AMA session with Jiama CDO about truck drivers’ communities in China
30 million Chinese truck drivers are marginalized by the society — their needs and problems are often neglected. In spite of the fact that the government of China is having full understanding that they are the veins of the whole economy, still their life is hard. And it makes them stronger. It makes them more united. This time we had an AMA session with Jiama road messenger CDO Mr. Wang about semi-official truck drivers’ communities in China.
Dimitry: Hello, Mr. Wang! Could you please firstly introduce yourself and let us please know why are you so familiar with truck drivers communities?
Mr. Wang: Ok, let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Wang Chegui. I am currently responsible for the research and development of big data in Jiama road messenger. I have had a background in online map industry for about ten years, and I have been doing big data related work for the last five years.
Regarding truck drivers’ communities, I have been working in this sector for the past six years. In fact, I have been in contact with many truck communities or truckers along this way. Especially in the past year or so, I have visited about ten organizations. I was sharing with them their routine to understand them more: we were delivering goods, loading and unloading cargo, sleeping on the road, eating and drinking together.
Dimitry: What are exactly truck drivers’ communities? Why do truck drivers need them?
Mr. Wang: They are actually a group of truck drivers with common production methods, lifestyle, friends, and a cultural background. In such a community, there are three main aspects. The first one is that truck drivers usually don’t have residence, they are moving around the country all the time. But as any human being they need socialization and that makes them to unite.
What is the second reason? They are helping each other. They share road conditions, availability of goods to deliver, certain happenings on a road, etc. Also they help each other on the road, when something happens often they only have themselves to rely on. Moral assistance is very important as well — they always give a hand to a colleague in hard times.
And thirdly, as all Chinese people believe, working together is beneficial for all. For a truck driver who is part of a bigger community his work is much more efficient and he literally can earn more.
Dimitry: How many truck drivers’ communities there are in China? How many members do they have?
Mr. Wang: There are quite many of those in China. For example, Northwest Eagles, China Dragons, Central Lions, Northeast Tigers, Truck Friends, and more. At least about a hundred at present.
They have their of own car stickers that represent their region cultures and characteristics. They also have their own Wechat public accounts that help them to spread information and some ideas.
Such communities size might vary from few thousands to a hundred thousand members. For example, Truck Friends have more than 100k members, or North Eagles, China Dragons, and Central Lions have nearly 100,000 members each. Of course, there are also small ones, and there are quite a lot of such groups.
Dimitry: How do these communities relate to each other? Do they compete or help each other?
Mr. Wang: Yes there is a certain competition: there are more than 100 truck drivers’ communities in China and certainly each one wants to get more members to grow bigger and have more influence. However, commercial competition is not very obvious, maybe there is just a little of it. In fact, they have a lot of cooperation.
As far as I know they have an alliance for rescue - no matter which community member need help, then all communities can help him, whether you are a from Northwest Wolves or a Northwest Eagles. As long as this is a truck brother, someone will take the initiative to help.
Dimitry: Do they have any relationships with the government?
Mr. Wang: Some communities do cooperate with the government, however there are so many of them, and they have different organization structures. There are some with official background, some are commercial organizations, and some are social organization with certain government connections.
A good example of their cooperation with the government is a case of natural disasters. Many of truck drivers’ communities actually do voluntary help during natural disasters. The second cooperation point is what we actually do — road data. They basically cover every national highway every day and this road data is very important.
There is also an example of a truck association in Henan province. This truck association is actually engaged in the civil affairs and industrial and commercial departments of Henan province. This is actually just like a public welfare organization, where they participate in many social activities.
Dimitry: How actually Goose Q cooperates with these communities?
Mr. Wang: They already have reached a level when their further development now depends on technology and here we are to help.
First of all, we provide communication channels for them. Truck drivers are nearly always on a road in different locations, so being connected is very important for them. Importantly, we provide tailor-made tools for their specific communication needs.
Secondly, we help them with management. When a community is over 10,000 members it requires much more efforts to manage it. How to organize efficient rescue process or how to efficiently share road conditions? We help with that.
Thirdly, we help to reduce their costs and thus improve their financial situation. Sharing of consumables, sharing road information, providing low communication cost with Daluka SIM-card, and so on. We need each other.
Community questions
Alaho15: How one can become a member of such a community? Are there any special requirements?
Mr. Wang: It is not a big deal to join a community. As long as you are a trucker, you can join these communities. You can join any community according to your own preferences. First of all, joining a community is a voluntary process, and then if you want to be a true core member, then you should pay attention to it. It means that I am everyone and everyone is me. You should actively help everyone here.
To sum up, it is not complicated or difficult to talk about joining a community. If you want, you can join. The point is not to say that you join, but how you join. Being able to help each other, how to leverage your value as a member is the most important.
老K: What is the penetration rate so far for Jiama road messenger into these communities?
Mr. Wang: At the moment we have about 200,000 registered users at Jiama road messenger. We have a deep cooperation with several truck drivers’ communities, such as China Dragons and Northwest Wolves. Also we have nearly reached cooperation with two more communities, we will announce it a bit later.
Goose Q is the biggest in China road data computation engine with more than 10 years of development history. Goose Q’s main purpose is to provide a visual, verifiable, credible, traceable, anti-fraud, immutable data of the logistics industry in order to enhance its efficiency and transparency as well as to improve truck drivers’ financial and psychological wellbeing.
Webpage: http://www.gooseq.com
Telegram group: https://t.me/gooseQ
