WHEN a food delivery order was announced on his phone, He Weixing, a freshman at Guangdong Polytechnic of Water Resources and Electrical Engineering in Guangzhou, immediately rode his e-bike to get the food from a restaurant in Futian District and rushed to the destination.

This June, on the invitiation of his brother, He came to Shenzhen to work as a part-time food courier for Ele.me, an on-demand meal ordering and delivery platform.

He successfully became a food deliveryman after completing the training arranged by the platform. Day and night, he rode through the streets and alleys of Futian, going back and forth between restaurants and high-rise buildings in the district.

He said that he had done some other part-time jobs, such as handing out leaflets and serving at restaurants, before he came to Shenzhen, but this was the first time he had tried being a food deliveryman.

Due to his unfamiliarity with road conditions and restaurant locations, He said he had encountered a lot of setbacks and would often arrive late in the beginning. The number of meals he delivered per day was no more than 15.

He finished his part-time job as a food courier Saturday having earned more than 7,000 yuan (US$975) over the past two months. In an interview with the Shenzhen Evening News, He said he completed about 1,300 food delivery orders in the two months, and his record was around 40 orders in a single day.

According to a recent report released by Ele.me, the number of college students working as part-time food couriers in Shenzhen ranks seventh in China. Among these students, which include both local college students and those from other cities, some work during the summer vacation, while others work in their spare time during the school year.

However, being a food courier isn’t as simple as picking up and delivering food. Liu Yuanzhou, a freshman at Guangzhou Panyu Polytechnic, lost money before he got his salary one time because he spilled some food.

Liu told a reporter from the News that due to lack of experience and bumpy roads, he spilled a customer’s soup and had to compensate the customer 26 yuan.

In a number of interviews with these college students, the reporter from the News learned that many of them considered Shenzhen citizens relatively kind-hearted.

“Previously, many people would require us to deliver the food more quickly. But now, they especially ask us to put safety first,” He told the reporter.

According to the report on Ele.me, nearly 40 percent of the college students said they had felt a change in their temperament and personality after experiencing the work of a food courier, and they had learned how to communicate modestly and treat people gently.

Ele.me said there are more than 300 college students working part-time as food deliverymen for the platform in Shenzhen this year.

(Zhang Yu)