A recent news report on KBS shed light on one of the most backbreaking jobs that most people usually don’t think about.
Although the recent trend of globalization has increased the volume and size of packages that require shipping and delivery, the wages of these deliverymen has not gone up to match. In the last decade, deliveries have quadrupled but to cut down on costs, the unit rate per box has fallen over 30%.
In an interview with worker Choi Pil Sun, he shared his daily routine. After his day job working 6am-3:30pm, he revealed, “I usually don’t eat [lunch]. They’re cutting down on the delivery time, and more people are calling in, asking ‘When are you going to make the delivery?’.”
As a result, working 12 hour shifts to deliver 150 packages will only earn about 1,500,000 won (approximately $1,389USD) each month, after deducting the installments paid on trucks, the cost of gas, and other expenses.
Many commenters shared their thoughts, leaving positive and uplifting remarks for the workers:
1. Thank you and sorry.
2. Before saying that they’re deliverymen because they didn’t study, first, you should see that people are divided into those that work with their brains, and manual workers who aren’t treated well. So if they ask for conditions to be improved, the answer they receive is that they slacked off so much in school, so this is the result, and that if they have issues with it, they should study hard to succeed. There are a lot of people who have reasons for becoming deliverymen– after they retired, they needed money for their family’s hospital expenses, or their business failed, not because they were slacking off in school. These are lives they have been given, but yet they struggle and making fun of their hard work is not right. It’s great to study hard, yet it’s fucking worthless to work hard as a manual labor? These narrow-minded losers.
3. I always feel happy when I see a delivery coming. It’s all thanks to the deliverymen. I’m always thankful for what you do. Buck up~~^^
4. I’m a driver working for CJ..In the past, when they had an article about deliverymen, there were a lot of negative comments about deliverymen. But now, most people are expressing their gratitude for deliverymen, so I’m really glad to see that. There are annoying ones from both customers and deliverymen. But most of them are good people. I feel happy, and feel that it’s worthwhile looking at the comments. I will rest up on the holidays, and make more good deliveries, haha.
Check out the report here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx9clEGbzVM
Source: KBS
