When Song Zengguang first arrived in Shanghai six years ago, all he wanted was to be with his wife and earn a decent living as a delivery rider.

However, last year he was awarded the Shanghai May 1 Labor Medal, the first delivery driver to receive the honor.

The award, which is conferred by the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, is presented to people from all walks of life who have made outstanding contributions to their industries. Last year's award ceremony took place on Dec 2.

"I hope this honor will encourage more people to become delivery riders and more young people to come to work in Shanghai," said the 37-year-old, who was one of the 840 recipients of the award.

Though being a delivery rider might seem like a fairly straightforward job to most people, Song said his early days working for Eleme were far from rosy. Six years ago, the industry was in its early stages and riders had to learn through their mistakes.

One of the most important lessons he learned was from delivering a cold pizza to an unhappy customer. "When I first started delivering food, I did not know the characteristics of pizza so I delivered it to the customer without keeping it warm. The pizza was so hard that the customer could not bite through it. In the end, I apologized and offered to pay for the meal from my own pocket," Song said.

"After that incident, I paid more attention to how food should be packaged and how I can optimize delivery routes according to the different types of food I have to handle."

His diligence did not go unnoticed. Song was promoted to leader of the Kaixuan Road distribution station in Changning district, taking charge of the 21 delivery riders responsible for a 6-square-kilometer area.

Besides being their manager, Song also lends a sympathetic ear to the riders and often reminds them to strike a balance between work and leisure. For example, after noticing that some of his young riders were more interested in playing mobile games than their jobs, he reminded them of the significance of their work, and persuaded them to improve their work efficiency.

Song also has no qualms spending his own money to help his riders. On one occasion, he paid the medical bills of a new rider who got into an accident.

At the beginning of last year, when the COVID-19 outbreak forced a suspension of delivery operations, Song drove to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and bought back 5,000 medical masks and disinfectant for his riders.