Transport job near Tet

These days, Mr. Le Van Son, Dien Nguyen commune,Dien Chau districtquit his daily job as a construction worker to bring his motorbike to the center of Dien Chau town to transport ornamental plants for hire during Tet. The work usually starts early in the morning and gets busier as Tet approaches.

In the districts, ornamental plants are mainly transported by Kien An and motorbike taxis with prices ranging from 100,000 - 300,000 VND/trip. Photo: QA

Mr. Son shared: "This is the third year I have been doing this service because I realized that people's demand for transporting ornamental plants during Tet is very high. This year, ornamental plants arrived later than previous years, so it was not until after the 20th of December that I had my first trips. Although this job is harder than my main job, if I work hard, I can still earn a decent amount to spend during Tet...".

Mr. Son said that the average price per trip is not fixed, depending on many factors, the most important is the distance traveled, the second is the value, size of the tree and the time of transportation.

If the distance is long, the tree is valuable and is transported on days close to Tet, the cost will be high and vice versa. "I mainly transport for customers in Dien Chau district, the price ranges from 100,000 - 300,000 VND/trip, if lucky, I can transport about 10 trips per day..." - Mr. Son revealed.

The places selling Tet ornamental plants at this time are always bustling with many people working as hired transporters of ornamental plants. Photo: QA

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga, owner of a Tet ornamental plant shop in Dien Chau, said: "We imported 2,000 kumquat and peach trees, with such a large quantity, we really need people to transport ornamental plants for customers. In previous years, I had to hire them individually, but the cost of each trip was not consistent, not to mention sometimes I couldn't find a transporter, which made customers upset. Therefore, this year, I hired a whole package of people to transport goods for customers at a cost of 10 million VND for 10 days, from December 20th to the end of the 29th lunar month to be proactive in the transportation work...".

Not only in the districts but also in Vinh City, the service of transporting ornamental plants for customers is currently sought after by many people with rental prices much higher than previous years.

According to the survey, atVinh CityThere are currently two main types of ornamental tree transportation. For large peach, apricot, kumquat trees... worth tens to hundreds of millions, customers will choose large cranes and cargo trucks to ensure safety. For smaller trees with lower value, customers often hire motorbike taxi drivers, porters, cyclo drivers, etc. to transport the trees.

Because of the obvious difference, the price of transporting ornamental plants in Vinh City also has a clear hierarchy. Mr. Quan, the owner of a crane rental unit, said: "If customers need to transport ornamental plants within Vinh City, the price will range from 500,000 - 800,000 VND/trip. For districts within 40km, the price will be from 1 - 1.5 million VND/trip. Over 40km, the price will be even higher. Today, I transported 2 plants from Vinh City to Hoang Mai Town with a transportation fee of 3 million VND..."

For large, valuable bonsai trees, a crane must be hired to transport them at a very high cost. Photo: QA

For small trees, customers often hire cyclo drivers, motorbike taxi drivers, and motorbike taxi drivers to transport them, which costs less, ranging from 200,000 to 500,000 VND/trip. According to a survey, this transportation price is about 30% higher than previous years.

Because this is a seasonal job, only lasting for a short time but providing high income, the number of people working in the job of transporting Tet ornamental plants is increasing, especially when the income of ordinary workers has been severely affected by the epidemic in the past year.

Although it is a hot job during Tet, this job also requires many factors. Transporters must be hard-working, able to withstand time pressure and especially careful and meticulous. In many cases, due to being in a hurry to deliver other trips, transporters have gone at high speed, causing ornamental plants to lose flowers, fruits, and buds on the way. When handed over to customers, the plants are no longer as beautiful as before.

Many manual workers can earn millions of dong every day from transporting ornamental plants for hire. Photo: QA

More dangerously, during transportation, the vehicle owner did not cover or wrap the tree neatly, so in many cases collisions occurred, damaging the tree, and the transportation fee was not enough to compensate the customer.