好英语网几分钟内送达的代价：在极限中奔忙的印度外卖骑手大军
The clock was ticking.
时间不等人。
Weaving at high speeds through the traffic of Hyderabad, a city in southern India, Shivam Tirupati Niralwar, 29, ran through red lights and drove into oncoming traffic. He would do whatever it took to fulfill his mission: Deliver an order of fried okra to a 25-year-old office worker in no more than 11 minutes.
29岁的希瓦姆·蒂鲁帕蒂·尼拉瓦尔在印度南部城市海得拉巴街上的车流中快速穿行，闯过红灯，向着迎面而来的车辆驶去。他要不惜一切代价完成自己的任务：在11分钟内将一份炸秋葵送到一名25岁的上班族手中。
印度海得拉巴，希瓦姆·蒂鲁帕蒂·尼拉瓦尔（中）骑车前往送货目的地。
Mr. Niralwar is part of an army of drivers working for Indian delivery apps that are competing fiercely — some say dangerously — to see just how fast a restaurant meal, an evening’s cooking supplies or an iPhone can be conveyed to a waiting customer.
尼拉瓦尔是为印度送货应用打工的骑手大军的一员，这些应用的竞争十分激烈（有些人称之为危险），看餐馆的一顿饭菜、晚餐食材或一台iPhone能以多快的速度送到等待的顾客手中。
Quick commerce has become the norm in many countries. But some Indian companies are pushing the bounds of logistics and endurance. The service Mr. Niralwar works for, Swiggy Instamart, promises grocery deliveries “in minutes.” A competitor, Zepto, puts a number on its alacrity: 10 minutes or less. Others offer same-day delivery of heavy appliances, or package pickup in an hour or two.
快商务已成为许多国家的常态。但一些印度企业正在挑战物流和耐力的极限。尼拉瓦尔所在的Swiggy Instamart公司承诺“几分钟内”就能送货上门。竞争对手Zepto则对速度做出了规定：不超过10分钟。还有公司可以将沉重的电器当日送达，或一两小时内前来取件。
Companies like these, which have proliferated during the pandemic, are offering deliveries at ever lower prices and with ever-shorter wait times in hopes of achieving scale in a crowded market. They are under intense pressure to find the right formula as domestic and foreign investors pour in billions of dollars, hoping to pick winners that will one day turn a profit.
疫情期间，这样的企业大量涌现，以更低的价格和更短的等待时间提供配送服务，希望在竞争激烈的市场实现规模化运作。随着无数国内外投资的涌入，希望挑选出有朝一日能够盈利的赢家，这些企业面临寻找正确经营之道的巨大压力。
As these new ventures test whether the market demands 10-minute deliveries of loaves of bread or packets of masala, the burden falls disproportionately on the drivers — a seemingly endless supply of young people, mostly men, willing to work long hours under hair-thin deadlines for a few dollars a day.
在这些新创企业检验市场是否要求10分钟内送达一条条面包或一包包马萨拉的时候，负担就不成比例地落到了骑手身上，这是一群似乎用之不竭的年轻人，其中大部分是男性，愿意为了一天几美元的工资在极短的限期中长时间劳作。
“Somebody has to pay for that,” said Saibal Kar, a professor of economics at the Center for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata. “Unfortunately, it’s the workers.”
“总有人要为此付出代价，”加尔各答社会科学研究中心的经济学教授赛巴尔·卡尔说。“很遗憾，现在是工人在付。”
India’s economy is growing at the fastest pace of any major country, fueled by corporate earnings and middle-class consumption of the sorts of goods these companies are rushing to deliver.
印度是经济增长最快的大国，这主要得益于企业盈利和中产阶级对这些企业争相运送的商品的消费。
But there has been no commensurate growth in steady jobs in India’s deeply unequal society. That has left the legions of working poor who toil as delivery drivers to serve a middle class that they have fewer and fewer hopes of ever entering.
但在印度这个极度不平等的社会中，稳定的工作岗位却没有相应的增长。这使得大批做送货骑手这种苦活的穷忙族为中产阶级服务，而他们自己成为中产的希望却越来越渺茫。
Millions have been pushed into gig work as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has moved to privatize public entities and cut red tape, enacting a series of changes to labor regulations that have diluted protections for workers.
随着莫迪总理将公共实体私有化，减少繁文缛节，对劳动法规进行了导致劳工保护被削弱的一系列改革，无数人被迫打起了零工。
The number of gig workers is projected to reach 23.5 million in 2030, nearly triple the number in 2020, according to a June report by Niti Aayog, a government research agency.
根据政府研究机构Niti Aayog在6月发布的一份报告，到2030年，印度的零工工人数量预计将达到2350万，几乎是2020年的三倍。
With India’s public sector shrinking, the informal sector now accounts for more than nine out of 10 jobs, International Labor Organization data show. Such jobs, without guaranteed health insurance, social security or pensions, range from the treacherous — construction work without hard hats or other protective gear, or assembly-line labor in illegal firetrap factories — to the merely miserable.
国际劳工组织的数据显示，随着印度公共部门萎缩，如今10个工作岗位中灰色经济占到了九个以上。这类工作没有医保、社保或养老金的保障，有的是危险工种——没有安全帽或其他防护装备的建筑工作，或是无消防设施的非法厂房里的流水线工人——有的则完全就是惨不忍睹。
Work as a delivery driver can seem a better alternative. Delivery app companies dangle offers of 45,000 rupees per month, or more than $540, in targeted ads on social media, about double the country’s median income.
做送货骑手似乎是更好的选择。送货应用公司在社交媒体上定向投放广告，开出月薪4.5万卢比（约合人民币3700元）的条件，这大约是印度收入中位数的一倍。
But drivers say they rarely earn anything close. What they do get is constant hounding by customers and automated calls from the companies to go faster. The algorithms that assign orders, they say, reward drivers with high ratings, which are based on the speed and number of past deliveries. Drivers say delays — regardless of the reason — can mean a reduction in assignments or even a suspension, pressure that sometimes pushes drivers to put themselves in danger.
但骑手们表示，他们实际挣到的钱远远少于这个数字。他们要面对的是客户不断的催促，以及公司自动打来的要求他们加速的电话。他们说，分配订单的算法按照高评分给骑手奖励，而评分又是根据骑手的送货速度和数量来计算。骑手们说，不管什么原因，只要延误都可能意味着任务减少甚至暂停，这样的压力有时就迫使骑手不顾自身安全。
Mr. Niralwar joins other delivery app drivers every evening as they mill about in a dusty, unpaved parking area in Hyderabad. They chat between orders, lifting pant legs to compare motorcycle injuries.
每天晚上，尼拉瓦尔都和其他送货应用的骑手一起，在海得拉巴一个尘土飞扬、没铺过路的停车区来回穿梭。他们会在送单的间隙闲聊，提起裤腿比较各自骑摩托车时受的伤。
Ankit Bhatt, 33, moved to Hyderabad four years ago so that his wife could take a job at a call center. Without a college degree, he had more limited employment options: low-paying retail or informal manual labor.
为了让妻子在一家呼叫中心找到工作，33岁的安吉·巴特四年前搬到了海得拉巴。他没有大学学位，就业选择更加有限：只能从事低薪零售业或非正规的体力劳动。
Ready to begin his evening shift for Swiggy Instamart, Mr. Bhatt tried to log in but found that his ID had been temporarily blocked — punishment, he said, for failing to deliver an order after his motorcycle clutch had given out.
在准备开始在Swiggy Instamart的夜班之前，巴特登录时发现自己的账号被暂时屏蔽，他说这是惩罚，因为他在摩托车离合器失灵之后有一单没能送达。
“You could be sick, you could have an accident, your bike could have mechanical issues. You will be penalized for that,” Mr. Bhatt said.
“你可能生病，可能出了事故，车子可能遇到机械故障。你都会因此受到惩罚，”巴特说。
A Swiggy spokeswoman said delivery workers “are never disincentivized for a delay or failure in delivery due to unavoidable circumstances.” The company deactivates accounts, she said, only when workers are found to be in violation of the company’s “code of conduct.”
Swiggy的发言人表示，送货员“从来不会因为不可抗力导致的送货延误或失败而被惩罚”。她表示，只有当员工被发现违反公司的“行为准则”，其账户才会被停用。
Zepto, the Swiggy competitor, said its model is more about the short distances drivers travel and not their speed. It said it calls them to provide navigation help when they fall behind on orders.
Swiggy的竞争对手Zepto表示，该公司的模式更多关注的是骑手的短距离行驶，而不是他们的速度。该公司表示，如果骑手未能按时完成订单，会打电话为他们提供导航帮助。
Like many others, Mr. Bhatt delivers for several companies. He recently tried out Zepto but found the pressure overbearing.
和其他许多人一样，巴特为好几家公司送货。他最近尝试了Zepto，但发现压力太大了。
“I started getting calls from the company saying, ‘Where are you? Come to the store! Your ID will be blocked otherwise.’ I told them I can’t do this,” he said.
“我开始接到公司的电话，问我，‘你在哪儿？过来店里！否则你的账号将被禁用。’我告诉他们我做不了，”他说。
Shaik Salauddin, a driver for the ride-sharing app Ola, persuaded Mr. Bhatt and about 26,000 more like him to join a new union in the state of Telangana, where Hyderabad is the capital. The union is pushing for better safety standards, insurance and other driver benefits.
谢克·萨洛丁是拼车应用Ola的一名司机，他说服巴特和其他大约2.6万名像他一样的人加入了位于特伦甘纳邦首府海得拉巴的一个新工会。工会正在推动更好的安全标准、保险和其他司机福利。
Mr. Salauddin is firmly opposed to the ultrafast delivery model, which he says is neither safe nor necessary. “There are accidents, and people die,” he said. (There are no official figures on injuries and deaths among drivers.)
萨洛丁坚决反对超快速配送模式，他认为这种模式既不安全也没有必要。“发生事故，有人死亡，”他说。（没有关于司机伤亡的官方数据。）
To fulfill orders that quickly, Swiggy and Zepto have strategically placed distribution warehouses in cities across India, concentrating them in areas with the highest demand.
为了快速完成订单，Swiggy和Zepto在印度各城市精心选址设立了配送仓库，将它们集中在需求最高的地区。
Inside a Zepto “dark” store — a fulfillment center closed to customers — in south Delhi one recent day, a clock on a big screen flashed a 60-second countdown. Alisha, a store packer who goes by one name, zoomed past aisles of cereal and tea to grab bags of cauliflower, garlic and spinach, placing the items in a paper sack and putting it on a color-coded shelf. A booming timer alarm went off every few minutes.
最近一天，在德里南部的一家Zepto“黑暗”商店——一个不对顾客开放的配货中心，大屏幕上的时钟闪烁着60秒的倒计时。阿利莎是一名商店包装员，她快速穿过麦片和茶叶货架，抓起一袋袋花椰菜、大蒜和菠菜，将这些物品放在一个纸袋中，然后放在一个用颜色编码的架子上。每隔几分钟，定时器就会大声响起。
Ms. Alisha, 23, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in art, said the job, which requires her to be on her feet from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., earns her barely enough to pay rent and help support her aging parents.
23岁的阿利莎正在攻读艺术学士学位，她说这份工作要求她从早上7点起就忙活起来。到下午4点，她的收入仅够支付房租和帮助供养年迈的父母。
She said she often felt overwhelmed. “Customers get angry and complain if they don’t get their orders on time,” she said. “They don’t think about us.”
她说她经常感到不堪重负。“如果客户没有按时收到订单，他们会生气并抱怨，”她说。“他们不考虑我们。”
Zepto, which was founded by two Stanford University dropouts struggling to feed themselves during the pandemic lockdown in Mumbai, calls drivers the “lifeblood of our ecosystem.” The company offers benefits that others don’t, like a place for drivers to sit down and a bathroom at its delivery hubs.
Zepto是由两名斯坦福大学辍学生创立的，他们在孟买的大流行封锁期间难以买到食物。他们称司机是“我们生态系统的命脉”。该公司提供其他公司没有的福利，比如让司机可以坐下的地方，以及在配货中心设置洗手间。
For many drivers, “this is the only way they can get quick access to capital that is reliable, without much risk to being exploited in the depths of urban India,” said Aadit Palicha, one of Zepto’s co-founders.
Zepto的联合创始人之一阿迪特·帕里查表示，对于许多司机来说，“这是他们能够快速获得可靠资本的唯一途径，而且不会面临在深不可测的印度城市被剥削的风险。”
Still, Zepto’s average pay is low — about 20,000 rupees, or $240, a month. And there is little time for a driver to sit during a 14-hour shift.
不过，Zepto的平均工资很低——每月大约2万卢比，约合人民币1600元。在14小时轮班期间，司机几乎没有时间坐下。
Mr. Palicha said Zepto’s business was built not on India’s surfeit of workers willing to toil long hours for low pay, but on frequent, fast deliveries.
帕里查说，印度有大量愿意长时间工作以获取低薪的工人，但Zepto的业务并非建立在这之上，而是建立在频繁、快速的交货之上。
“It’s a tempting narrative that this model only works where there is structural inequality,” he said. “But is that the whole story? No, because economic mobility is also happening.”
“人们总会轻易相信这种模式只适用于存在结构性不平等的地方，”他说。“但这就是故事的全部吗？不，因为同时还带来了经济流动性。”
Still, drivers’ meager earnings are evident in Hyderabad, where Mr. Niralwar pulled a Swiggy hoodie over his frame in Room No. 307 at a men’s hostel that he shares with two other men.
尽管如此，在海得拉巴，司机明显赚着微薄的收入。在一家男子青年旅舍的307号房间，尼拉瓦尔和另外两个男人合住，他套了一件Swiggy连帽衫。
Mr. Niralwar’s scant savings go to his two sisters, both of whom are planning to marry this year. When he has time, he hops a train home to the western Indian state of Maharashtra, where he recently started a graduate degree in social work.
尼拉瓦尔微薄的积蓄都花在了他的两个姐妹身上，她们都计划在今年结婚。有空的时候，他会搭火车回到印度西部的马哈拉施特拉邦的家中，最近他在那里开始攻读社会工作研究生学位。
As he logged in to the Swiggy app, ready to start a new shift, he reflected on how the demands of delivery work left no time for love.
当他登录Swiggy应用程序，准备开始新的轮班时，他反思了送货工作的需求如何让他没有时间去寻找爱。
The job, he said, is all “about time.”
他说，这份工作只有“争分夺秒”。