Eleme's plan to relax meal delivery time sparks debate

外卖平台新功能引争议

Online food delivery service platform Eleme announced on Wednesday it will release a new feature that will allow diners to give delivery workers more time to deliver meals.

9月9日，在线外卖平台饿了么宣布将发布新功能，顾客可以延长外卖骑手的送餐时间。

Eleme said in a statement that the new feature will add a button on the consumer's page after payment, saying, "I am willing to wait five or 10 more minutes". If the user is not in a hurry, they can click on the button to give the delivery person a little more time.

饿了么在一份声明中称，在结算付款页面会增加一个“我愿意多等5分钟/10分钟”的按钮。如果你不是很着急，可以点一下，多给骑士一点点时间。

The statement is the company's response to an online article that aroused wide public attention on delivery workers' safety.

饿了么这则声明是对近日网上一篇文章的回应，该文引发了公众对外卖骑手安全的广泛关注。

The article revealed that delivery work has become a highly dangerous career driven by tight delivery times assigned by the algorithms of food delivery platforms.

文章揭露，由于外卖平台算法给送餐员分配的紧张的送单时间，外卖行业已成为高危职业。

Often allocated with a number of orders and pushed by tight deadlines, delivery workers frequently violate traffic rules, potentially endangering themselves and others, the article said.

由于常常被同时分配多个订单，配送时间又很短，外卖骑手常常违反交通规则，给自己和他人的生命安全带来威胁。

Many netizens were unimpressed by Eleme's response, with some seeing the company's new directive as a way to shift the responsibility of delivery workers' safety to customers.

网友对饿了么的回应并不买账，许多人认为这家公司的新规是在将快递骑手的安全责任转嫁给消费者。

Yang Wenzhan, a civil and commercial lawyer at Zhongdun Law Office based in Beijing, said it is the platform that makes the rules and forces delivery workers to take risks.

主要从事民商案件诉讼业务的北京市中盾律师事务所律师杨文战表示，是平台制定的规则导致了骑手冒险。

When the topic became widely discussed, the platform announced the new "humane" feature, but it is suggesting that consumers should be the group with more tolerance, he said.

当话题被广泛议论时，平台推出的这个新功能看似“人性化”，实际却在暗示消费者应该是谅解包容的一方。