August 3rd.
Pei Qian brought Lü Mingliang to visit the Upwind Station near Mingyun Villa.
From when he proposed the Upwind Station concept last month until now, about three weeks had passed, and many Upwind Stations had already opened one after another.
The initial preparation work was rather complicated. All 100 Upwind Stations needed to recruit managers and couriers, purchase shelving and office supplies, coordinate with various courier companies, custom-develop software for incoming and outgoing packages, and more…
Fortunately, after all the hustle and bustle, most Upwind Stations were finally ready to officially begin operations.
Pei Qian attached great importance to this project. After all, in his view, making games was risky, and the risk was quite high—one could accidentally make money if not careful.
If he truly wanted to lose big money, he would have to rely on Upwind Logistics.
This labor-intensive industry was practically a sunrise industry in Pei Qian’s eyes. Slackin’ Delivery, which had been consistently losing money since its launch, was an excellent case.
Of course, Slackin’ Delivery wasn’t completely unused. The number of people ordering had been gradually increasing, with many becoming repeat customers.
However, due to the high labor costs and instances of lost or damaged tableware, it could only potentially spread these costs and achieve profitability if the user base was large enough.
Moreover, although Slackin’ Delivery’s reputation was slowly improving, expanding to larger areas would require doubling the labor costs. Just as revenue increased a little, the investment would increase as well.
So until now, Slackin’ Delivery continued to lose money, maintaining this point quite well.
With this successful experience, Pei Qian naturally had high hopes for Upwind Logistics.
Today, he brought Lü Mingliang over to familiarize him with the business and have him take over this work as soon as possible.
In the initial phase, each of the 100 Upwind Stations was staffed with at least three employees: one manager (responsible for staffing the store, receiving packages from other courier companies, managing inventory, waiting for customers to pick up packages, and brand promotion) and two couriers. The wage costs alone amounted to over 10,000 yuan.
Since delivering packages could earn a certain commission from other courier companies, these profits could roughly offset the rent of the Upwind Stations. Therefore, these 100 Upwind Stations could help Mr. Pei lose at least 1 million yuan every month.
As for the locations of these Upwind Stations…
They were mainly in densely populated areas and economically prosperous districts of Jingzhou City.
After all, in Pei Qian’s view, this was a completely public welfare project. To serve more people, they naturally had to be established in places with large populations—the more deliveries, the more losses.
Of course, Pei Qian also had his selfish reasons. He had set up Upwind Stations near his parents’ neighborhood and Handong University.
This ensured that no matter where Pei Qian was, there would be couriers who could deliver packages to his door, so he wouldn’t need to go and pick them up himself.
As for Shenhua Luxury View and Slackin’ Internet Café, courier companies would generally deliver to the front desk, so there was no immediate need to set up Upwind Stations there.
Arriving at the Upwind Station in Mingyun Villa, Pei Qian first looked at the storefront.
This station was located behind Slackin’ Internet Café, renting an ordinary commercial space in a very good location.
Nearby were the newly renovated bar and card room that were about to open for business. Although this area was originally quite quiet, with these three businesses opening, it strangely seemed to make sense!
As for why they chose such a location, it was mainly because Upwind Station was not a retail store; strictly speaking, it was just a warehouse. So no matter how good the location was, it couldn’t make money—in fact, it would only cost more in rent.
When Lü Mingliang arrived at the Upwind Station with Pei Qian, his first impression was quite shocking.
This place looked quite high-end!
Originally, when Lü Mingliang heard that he would be in charge of logistics, he instinctively thought about regular courier services.
He had seen some X-Tong courier service points that were particularly careless in all aspects. Some didn’t even bother to hang up signs, or put up very casual ones.
As for inside these service points, they were basically just warehouses with things piled up messily everywhere, with no one cleaning and dust all over the floor.
Couriers wore dirty work clothes and threw and kicked messy courier boxes onto electric tricycles before transporting them to nearby areas…
But that was how other courier service points looked.
The Upwind Station was completely different.
It occupied a very nice storefront with custom-made exterior signage, and even had an English name: “Upwind Station.” This level of class seemed to vaguely surpass the adjacent bar.
Of course, the neighboring bar’s decoration was more luxurious, or rather more flashy, while Upwind Station’s decoration was relatively simple but had a sense of quality. It wasn’t as eye-catching, but in terms of class, it was certainly not inferior.
Outside the station, two uniformed couriers and the station manager were already waiting to greet them.
Beside them were two electric tricycles used for transporting goods, priced at less than 3,000 yuan each, which were also part of the initial investment costs. These tricycles were customized with the Upwind Logistics logo.
Through the glass windows, one could see the interior of the Upwind Station. Just inside the entrance was a large counter with a sleek all-in-one office computer. The station manager normally worked behind this counter.
On the counter were some simple office supplies and a special scanning machine that could quickly complete check-in and check-out operations by just scanning the barcode on packages.
Further inside were rows of shelves, clearly marked with different zones.
Depending on the size of the packages, they would be automatically assigned to different zones for easy retrieval after check-in, with specially designated areas for oversized items.
After seeing all this, Lü Mingliang had only one feeling.
High-end and stylish!
The difference from other courier companies was strikingly obvious.
The station manager briefly reported to Pei Qian and Lü Mingliang about the preliminary preparation and the current operational status of the station.
The station operated on a normal 8-hour workday, from 8 AM to 5 PM. If special circumstances required overtime, there would be additional overtime pay.
At the same time, based on the number of deliveries each courier made and customer feedback, there would be additional performance-based bonuses.
The two couriers’ daily work was to continuously deliver packages from the station to customers’ homes, and when they had free time, they could help clean up the place.
The station manager’s work was more complicated. Besides basic tasks like checking packages in and out, they also had to calculate the recent number of deliveries, maintain good relationships with couriers from other companies, and even promote Upwind Station to the surrounding area.
Of course, Pei Qian didn’t make strict requirements for these specific tasks. If some managers just wanted to cruise through their days, Mr. Pei wouldn’t mind.
The station manager and the two couriers all appeared quite energetic.
They all had experience working at other courier companies and came mainly because Upwind Logistics offered salaries significantly higher than other courier companies.
Moreover, the working environment here was also a plus for them.
Unlike other courier services that required covering the entire city, Upwind Logistics only needed to deliver packages in this small area, which was relatively less tiring.
After seeing everything, Pei Qian and Lü Mingliang returned to Slackin’ Internet Café and each ordered a cup of coffee.
“From now on, you’ll be in charge of all Upwind Logistics matters. If you have any questions, come directly to me. For small issues, you can decide on your own.”
“That 1 million yuan Dream Fund is still reserved for you. If you feel that working at Upwind Logistics isn’t suitable for you, you can still try other fields that you like.”
“As for follow-up funding, if you feel you need it, just say the word. You can directly ask for however much money you need.”