This is a day in the life of a Japanese delivery person
This is Yasuho, 22 year old living in Tokyo, and she's just waking up to start her day
She lives alone in this newly built 1K apartment and like many Japanese,
she prefers to take a bath at night just before she goes to sleep.
Oh nice, she's boarding mop slippers
Yasuho, how long does it take you to wear makeup?
I guess she doesn't eat breakfast in her apartment
She commutes to work by bike, taking about only ten minutes to get to the office
In fact, it's pretty rare in Tokyo for someone to live right next to the office as
most workers commute on average about one hour by train one way
Also, compared to other Japanese workers, her day start a little earlier, so living nearby is ultra convenient.
Yasuho works as a delivery person at Sagawa Express
One of the largest transportation companies in Japan, with more than 50,000 employees
spread across 400 offices throughout the country.
All right, so Yasuho should be coming around the corner right now
Let's see how much she slept this morning
Good morning.
What time did you go to sleep last night?
Oh, she's changing into her Sagawa uniform, looking sharp
What did you just buy?
Okay, she's eating a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast Pocari sweat is a popular sports drink in Japan
This is the go-to drink when Japanese want to quickly get hydrated
So this is the main Sagawa shipping terminal in the Tokyo area
and where all shipments are sorted every morning
She needs to pick up the boxes which go to our specific delivery area and load them into her micro van
Yasuho, what's in your pocket?
So every delivery person carries a name stamped with a date on it to mark delivery slips and other documents
It's a huge space to work so communicating effectively between workers is important
Right now she's sorting out smaller packages by address so it's easier to deliver
What did he just give you
Oh, and that's her manager, it looks like they're going over material regarding new Sagawa services
So every morning before she starts they actually clean the car which is quite interesting, right?
You can see how clean it is
So the company has a rule that drivers like Yasoho can't start deliveries until their van is completely cleaned.
That explains why I never see a dirty Sagawa delivery truck in Tokyo
In fact workers cleaning at the office or students cleaning at school is fairly common in Japanese culture
Highlights the importance of your surroundings and being responsible for your own good
Now that the delivery van is clean, she's able to load the boxes for her delivery area
Where are you going now?
To start the process, every morning she fills out a handwritten form with all of her details on it.
So what she's doing now is called "Tenko"
The company must ensure that all drivers are safe to be on the road.
In order to do this, every driver needs to report their health condition
as well as perform a breathalyzer test
and finally, read the safety driving rules in front of an inspection staff
Wow, it seems like Sagawa performs a lot of safety checks before they can get on the road
Damn, she even has more checks. Does every delivery company in the world do this?
Now that Yasuho has picked up all of our packages at the main Tokyo terminal
She's headed to a smaller distribution hub for a specified area
Before she starts delivering packages, she stops by this area delivery hub and picks up this special Sagawa cart
She loads the boxes from the van and then pushes the card to each delivery spot
She basically repeats this process until her van is completely empty of boxes
Now she's delivering the remaining smaller packages
What's that?
So she's currently assigned to the Nihombashi area, which is
known to have many apparel wholesale facilities
So she delivers not only to regular houses, but to many apparel shops and businesses.
Why do you always say thank you twice?
In Japan, streets are relatively safe, especially from theft which we'll notice that bit more throughout this video
But she's still careful to lock her cart during deliveries
So she's been working as a delivery person for about six months, so she's fairly new to her job
She says that she likes it because she gets to communicate with customers every day
and having trusted relationships with them gives her motivation
So what's the hardest part of working as a delivery person?
Yay, she finally finished all of her deliveries. That wasn't so bad
So what are you gonna do now?
Her PDT device works as a timecard as well, so she clocks off during lunch
You have to change during your lunch break?
Ahh, I guess that's why I never see Sagawa workers eating out
makes so much sense now
So she's meeting up with some of her senpais for lunch.
Senpai is a Japanese word used for senior colleagues and mentours.
So, how long have you been working at Sagawa?
What's your favourite part of this job?
How about you?
Have you ever had trouble with foreign customers having to use English?
So they often go to this Japanese izakaya restaurant together
Izakayas are usually frequented during the evening
but many open for businesses during lunch time to serve affordable set menu items like this place
Alright so we're just back from lunch and she actually has a longer lunch than usual
It's about an hour and a half
Usually people only have an hour break
But I guess they have longer break times here maybe because you're just like
tired of walking around all morning probably
One thing though, I'm so glad it's not raining today because it would be a total mess trying to film this
But if it did rain, this is the waterproof uniform. It also covers up the bag and device
and if she wants it can convert the short sleeves
So we're afternoon task is to visit clients to perform sales activities
Time to suit up again
So she goes back out on the same route to of course some clients
Sagawa now has a charter shipping service where you can purchase a full pallet and send anything you want as long as it fits
It's a useful service when you have lots of stuff or large items
Now she goes back around on the same delivery route and picks up outgoing packages
and does more sales for new services
When she sees the package laying in front of the store all alone like this, it indicates a new pickup
She checks for the Sagawa label
If so, she collects the package, provides a customer with a delivery receipt, and then creates a delivery label on her device
Fortunately for the sender and the delivery person leaving unattended packages
in front of the store is relatively safe in Japan.
To basically be walking around right now picking up all of the packages from different clients
Her neighborhood is set so she goes around kind of like on a set path
But if she wanted to she can actually pick up different packages from different locations
She now takes up the picked up packages and loads them into a waiting delivery truck
She says her job is very teamwork focus which she loves, and in between deliveries,
she enjoys chatting with her co-workers
Where are you headed now?
Now that she's done with her delivery task for her assigned area she has to head back to the main office
Wow, she's doing another safety check even in a public parking space. Amazing!
It seems like a lot of Sagawa drivers are back as well
After she brings the van back she needs to perform a final "Tenko". By law, these records are kept for one year.
So before she leaves today, she also has to do quite a bit of administrative tasks. So let's see what she has to do.
So basically she needs to take care of the cash accounting as well.
For example, cash on delivery transactions
she received today as well as parking fees she's paid.
Yay, finally done! Do you have any plans after this?
She's stopping by a supermarket on the way back.
Wow, it's pretty massive comparatively speaking for Tokyo terms.
You're not buying so much?
Yasuho, what did you cook
Many younger generations these days just buy food at the convenience store to take home and eat
But Yasuho likes to cook and it's cheaper and healthier
So she just finished taking a bath she has an hour of free time before she goes to bed
She goes to bed at 10 o'clock, but that's pretty much the
day in the life of a Japanese delivery person
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