they discovered that each person was issued a staggering 30 sets of uniforms, and 6,000 yuan was deducted from their delivery fees.
Dida Delivery didn't even have to worry about these deliverymen refusing to pay, as the money would be directly deducted from every order they completed.
Dida Delivery probably knew that deducting too much would cause these riders to leave, so they only deducted one yuan per order, with a maximum deduction of 20 yuan per day, meaning it would take about a year to settle the full amount.
This might sound like a tolerable outcome, but Dida Delivery seemed to have forgotten that within a few months, they had successively provided riders with dedicated electric scooters, special rainproof covers, specialized boots, and helmets.
None of these were free; they were all directly deducted from the riders' daily delivery fees. The result was that about 50% of the fees from a single delivery went towards various deductions.
This was why almost all Dida Delivery riders left within a few months. This particular rider, unable to bear it any longer, also left a month ago, taking his thirty sets of uniforms with him.
As a consequence, all the deposits he had paid to the labor company were forfeited.
Chen Hu wasn't just privy to this one rider's experience. Perhaps sensing Chen Hu's intent to investigate the chaos in its subordinate branches, the deliveryman, upon learning that Chen Hu was there to specifically address the irregularities, poured out everything he knew.
For instance, according to him, almost all of Dida Delivery's orders were fake and non-existent.
There were secret agreements between some internal company personnel and certain merchants. These merchants would create numerous small accounts and place orders for their own shops through these accounts.
These orders were then assigned to riders arranged by the local branches. However, these riders never actually had to go to the shops to pick up anything. They only needed to confirm receipt within the last few minutes of the scheduled delivery time after receiving the order notification.
The merchants who supposedly sent the items didn't need to actually deliver them either; they simply needed to click on "dish preparation successful."
Some might wonder how this system generated profit.
Even if the merchants had no cost for virtual shipments and virtual receipts, wouldn't Dida Delivery need to take a commission from each order? And wouldn't they have to pay delivery fees?
Commissions were indeed necessary. However, to retain merchants, Dida Delivery's commission rate was always quite low, around 14%. The delivery fees essentially offset this 14% commission. For large orders, Dida Delivery could make a considerable profit.
In other words, with such fake shipments, merchants would likely have to pay a 14% fee, which, by all accounts, seemed like a loss-making proposition.
However, this portion of the fee was borne by Dida Delivery's local branches. After the fake orders were completed, these branches would refund the merchants a 16% commission.
This commission would ultimately cover all the merchants' costs, and the merchants would still make a 2% profit.
While 2% might seem small, considering that each store processed tens of thousands of orders, sometimes 20,000 to 30,000 orders per month, with an average order value of around 50 yuan, merchants could earn about one yuan per order.
Tens of thousands of orders translated to tens of thousands of yuan in profit, and 20,000 to 30,000 orders meant 20,000 to 30,000 yuan in earnings, which was definitely a significant income. Merchants were naturally very willing to cooperate with Dida Delivery's local branches on such schemes.
But what was the motivation for Dida Delivery's local branches? What did they gain? Where did they get the 16% commission to refund to these merchants?
First, the 14% commission that was taken was primarily used to pay the deliverymen's fees.
Since the deliverymen were also fake, impersonated by the local branch staff, this money would naturally end up in the hands of the local branch staff, who would then return it to the merchants.
In addition to this, Dida Delivery would periodically restart subsidy wars. When subsidies were re-introduced, there would be a subsidy of about 10 yuan for almost every order.
These subsidy funds would ultimately go to the merchants. For example, if a merchant virtually shipped takeout worth 50 yuan, the merchant who faked the order would only pay 40 yuan. After deducting the 14% commission, the amount received by the merchant would be around 43 yuan, meaning the merchant still made a profit of three yuan.
However, this money was not the merchant's income. According to the agreement, they had to return the additional 10 yuan subsidy money entirely to the accounts of the local branch staff. Afterward, the staff would then provide them with the normal 16% fee, and the merchant would still only earn their original one yuan profit. The extra 10 yuan subsidy money would all go to the local branch.
More precisely, it went to the leaders of the local branches. This was why these local branches were engaged in such activities – the profits were simply too exorbitant.
Within just a few months, the leaders of various local branches had essentially bought luxury homes and cars and were living lives of financial freedom.
The only issue was that they were pocketing the subsidy money that was meant for the users.
Of course, this deliveryman couldn't possibly know all these intricate details. He only knew that almost all the orders were fake. The rest of the information was the result of Chen Hu's investigation through his trusted confidants.
The method was simple: they directly arrested the senior executives of the local branches and sent them to the local police station. Within a short time, everything was confessed.
Upon learning of this outcome, Chen Hu was completely stunned. Finally, he furiously confronted the branch leader and asked why, despite earning tens of thousands of yuan in salary each month, he still treated the company this way.
Perhaps sensing that he was already in police custody and beyond salvation, the branch leader was no longer polite. He showed no fear towards Chen Hu and directly pointed at Chen Hu's nose, unleashing a torrent of abuse, claiming that Chen Hu had forced his hand.
He said that if the company had continued to engage in subsidy wars, they would not have had such crooked ideas.
But the problem was that the company later stopped the subsidies and shifted to emphasizing service advantages. This completely baffled them, the branch leaders who were only adept at subsidy tactics.
However, in the beginning, they hadn't had such wicked thoughts; they were merely mechanically executing the head office's orders and then constantly transferring these orders onto the riders.
But the direct consequence of this was that it became increasingly difficult for riders to earn money, and they were subjected to more grievances and had to bear more costs.
On the other hand, Ebu Pao Waimai, due to its rapid expansion, was recruiting riders at every moment.
Furthermore, they recruited riders not through labor intermediary companies but by signing actual labor contracts with them, ensuring regular working hours and paying social security and housing funds for riders every month.
These benefits were something Dida Delivery could absolutely not provide.
As a result, all the riders voted with their feet.
Since the contracts signed with labor intermediary companies were essentially worthless and had almost no binding power, these riders unhesitatingly left the labor companies and instead signed with Ebu Pao.
As these riders possessed extensive work experience and were very familiar with the local area, Ebu Pao was naturally very willing to recruit such riders. Consequently, the number of Dida Delivery riders dwindled, eventually falling faster than the rate of order loss. The remaining riders could no longer meet the increasing number of orders, leading to continuously extended waiting times for orders.
However, this also had a benefit: it further accelerated the rate of order loss, eventually matching the rate of rider loss, with neither side gaining an advantage.
This outcome naturally plunged the various local branches into despair. Meanwhile, Chen Hu, seeing the company's data continuously plummeting, began to suspect the senior management of the local branches and wanted to exert pressure to force these branches to show results.
But the problem was that Dida Delivery was already beyond saving. It was impossible to reverse the situation. In order to meet the monthly order quotas constantly imposed by the head office, to avoid being fired, and to live a slightly better life.
Thus, one or two daring branch companies began to engage in the trick of artificially inflating their performance through self-generated orders. As a result, these two daring branch companies were immediately commended by Chen Hu. After all, their results had improved, and orders and riders had begun to rebound. Chen Hu wouldn't commend those who were continuously declining, would he?
Consequently, the various regional branch companies misunderstood and followed suit. The performance of each branch naturally began to surge again. As for the few branch companies that refused to do so, they were all optimized out due to poor performance.
Under these circumstances, Dida Delivery naturally presented an excellent performance record that could be listed in the United States.
Some might wonder, given such widespread and systematic cheating, was Chen Hu, as the company's leader, completely unaware of everything from beginning to end? This seemed utterly ridiculous.
But in reality, Chen Hu was indeed kept in the dark from start to finish. In fact, besides him and a few trusted confidants, almost everyone else in the head office was aware of the situation below. However, they were all in complete agreement to strictly keep Chen Hu and his absolute confidants in the dark. All the relevant information reported to them was screened, ensuring that no information they disliked Chen Hu seeing was presented.
In other words, the entire head office of Dida Delivery had completely rotted.