Delivery Girl Roruko No. 2, Episode 5: 'The Art of Waiting for a Cancel'

Episode 5: 'The Art of Waiting for a Cancel'

Roruko stood at the entrance of the shop, feeling irritated.
She checked the time on her smartphone: 12:32 PM. She had been kept waiting for nearly 10 minutes now.

──12 minutes ago, at 12:20 PM.

Right after finishing a drop, her phone rang.
A double order for 1,320 yen in 20 minutes. The pickup was at the ramen shop right in front of her, and the second one was nearby too. The drop-off wasn't bad either.

'All right!'

Her spirits lifted. The estimate was 20 minutes, but she intended to finish it in 15.
She entered the shop triumphantly, and the staff member said:

'It'll be ready in about 5 minutes, so please wait.'

'Oh, okay...'

──5 minutes, huh? Well, the estimate is 20 minutes, so I guess it can't be helped. 5 more minutes is within the acceptable range.

...That was 12 minutes ago.

Delivery drivers who arrived after her had already picked up their orders, and the ramen for customers who came in later had already been served.
Could it be that I'm being put on the back burner? Just as that suspicion began to arise, the shop door opened.

A familiar chubby figure walked in. It was No. 2.

'Uber here.'
'What's the number?'
'76...'
'It'll be ready in about 5 minutes, so please wait.'

──Oh, it's the same as me. Heh.
The moment of relief was short-lived, as No. 2 left the shop after saying just one thing.

'I'll be waiting outside.'

(Oh... maybe I should wait outside too. Standing at the entrance is in the way.)

Roruko hurriedly chased after No. 2. But by then, he was already straddling his bike and starting the engine.

'...Huh?'

Waiting outside didn't mean that, did it? No. 2's bike rode off silently in front of a bewildered Roruko.

After that, No. 2 never came back. I received the order at 12:41 PM. The second drop-off was finished at 12:54 PM.
I wanted to pick up one more high-paying order, but the unit price had completely dropped.

The lunch peak ended, and Roruko sat down on her usual park bench. "Sigh... I ended up slacking off and didn't earn much..." As she looked up at the sky with a sigh, she heard footsteps behind her.

When she turned around, No. 2 was walking toward her.

"No. 2! You got a pickup from Giant Panda House during the lunch peak today, right? You said you were waiting outside..."

"Yeah. It wasn't going to be ready even if I waited, so I did a wait-cancellation."

"Wait-cancellation...? Like camping in the city?"

"No. It's canceling because of the wait."

"But you said, 'I'm waiting outside'..."

No. 2 said it nonchalantly.

"Even if you wait outside, they won't call you."

"Eh..."

"I was imitating you, No. 2, and waiting outside. But since it didn't come at all, I went inside, and it was already done..."

"Exactly."

"Isn't that terrible?"

"Can't be helped. That place prioritizes the shop's customers, you see."

"...Ah, prioritizing the customers, right..."

"No. Delivery workers aren't 'customers'."

"...Yes."

"But you know, there are customers ahead of us, too."

At those words, Roruko was struck by a realization.
It was true; if we take too long to pick up the order, it causes trouble for the 'real customers' waiting on the other end.

However, No. 2 just smiled faintly and shrugged.

“That’s just what I say to sound professional.”

“...Huh?”

“If you just wait around, the lunch rush will be over. If you want to earn efficiently, you need to remember which shops have long wait times. You can accept the orders if you want, but it’s better to decide for yourself that you’ll only wait for five minutes.”

I thought I had been waiting properly.
But I also... probably knew that wouldn't help me earn money.
I’ll try to follow No. 2’s example, even if it’s just a little bit at a time.

Afterword: The Reality of Waiting for Food Preparation as Told by a Delivery Worker

“Waiting-cancellation” — it might be a term you’re not very familiar with.
Actually, I don’t think there are that many delivery workers who call it “waiting-cancellation” either.

But the act of “canceling because the food preparation is slow” itself is not uncommon in the delivery field.

It’s not rare to rush to a shop only to be told, “It’ll take another 10 minutes!”
What you do in those situations really depends on the person.

• People who cancel immediately and aim for the next order

• People who wait for the time being

• People who decide on a whim based on how the shop staff treats them

There isn’t really a “correct” answer.

That’s because, even if you cancel, you don’t get paid for the time spent traveling to the shop.
Besides, there’s no guarantee the next order will pop up right away, and even if it does, whether it has better conditions than the one you canceled is just a matter of luck.

Conversely, even if you do wait, a certain amount of “prep time” is often already factored into the estimated pay, so there are plenty of cases where “you aren’t losing that much.”
*Of course, hellish orders where you have to wait over 15 minutes are the exception.

...As for me, I hate waiting, so I cancel quite often (lol).

However, something like this happened in the past.

This was back when I had just arrived in Tokyo.
I went to pick up an order at a certain shop in Shimokitazawa, and they just kept repeating, “We’re prioritizing in-store customers right now...”
Even when I asked, “How long until the food is ready?”, it was a loop of hell: “We’re prioritizing in-store customers” -> “...No, I mean, how many minutes?” -> “We’re prioritizing in-store customers.”
Are you a broken radio?! (lol)

While telling the customer “there’s no progress,” I went to check on it every 5 minutes, and in the end, the wait time was 40 minutes.
Back then, there was a system called “adjustment pay” (though it doesn’t function anymore), so I could afford to wait, but nowadays, I definitely wouldn’t wait even for five minutes.

So, this story is also the episode where Roruko realizes that “just waiting properly won’t help you earn money.”
Of course, waiting properly isn’t a bad thing.
But deciding on a line for yourself regarding how many minutes you’re willing to wait might be an important choice for survival.

*This work is fiction.

The characters, organizations, place names, and events that appear are unrelated to any real entities. Additionally, while some depictions are inspired by the posts and activities of real X (formerly Twitter) users, there is no connection to any specific individual or organization, and the content is constructed based on creative fiction.