From October 20 to 22, by the Huangpu River in Shanghai, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference will return. Nobel and Turing Award winners will take the stage to discuss the future and trends of technology, and the popular professor known for helping people relieve anxiety and involution-era pressure, Macfarlane, will hold a live dialogue with Xiang Biao.
Spots are limited, so those who delay may miss out. Let us go together to the appointment with sustainability. [Click to register] Changsha Evening News, Pocket Changsha, October 18 report (all-media reporter Wu Xinfan, correspondent Chang Yan) "To be honest, I really cannot bear to leave everyone." Recently, at the JD.com logistics Changsha Beichen site, a simple yet solemn retirement ceremony was held for courier Luo Hongbin. Young couriers at the site gathered around this elder brother in his sixties and presented him with flowers and blessings.
As one of the earliest frontline employees in Hunan to join JD.com logistics, Luo Hongbin, a native of Zhuzhou, traveled through the streets and alleys of Changsha for 16 years. From riding a small electric scooter across half the city to now owning two apartments, a car, and soon receiving a monthly pension of several thousand yuan, Luo Hongbin used two wheels to measure out a happy life for an ordinary blue-collar worker.
From 30 items to more than 300 items, he earned for each delivery and persisted for 16 years.
In the autumn of 2010, through an introduction from an acquaintance, Luo Hongbin joined JD.com. "At that time, not many people in Changsha knew about JD.com. My first month's salary was nearly 4,000 yuan, and the company also paid full social insurance and housing fund contributions," Luo Hongbin recalled with emotion. "That far exceeded my expectations at the time. My heart settled immediately, and I decided this was a job I could do for the long term."
Luo Hongbin said that at the time Changsha had only one JD.com courier station, with fewer than 10 employees in total. Each delivery worker was responsible for a very large area, and he often rode alone across half the city, delivering about 30 items a day, mostly small home appliances. In the early years, deliveries required carrying a mobile POS machine to swipe cards at customers' doors, and sometimes he also had to collect cash. Every day after returning to the station, everyone still had to reconcile accounts with the station manager.
Over 16 years, Luo Hongbin personally witnessed JD.com's development in Changsha from a single station into a grid-based, multi-point coverage network, while parcel categories also expanded from only small home appliances to all kinds of daily necessities. What impressed Luo Hongbin most was the rapid rise of e-commerce and the way online shopping became a daily consumption habit for residents. His delivery volume grew from dozens of items a day in the early years to more than 300 items on a single peak day. During major promotions such as "618" and "Double 11," faced with mountain-like piles of parcels, although the overtime pressure was considerable, he also truly felt the vitality of the industry's booming development.
With the introduction of digital equipment, logistics operating efficiency continued to improve. Now couriers serve fixed areas, and Luo Hongbin has delivered to customers' doors year after year, becoming familiar with many of them. "I once considered moving to a management position, but in the end I chose to stay on the frontline. The feeling of being needed by customers gives me a strong sense of achievement. And with this job, every delivery counts toward income, which puts my mind at ease," Luo Hongbin said.
Life has become more and more prosperous, and he will also receive a pension of several thousand yuan per month.
In addition to stable income, a sound social security and welfare system has provided an umbrella of livelihood protection for frontline couriers. A few years ago, Luo Hongbin became ill and was hospitalized, with total expenses of more than 10,000 yuan, nearly all reimbursed through employee medical insurance. He has always remembered this.
Relying on income accumulated delivery by delivery, Luo Hongbin supported his family, and life kept improving. "I used to worry that after doing physical work, I would have no support in old age, but now I am completely at ease," Luo Hongbin calculated: after putting down roots in Changsha for 16 years, he bought two commercial apartments and a private car, has nearly 200,000 yuan in his housing provident fund account, and his son is about to get married. According to estimates, after retirement he can receive more than 4,000 yuan in pension each month, and a later life with support in old age and medical care for illness has already become reality.
"After retirement, I want to change the pace of life, take my wife traveling around and see the great rivers and mountains of the motherland. We plan to visit Beijing," Luo Hongbin said.
Luo Hongbin is not an isolated case. A relevant person in charge at JD.com said that around this year's Double Ninth Festival, a total of 103 frontline JD.com logistics employees nationwide completed retirement procedures. Their positions included couriers, sorters, loss prevention staff, station transfer drivers, and warehouse managers, distributed across Hunan, Beijing, Guangxi, Jiangxi, and other places. Among these retirees, some withdrew hundreds of thousands of yuan from their housing provident fund in one lump sum, some receive a stable pension every month, and others used years of income to help their children buy homes and start families.
Reporter's observation: couriers and food delivery workers are affectionately called "young brothers" by the public. Braving wind and rain as they shuttle through city streets and alleys, safeguarding urban operations and making life convenient for countless households, they are a true reflection of the new employment group. Data shows that as of September 29, China's express delivery volume this year exceeded 150 billion items, 12 days earlier than in 2025. Behind the efficient circulation of massive parcels is precisely the hard running and busy work of tens of millions of "young brothers."
At present, the number of workers in new employment forms such as couriers and food delivery workers nationwide has reached 84 million. Improving rights protection for this group is not only an important livelihood issue, but also directly affects the quality of high-quality development. In recent years, the express delivery industry has seen groups of frontline workers retire one after another. Many practitioners thought when they entered the industry that it was only temporary work, but as retirement approached they discovered they could receive a stable pension every month. This shift means grassroots workers no longer fear having no one to rely on in old age.
The future deserves even more expectations. At a recent press conference held by the State Council Information Office, a relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security proposed that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, flexible workers, migrant workers, and workers in new employment forms will be encouraged to participate in employee pension insurance, and that a participation mechanism with shared responsibility and reasonable financing among employers, platforms, and workers will be explored and established. It is believed that as more refined and warm protection policies are implemented, the "young brothers" rushing through the city will have a safer and warmer road ahead, and their efforts will bring them a greater sense of gain.
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