The suicide note sent by Jin in the WeChat group
According to media reports, the incident was frequently complained about by truck drivers in the area of traffic law enforcement chaos, and some truck drivers questioned the improper punishment, because the failure of the Beidou positioning system is not intentional and difficult to detect.
The incident is still under investigation.
Truck driver is a high-risk occupation. To face a variety of unknown risks, work intensity, living conditions are also relatively poor. And in this industry, “card wife with the car” “husband and wife car” this unique road freight phenomenon is very common, once the accident, the whole family, will cause devastating blow.
On December 27, 2018, individual truck drivers in Hebei Province, Ni Wanhui, Li Chan couple in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is located in the Wudaoliang area during the delivery of goods, due to alpine hypoxia unfortunately passed away, leaving two still underage children.
The South Wind Window has previously focused on the unique group of “truck wives”, which generally refers to the spouse of a truck driver in China’s road freight industry, who follows the driver to transport goods, but “truck wives” are not even considered a profession and do not have an official name.
10:00 p.m., Fire Village East service area, Master Lin in the truck to look at the phone, Mrs. Lin leaning on his side, a small car is their “home”
Soy skin bagong face
10 pm, east of Guangzhou, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway, Huocun East service area, the sky is clear, but not many cars.
The security guard said that there is no accurate truck coming every day, but there are many husband and wife cars.” As soon as the car stops, the card lady comes down to go to the toilet and wash clothes.”
“The most inconvenient thing is that many service areas do not have showers, but the hot day, not in the service area more can not take a shower.” When I met Sister Lin, she was wearing slippers, a saggy dressing gown, and her hair was stuck to her forehead from the heat and humidity. She was carrying a small white bucket with toiletries and was on her way to the bathroom to “take a shower”.
There is no shower room, so the card ladies in the car usually have such a small white bucket, some hot water mixed with some cool water, in the bathroom casually flush. Summer can also be so wash, winter is more difficult to suffer. In February this year, because of the rush, Mrs. Lin on the road for 10 days without a bath.
There is no shower in the service area, the card lady can only “shower” in the toilet
“I can’t stand this, I am very clean!”
Lin sister-in-law is the end of 2017 on the car, with the other five or six years with the card sister-in-law than, her “car age” is not long, but she feels that she sacrificed a lot, with the car is also “forced to”.
This time she and her husband, Master Lin, left the day before from Jiangxi, with a total of 22 meters of the front end of the board, pulling a car of cotton, tied tightly with a rain cloth. Has been on the road for two days, this night in the service area to rest overnight, the next morning to go to the factory to unload the goods.
“In previous years I think big trucks have nothing to do with women, it’s all men’s work.”
“I also work inside the company, every day on the computer. But hire a co-driver a month to 10,000 yuan, but also food and drink. Now this industry is not good, can not afford to hire a driver, they forced themselves on this car. The family car, not to throw out.”
“When there is no goods, our family can live in the car, but the driver will not promise to sleep in the car. Sometimes lasted a week without goods, the family well said, can stay in the car for a few nights.”
The front of the car behind the main driver and passenger, there is a sleeper-sized space for a person to lie down. Above the bed there is another bunk, when not used to turn up, when used to turn down, just like the train sleeper upper and lower levels.
But August Guangzhou is still too hot after all, when the car starts there is cold air, if the fire is turned off, inside is a big steamer.
The car is always equipped with many supplies, including some refreshing drinks
In addition to not being able to afford a co-driver, another reason to follow the car is to worry about your husband. The car is a high-risk industry, and sometimes accidents are just a thought, a second away. The card lady can also talk with her husband and help look at the car.” My driver is getting older every day, so fat, I worry about what’s wrong with him.”
Not yet with the car, as soon as Master Lin went out, Mrs. Lin began to worry, every day to 7 p.m., think it’s almost time, will give Master Lin a phone call, ask him if it’s safe, eaten, showered.
Once, 100 kilometers from home, Master Lin suddenly did not feel well on the highway, people are very weak, call someone to help drive the car back.” I was blood pressure were more than 170, very scary.”
“So you say the suffering of driving a truck oh, say it all, this kind of fear, this kind of industry downturn.” Now that the children are in college, Mrs. Lin finally has nothing to worry about.” Some card ladies are very young, children at home, at most once a week to go back, for them is the biggest helplessness.”
In addition to the majority of card ladies do not drive, card ladies do actually the same thing as the co-driver, or even more. When loading the goods to watch, after loading the goods have to climb up to cover the rain cloth, ranging from 2 to 5 layers, after covering the rain cloth to tie the rope. Mrs. Lin said her legs were weak when she first climbed up.
After hitting the road, Mrs. Kar has to help watch the road, watch the car, give the driver’s husband as a companion, chat, to ensure safety. At night, when the service area, the driver rests, but the card lady can not sleep, because it is necessary to constantly guard against “fuel consumption”. In particular, just loaded a few thousand dollars of oil, but also to be on guard, was stolen is normal, not stolen is lucky.
In the early morning of August 3, 2019, the fire village east service area, a card sister-in-law probe out of the window, watch out for “oil rats”. After a short rest they have to continue to catch the night road
And so the freight to the destination, the driver rest, the card wife to be responsible for the goods, after the goods, and then the rain cloth overlap; some card wife simply to find the work of the goods also took down, contact all kinds of people to find the source of goods; sometimes the owner of the freight delay, the card wife also have to appear to call; car scraped to scuffed, but also to participate in the clarification of responsibility, to complete the payout ……
In addition to helping her husband to work, Mrs. Kha also has to bear the burden of household chores in the car. The clothes that Mrs. Lin has just washed are hung on the rope outside the truck to dry. Sometimes Mrs. Lin also cooks in the car, using an induction cooker or electric rice cooker, cook some noodles, soup, vegetables, eat so on the road, save money – the service area buffet a 35 yuan, two people have to 70 yuan.
For many card ladies, although women in cars do not drive, but this trip to sit down, but also from morning to night, and eat bad sleep.
Card wife in the service area to clean vegetables, the road meal is often just a simple hanging noodles
“There is another one I can not accept the most, face sunburned with the same as the bag, which really sacrificed a lot, you are not able to experience.” Mrs. Lin is 45 years old, apparently old, she said, “But all with a few years of the card sister-in-law, baked under the sun all day, the skin is particularly dark, with soy sauce, hair are withered.”
Sister Lin’s story, in fact, is the story of the card ladies.
After talking with Mrs. Lin, she and Master Lin turned off the lights to sleep, and the service area by the flower bed, there is a Henan card wife is squatting on the ground washing clothes.
Service area to come and go or rest or refueling trucks, can always see the women sitting on the passenger side.
Monks and porridge is scarce
“Truck to make money truck to spend, no money to send home.” This is the jingle of the card user community.
Why does the card sister-in-law follow the car? Nine out of ten card sisters will tell you: poor freight market, more cars and less goods, low freight, can not afford to hire a co-driver.
After a short break, a card wife returned to the car to continue to depart
When the market was good, a month to earn a 20,000 to 40,000 yuan, but also to spend more than 10,000 yuan to hire a co-driver, now a month 20,000 yuan can not earn. Single trip up when you can earn a few thousand dollars, but back when the freight is very bad, can earn a 1,000 yuan is still good, not counting the labor, vehicle depreciation and other costs.
Now the weather is hot, the tires rolling easily damaged, sometimes cornering anxiously, even burst two tires, one is more than 1,000 yuan.
“And good luck, not to be fined, or do it for nothing.” Henan’s Master Zhang said.
Master Zhang is 50 years old, in the army as a soldier for four years, from the army came out to start running.” Previously, when young, this career is a good career, but also everyone envied, now truck drivers no one can afford, but change the line can not be changed.”
Driving is a very low threshold industry, novice drivers to learn a few years of truck operation, find the way to find goods, the route to go, you can open their own. Data show that China currently has about 30 million truck drivers, a rough estimate, there are at least 20 million card sisters-in-law.
“How much money does not matter, the bottom of society, ah, anyone can bully you.”
“Tired, suffer, and angry, three suffer!”
Once in the service area, Master Zhang’s wife immediately get off to take a shower, wash clothes, leaving him alone to guard the vehicle
Sometimes slow will be scolded by the owner, after unloading the goods also deliberately difficult, not to pay the freight. If the porter does not play a good job, unloading a little action, breaking the goods, the driver will have to pay. If it is pulling vegetables such as goods with a freshness period, it is more likely to find various reasons to deduct freight.
In 2016, after the “921” rule over, the number of people who buy cars has increased sharply, card users have to buy a new car. A truck driver in Henan said, they used to sell two or three hundred cars a year, but there was a quarter sold so many.
Some new cars can be zero down payment, every month to pay off the loan, it is not difficult to change the car. After the new car, does not mean that the old car was eliminated, some cars are well maintained, can still drive for several years, so the old car into the used market.
In this way, the number of vehicles in the industry skyrocketed, but the source of goods did not grow proportionally, because the economic slowdown, some factories even cut production, “more cars and less goods.
In addition, by the impact of the Internet, freight prices are also depressed.
In 2013, “truck help” began to develop mobile products, “full” is the first domestic cloud computing, big data, mobile Internet and artificial intelligence-based freight scheduling platform, the two companies merged in 2018 to become “full help group”, completed 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in financing.
Originally, truck drivers had to go to offline information halls (such as Guangzhou’s Linan Logistics Park, which is also a large freight parking lot) to find goods after unloading. With the online platform, drivers can find and load goods locally.
However, the source of goods became transparent at the same time, freight prices fell. Because of the proximity, sometimes drivers are willing to pull for a few hundred dollars less. Slowly, the pricing power is transferred more to the hands of the owner, for example, the normal 15000 yuan freight, there are 10 drivers call to ask, the manufacturer will be able to lower the price one by one, and finally the lowest price deal.
Many truck drivers because they bought a new car, there is pressure to pay off the loan, so as long as there is to earn, low price is also willing to pull the goods.” You do not pull people pull, you do not run people run.” A Lin An logistics park information officer told the “Southwind” reporter.
The average profit of the industry has become thin, is the main reason for the card sister-in-law on board.
Even if the opening of the couple, the light has not seen a good up. And August is in the annual logistics off-season (May to October), less sources of goods, transport prices are even lower, pull to lose money, do not pull also lose money, because living outside more than one day, is more than one day of expenses.
After washing up, the couple returned to the car and continued their journey
Not only individual truck drivers are difficult to do, even to the logistics company to drive the truck drivers, the days are also more difficult than before.
The “South Wind Window” reporter met a short-haul couple in the service area gas station, pulling the goods is a small car, drive to the dealership in Dongguan, a round trip of 5 hours. 5 years ago the card sister-in-law followed the truck driver to run, two people receive a salary, earn more than 10,000 yuan a month.
“Before the company to each car with two drivers, now the money is not good to earn, on a driver. Before the company also buy insurance (refers to the card wife), now insurance are not, only the main driver has.”
Sometimes you will not only meet the card sister-in-law, but also see the “card two generations”. Couple running a car, and children get together less and less, after the summer vacation will simply take in the car, to enhance parent-child relationship, although they know that this is not safe. This is the other side of the line not seen by people.
“It’s so hard, tell the kids not to get this (referring to driving a truck) in the future.”
During the daytime in the Fire Village East service area, you can still see many card ladies, stopping to refuel, getting off to use the toilet, resting in the service area, washing dishes, and washing their hair with cool water in the wash trough ……
They are undressed, unkempt and in a hurry.
“It’s all the network’s fault.”
Linan Logistics Park information hall, the screen is still rolling all kinds of information: destination, cargo name, tonnage, yard, integrity index, the number of transactions …… blackboard handwriting are also still not erased, but the hall is almost nothing, full rows of seats and counters indicate the prosperity of this place once.
Built in 2003, Lin An Logistics Park, located in Guangzhou Baiyun District, the logistics town – Taihe Town Sha Tai North Road, built in 2009 to improve the Lin An freight information service platform for logistics companies, cargo owners and trucks to provide freight logistics information.
“So this place is on fire!” A card sister-in-law pointed to the card-reading machine at the door.” You have to swipe your card to come in and pay to get in.”
“Now there’s not much left, before it was all about finding goods on the blackboard, now manufacturers go online directly.”
August 8, 2019, the depressed logistics park, the heyday is no longer
Mr. Li, one of the few remaining information clerks in the hall, told “Southwind”, “The information halls in Chengdu and Chongqing closed down last year and the year before, and the one in Shanghai closed down three years ago, and Linan still lasted a few years. Many people lost their jobs, thousands of merchants in Lin’an are unemployed. It was all brought down by the online information platform.”
“Now the most suffering is the driver, can not earn money, the worst is engaged in information, all laid off.”
Mr. Lin because the contract period has not yet arrived, so still in Lin An hard, because the deposit refund can not go early, he is waiting for the expiration of the contract.
Xiao An, who is also an information officer, said the heyday of Linan Logistics Park was from 2003 to 2013. With the rise of online information platforms, the logistics park is going downhill since 2014. Last year there were still some people here, now the hall is almost empty, “two-thirds of the business is gone”.
Xiaoan also took out the “before” “after” photos: the same location, a few years ago, outside the cabinet is a sea of people looking for cargo drivers, the cabinet is busy with the feverish information clerks; and now, the cabinet outside the cabinet is empty, only the screen is still flashing unattended expired information.
Before” and “after” photos of Linan Logistics Park
The entire logistics park originally had its own small ecology of restaurants, hotels, groceries, stores selling asphalt, hardware, sneakers, and navigation, but now most of the stores are also closed.
The owner of a shop selling snacks in the lobby spoke with resentment.
“It’s all because of the Internet!”
“The teller machines are rusting, and Ma is the only one who is getting rich!”
“I don’t know how long I can still do it, to the point where I can’t do it.”
Although the entire logistics park is increasingly depressed, but there are drivers because they are used to it, or come here to rest and park.” There is a large parking lot here, before looking for goods to face each other, habitually parked here.”
There are also drivers who are not used to using the online platform and prefer to come here to find acquaintances to ask for goods, and when waiting for goods, they take their card sisters to blow the cold air in the adjacent Taihehui, but often wait a few days to a week, or longer.” Stay in a private hotel for a day, 70 yuan with air conditioning on, 40 yuan without.”
There are also drivers who have signed contracts with Linan Logistics Park and only come here to load “LTL goods”, so the impact on them is relatively small.
Trucks pulling out of logistics park
Industry congestion, the rise of online information platforms, rising fuel prices, and even the weakening economic situation, none of which affects the survival of truck drivers, as well as the fate of the industry.
In addition to the work tired, risky, meager income, low social status, truck drivers have their own occupational diseases, the most common such as lumbar cervical pain, hearing loss.
Card wife is in such a special situation, out of the home, run on the door, “hidden pay”, for the truck in the man as far as possible to create a small mobile home.
But how many people can understand the helplessness of the truck wives?” If not forced, which woman is willing to follow the car?”
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