Why are Waimai Delays Still Ongoing in Beijing?

Last week we reported on waimai delays across the capital due to random lockdowns causing a shortage in delivery drivers. Ever since certain changes in Covid rules, though, the issue has only been exacerbated.

Based on interviews with restaurants and grocery stores in Beijing, the current delay issues have to do with three factors.

More and more delivery drivers are either getting sick with Covid and must wait until they recover to work again, or, if they’re not from Beijing, they’ve returned to their home provinces following an easing in travel restrictions in order to be with their families in the lead up to Chinese New Year.

The third factor at play is many restaurants are working at less than full capacity due to staff falling ill with Covid, meaning it takes more time for food to be prepared.

Combine all this with an uptick in demand thanks to a growing number of people getting stuck at home due to Covid, and you have Beijing's current waimai situation.

Due to shortages and high demand, deliveries can sometimes take two to three hours longer to than the delivery time listed on Meituan or Eleme. This sometimes boils down to choice.

An employee at April Gourmet’s Gongti store explained to the Beijinger that because so many orders are being placed each day, waimai drivers actually get to choose which orders they want to deliver. The employee tells us they notice drivers prefer to deliver orders that have a shorter delivery distance, or ones with a high commission, as they’ll get paid more.

Thus, if you live closer to a particular store or restaurant, your order has a higher chance of getting delivered sooner versus if you’re living more than five kilometers away.

Another thing the April Gourmet employee filled us in on was issues with stores showing up as 休息中 xiuxi zhong (resting) on delivery apps. This generally means that if the number of orders has exceeded their given limit, the store needs to shut for 20 minutes and ship all remaining orders before they can process more.

Such rest times are needed for branches like April Gourmet's Gongti store, which has been handling upwards of 600 orders daily since the rise in demand, when the store was usually handling around 200 orders a day prior to this.

Delivery apps like Sherpa's are finding ways to deal with the crisis by outsourcing deliveries. "We rely on our own delivery team, and drivers will start work again immediately after recovering," says marketing director Olivia Guo. "We also contact other delivery platform drivers such as those working for Shansong and Meituan, who are able to help during peak times to ensure our user experience."

Thus, even though Sherpa's is, like other delivery services, still affected by a shortage of drivers and the fact that restaurants may need more time to prepare food, "our own delivery team can still reach an 85 percent on-time delivery rate" says Guo.

At the end of the day, a little patience is key in times like these. Also, tipping a delivery driver whenever possible can be a little act that goes a long way.

READ: How to Use Delivery Apps Meituan and Eleme

Images: Unsplash