Gu Zhong： ＂Dancing＂ attracted 46 deaf-mute couriers.
CCTV News:A helmet, a battery car, behind the battery car body is a large storage box with large and small express boxes inside. At first glance, these couriers in Hongkou District of Shanghai are no different from ordinary couriers, and they are already familiar with local residents. But if you look closely at the red vests they wear in uniform, you will find that the words "deaf-mute delivery" printed on them are silently telling them that they are hearing-impaired people who can’t hear and speak.
They come from a team called "Wusheng Express", a newly established company in Shanghai, which is the first company specializing in recruiting deaf people. Gu Zhong, 36, is the initiator of this project.
Silent express, exploring a new mode of employment for the disabled
Before recruiting deaf-mute people to deliver express delivery, Gu Zhong had been engaged in social work to help disabled friends for many years. At the beginning of this year, he contracted a charity supermarket in the community and suddenly encountered an epidemic. In order to find a way out for the deaf-mute friends in the supermarket, Gu Zhong thought of a way to let them try to deliver the courier first, although he was not sure whether it would work.
Just do it, Gu Zhong began to take the initiative to contact the partners of the surrounding express delivery. However, everything is difficult at the beginning. How many difficulties will deaf people with communication difficulties encounter in delivering express delivery? No one expected it, which led to basically no courier willing to accept it when he went to talk. Later, Gu Zhong finally finalized the cooperation by negotiating and piloting with the head office of the express delivery.
Finding the channel is the first step. At first, everyone’s business was not skilled. On-time delivery and on-time delivery are the most basic requirements of the express delivery industry. Being familiar with every street in the distribution area is also an essential housekeeping skill for every courier. The high-rise buildings, staggered alleys and irregular street signs in Shanghai make Gu Zhong’s couriers confused. Gu Zhong and his team members had to teach them a little bit over and over again. The master with delivery experience would take them everywhere to recognize the building. The couriers drew a map by themselves and then looked at the map on the mobile phone, so that they could remember it firmly.
Recalling the scene at that time, Gu Zhong said that basically everyone has lost one or two pieces every day, and the only way to deal with it is to lose money.
How to deliver the courier to the user? It is the real test for deaf-mute couriers. In order to help them enter the community and open the access control with walkie-talkies, Gu Zhong’s team specially recorded a voice: Hello, I am a deaf delivery staff, and your courier has arrived. But because they can’t hear the sound, these little brothers sometimes don’t know at all, and there is no answer at the end of the recording that has been playing circularly.
When will someone receive the courier at home and where should I put it? A sound person who can figure out these problems can do it with a phone call, but the deaf courier has to send several short messages in succession. When you meet an old man who is inconvenient to type, or a more anxious customer, a phone call will make the courier brother who can’t answer feel at a loss. In order to cope with these situations, Gu Zhong developed the supermarket staff into customer service, and all calls to the courier were directly transferred to the customer service mobile phone. They also established a WeChat working group to connect the needs of couriers and customers as soon as possible.
After three or four months of trying to run in, the daily delivery volume of Wusheng couriers in Hongkou District has basically reached 150 to 300, with equal pay for equal work, which is basically the same as that of health couriers.
Have a platform and an opportunity to open up a new world for deaf friends.
The hot weather in Shanghai has not yet receded. At about 3 pm, Xu Shengliang rode an electric car to the front of a residential building and played a mobile phone voice on the walkie-talkie of the security door: "Hello, I am a deaf delivery staff, and your courier has arrived." After the door opened, he flew all the way up to the sixth floor.
This is the fifth time that Xu Shengliang has climbed the 6th floor to deliver the package today. After running downstairs sweating all over, he said in sign language: "customers are in a hurry to wait for the express delivery. It is inconvenient for us deaf people to communicate with each other, and we want to deliver it to customers as soon as possible."
After being unemployed at home for more than a year, 27-year-old Xu Shengliang, like other 39 deaf brothers, has a new identity — — "My voice courier". According to the calculation of one yuan per order, he can now earn eight or nine thousand yuan a month. Because of his good reaction and communication skills, he is Gu Zhong’s "right-hand man" and was recently promoted to group leader.
Although the express delivery business of Gu Zhong’s team is now on the right track, the complaint mode of the express delivery company has also caused them to stumble in the earlier "painful period". "Even if a phone call to a courier company is a complaint, a complaint will be punished by 60 yuan, which will make them unwilling to do it and their mentality will collapse." Gu Zhong said.
It is already night, and Gu Zhong is still patiently teaching the courier buddy in sign language in the courier warehouse. How to contact, how to deliver, and what to do if the customer refuses to put it in the courier cabinet … … Everything is covered. At present, how to further reduce the complaint rate is a difficult problem that Gu Zhong focuses on. At the beginning of September, Gu Zhong contracted an online shop alone in Putuo District, and all of them recruited hearing-impaired couriers. Different from the previous cooperation with the existing express outlets, this time, he not only contracted the company to evaluate, reward and punish the outlets, but also invested 700,000 to 800,000 yuan to buy equipment and express vehicles, and also added benefits such as accommodation and dinner to employees. "We also provide five insurances and one gold for the courier, in addition to employer liability insurance and tripartite liability insurance, which can compensate up to 100,000 yuan." Gu Zhong said.
In addition to the protection of wages and rights and interests, this hard but fulfilling job is of far more significance to deaf-mute couriers. Their self-confidence has increased, their sad faces have gradually been replaced by smiles, and more and more people are willing to call on their deaf-mute friends to come and work together. In Gu Zhong’s view, these changes of friends have made him more satisfied.
Born in a deaf-mute family, he wants to bring hope to more children from disabled families.
Because both parents are deaf-mute, Gu Zhong can play authentic "Shanghainese" sign language since childhood. Now, in addition to busy with the work of express outlets, Gu Zhong will spare one or two days a week to insist on doing news sign language broadcasting on TV stations. He hopes that through his own efforts, disabled friends will have the right to know social information in time.
Talking about the original intention of planning this project, Gu Zhong admitted that he did have a little "selfishness": I knew from an early age that children in our family especially needed financial support in their studies, but many families with disabilities could not do so, which led to many children from disabled families going astray. I don’t want them to go my way. It’s very difficult since they were young, and they eat subsidies and subsistence allowances.
At present, "Wusheng Express" is docking with special schools in many places, and plans to recruit deaf-mute people from poverty-stricken areas to work. It is estimated that the team size will reach 300 by the end of the year, and more people will shine here like Xu Shengliang.
"At first, I saw the courier and he gave me a sign language. I didn’t understand it either. I gave him a thumb and he was very happy." An old man smiled and told his first experience of meeting a deaf-mute courier brother. With more and more understanding and appreciation, although the people who are helped can’t say "thank you" to themselves personally, Gu Zhong feels that everything is worth it when he sees many deaf-mute friends running on the road to a better life. (Text/Wang Ruoyi Proofreading/Jiang Cheng)
