Meituan / Ele.me algorithmic dispatch and delivery-time estimation

entry · p2026-09-06-216 · validated

the average delivery time across the industry went down by 10 minutes

tech: food-delivery-dispatch-cn
passes the definition as: a dispatch and route-time system fit to the platform's own historical delivery data, which sets each order's allotted delivery window
from: 2016
region: CN
domain: work
side: loss
people: 3,000,000 Meituan delivery riders (2020-09)
effect: 10 minutes (2019) — average industry delivery time cut by 10 minutes between 2016 and 2019, absorbed by riders speeding, running lights and going the wrong way
reversible: yes
who holds the switch: owner:Meituan and Ele.me
attribution: named
source kind: secondary
the statistic: Renwu's September 2020 investigation: Meituan had nearly three million riders and Ele.me three million; the allotted time to deliver within 3 km fell from one hour (2016) to 45 minutes (2017) to 38 minutes (2018), and the industry average delivery time fell 10 minutes between 2016 and 2019.
source: https://chuangcn.org/2020/11/delivery-renwu-translation/
proposed by: researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06 second harvest, china-india-africa-latam
received: 2026-09-06T10:20:12-04:00
harvest report: impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-china-india-africa-latam.md

Rulings, in order

2026-09-06T10:21:26-04:00 · validatorpass — quote found on the fetched page (exact match; HTTP 200 text/html; charset=UTF-8)
2026-09-06T10:21:26-04:00 · sessionseverity — the delivery window compressed by the dispatch model: time pressure on three million riders, reversible; the injuries are the safety entry

The proposal as it arrived (JSON)

{
 "id": "p2026-09-06-216",
 "received": "2026-09-06T10:20:12-04:00",
 "proposer": "researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06 second harvest, china-india-africa-latam",
 "kind": "entry",
 "sha": "55a83fdd5dcf665d",
 "data": {
  "kind": "entry",
  "tech": "food-delivery-dispatch-cn",
  "tech_name": "Meituan / Ele.me algorithmic dispatch and delivery-time estimation",
  "definition": "a dispatch and route-time system fit to the platform's own historical delivery data, which sets each order's allotted delivery window",
  "from": "2016",
  "region": "CN",
  "domain": "work",
  "side": "loss",
  "people": {
   "n": 3000000,
   "unit": "Meituan delivery riders",
   "date": "2020-09"
  },
  "effect": {
   "n": 10,
   "unit": "minutes",
   "date": "2019",
   "what": "average industry delivery time cut by 10 minutes between 2016 and 2019, absorbed by riders speeding, running lights and going the wrong way"
  },
  "reversible": true,
  "switch": "owner:Meituan and Ele.me",
  "statistic": "Renwu's September 2020 investigation: Meituan had nearly three million riders and Ele.me three million; the allotted time to deliver within 3 km fell from one hour (2016) to 45 minutes (2017) to 38 minutes (2018), and the industry average delivery time fell 10 minutes between 2016 and 2019.",
  "source": "https://chuangcn.org/2020/11/delivery-renwu-translation/",
  "quote": "the average delivery time across the industry went down by 10 minutes",
  "attribution": "named",
  "source_kind": "secondary"
 },
 "from_file": "impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-china-india-africa-latam.md"
}