JD Logistics IPO: How the company’s delivery army spurred the rise of Richard Liu’s multibillion-dollar empire
- JD Logistics, slated for a Hong Kong listing, employs hundreds of thousands of full-time couriers and millions more contract workers
- The massive delivery crew is known for its reliable and speedy services, but also accounts for one of the company’s largest expenditures
On a recent chilly afternoon, a dozen couriers in red JD Logistics uniforms were sorting through a mountain of parcels spilling from a giant truck parked in a distribution station outside a residential complex in Beijing.
Quickly and quietly, the delivery drivers – all in their 20s and 30s – loaded the goods onto their electric tricycles and vans, ready to complete the last leg of the packages’ long journey from vendors to customers.
One of them is a man in his early 30s surnamed Liu, who was stuffing about 40 boxes and bags in various shapes and sizes into his van, destined for a nearby residential block that is home to about 1,600 families.
A migrant worker from the primarily rural province of Henan in central China, Liu said he has been working for JD Logistics for nearly a year. He found that the job pays better than his previous gig in the provincial capital Zhengzhou at the city’s sprawling Foxconn factory, the world’s largest iPhone plant.
Liu said he made about 5,000 yuan (US$773) a month at Foxconn during peak season, but less than 2,000 yuan during the slow days. In contrast, he can earn roughly 10,000 yuan a month on his current job if he works hard enough.