Although the supervisor had already made it clear that he intended to hire Ryan, the interview hadn't actually concluded. This was because Ryan began to inquire about his own compensation.
"So, the base salary of $2,000 is enough for me to live on, but finding a job that pays $2,000 in this small town isn't difficult, so this isn't the salary I was expecting. The recruitment ad mentioned that $2,000 is just the base salary, and there's also a performance commission on top of that. I'd like to know how this performance commission is calculated?" Ryan asked.
"Well, I was going to tell you anyway!" the supervisor nodded. "As a delivery person, your job is naturally to transport packages for all users, so the performance salary is calculated based on the number of packages delivered."
"Each delivery person has a basic delivery quota of 30 orders per day. Calculating with 20 working days a month, the monthly basic delivery volume is 600 orders. If the total number of deliveries is less than 600 orders, regardless of the exact number, you will receive the base salary of $2,000. However, if the total exceeds 600 orders, you will receive an additional commission of $2 for each extra order."
"Furthermore, if deliveries are made on non-working days, the workload of one order will be calculated as two orders. This is overtime pay!"
"I understand!" Ryan calculated in his mind. Based on his knowledge of the town, as long as he drove, the farthest community would take no more than 20 minutes to deliver to.
Of course, he wouldn't drive back and forth for just one package. Instead, he would pick up multiple packages and then deliver them along a route, forming a loop. This way, he could maximize his delivery efficiency. He estimated that delivering 30, or even 50, and perhaps even 70 orders a day wouldn't be difficult.
If he could deliver 50 orders a day, his monthly income from just delivering packages could exceed $5,000, returning him to the comfortable income he had as a programmer.
However, the problem was whether the company could provide such a volume of orders and whether he could plan the optimal routes.
The supervisor, sensing Ryan's hesitation, said, "The company's business has just started, and it's difficult to achieve the daily workload of 30 orders in the early stages. Therefore, the company has decided to provide an additional $1,000 subsidy to the basic salary for all employees for the first three months, ensuring their monthly income reaches a minimum of $3,000."
"Whether this policy will continue after three months depends on whether the company's business can exceed the most basic demand of 30 orders per day."
"Additionally, the company has dedicated technical personnel who have developed an automatic order dispatching program that supposedly can automatically plan the optimal routes, but it requires us to input a complete regional map. So, for the next five days, our main task during the day will be to personally draw a map of the nearby roads and then upload it to the company's servers!" the supervisor scratched his head.
"So, we have purchased electronic map services from a map provider, but these electronic maps are not accurate enough. Many roads that have been modified or newly built are not recorded, so we need to manually correct these electronic maps."
"I don't really understand this kind of thing. The company provided a tutorial, but I didn't understand it very well. Since you were a programmer, I'll assign this task to you!"
"Okay!" Ryan nodded. This was precisely his forte, and he was also curious about what kind of automatic route planning program the company could provide. After all, as a professional programmer, programs for automatic route planning could be classified as the lowest level of intelligent programs, requiring extremely strong computer software capabilities. It was astonishing that his company possessed the ability to develop such software!
"I have another question. The advertisement mentioned that we need to provide our own vehicles, preferably trucks like pickup trucks. Does this mean we'll be driving our own trucks during our daily deliveries?"
"If that's the case, will the company pay us for vehicle rental? And how will the fuel costs be calculated?" Ryan asked again.
"The company will provide you with a $1,000 monthly transportation subsidy. Based on calculations, if you deliver 600 orders per month, the $1,000 for fuel costs will leave about $300 remaining. This $300 will be considered the vehicle rental fee! For every additional order delivered, the company will pay an extra $1 in fuel subsidy!" the supervisor explained.
"Great!" Ryan's eyes lit up. In the US, a gallon of gasoline costs around $2.8, and a gallon is equal to 3.8 liters. This means the average price per liter of gasoline is less than 70 cents, which translates to about 5.6 yuan per liter in RMB, similar to the current fuel prices in China.
Therefore, many people tend to say that US gas prices are much cheaper than China's, which is actually inaccurate. In 2005, the exchange rate of fuel prices between the two countries into RMB was indeed roughly the same.
If we calculate based on 2022, the current US gas price is $5.6 per gallon, which translates to about 11 yuan per liter in RMB, even more expensive than current Chinese fuel prices.
Of course, it must be admitted that, most of the time, US gas prices are basically a tiny bit cheaper than Chinese gas prices. And considering the purchasing power of the local currency, US gasoline prices are indeed on the lower side.
However, the issue is that China is a low oil-producing country, and petroleum essentially relies on imports from abroad. The sea and land transportation costs alone constitute a significant expense.
But the US's crude oil production is almost self-sufficient. They refine it directly from domestic sources, saving a large amount of cross-ocean transportation costs. Moreover, the world's largest oil futures trading center is located in the US, which further saves a significant amount on transportation costs. It's no wonder that US oil prices are not lower than China's. xxs one
It's not surprising that PetroChina and Sinopec have been losing money year after year. Of course, there are many hidden issues involved here, but we won't go into that.
To get back to the point, at the current US oil prices, the gasoline consumption for delivering one order is far less than $1. Therefore, there is a profit to be made from the fuel subsidy provided by the company.
Moreover, Ryan had some new ideas. For instance, he knew that there were quite a few electric golf carts in the US. If these golf carts were used for delivering packages, they would consume no gasoline at all. However, according to the company's regulations, the fuel subsidy would still be provided. Wouldn't all the fuel subsidies then become his pure profit?
Thinking of this, Ryan became quite excited. However, considering the speed of golf carts, this seemed like a less profitable choice.
Ryan's mind was racing, so much so that he didn't react when the interviewer repeatedly asked him if he had any more questions. It was only when the interviewer called out a few times impatiently that he snapped back to reality and asked his last question: "Why did you choose someone like me, a 30-year-old with a wife and children?"
"Aren't you worried that someone like me might be constrained by family, and that my physical strength and energy can't compare to young people, preventing me from dedicating myself wholeheartedly to work?"
"Of course, I'm not afraid, because like you, I also have a wife and children!" the supervisor said with a grin. "So, I know exactly how much I cannot afford to lose this job when there are so many mouths at home to feed."
"Also, our work doesn't actually require too much physical exertion, as we're driving most of the time. What we need is seriousness towards work, and good service and attitude towards users!"
"Young people nowadays are all free from family burdens and are incredibly arrogant. If they suffer any grievances from customers, they might even kick the customer. But I think you wouldn't do anything so rash. To keep your job, even if a customer insults you, you would probably accept that humiliation with a smiling face, right!"
The supervisor's words sent a chill down Ryan's spine, but he had to admit that this seemed to be his only option. For this well-paying job, for his wife and children, what else could he do but accept humiliation?
"Hahaha, you don't actually need to worry too much about this!" the supervisor patted Ryan on the shoulder. "Once we officially start working, the company will issue you a work recorder. You don't have to turn this device on normally, but once you encounter a customer who does something unbearable, you can turn on the work recorder to document the entire process!"
"As long as the company confirms that you have been humiliated at work, the company will immediately blacklist that customer and refuse to serve them from then on. It will also provide you with some emotional compensation."
"Although the company cannot compensate you emotionally, it will not let its own people be wronged in material terms!" the supervisor said with a smile.
"That's great, I like material things!" Ryan immediately smiled, then clasped his hands tightly. Ryan thus became a new delivery driver for Oriental Amazon.
On his second day of employment, Ryan began his work again. However, the Oriental Amazon website had not yet been restored. Ryan's job was exactly as stated during the interview: he drove around the entire town, recording all the roads with his wheels, comparing them with the electronic maps provided by the company for corrections, and finally submitting a brand new electronic map to the company headquarters.
This was Ryan's work during the day, but what Ryan didn't expect was that there was still work to be done in the afternoon, and this work seemed to be not work, but eating, drinking, and partying at nightclubs!
Yes, that's right, for the following week during the preparation phase, Ryan performed these tasks using company funds every evening.