Table 4.

Open coding for interview materials.

Primary Coding	Reference Point	Example of Original Text
A1 Normative constraint	16	“There are safety education exams every month, and we have to read and do questions”
A2 Punishment mechanism	37	“The stationmaster said that it is not allowed to ask for leave for a long time. If no one can be found for three days, he will directly deduct money according to absenteeism”
A3 Appeal mechanism	15	“If the delivery is delayed because the customer does not answer the phone, the platform will not deduct money”
A4 Safeguard mechanism	8	“Insurance is only known to be deducted from wages. But it is not clear what insurance is and how much money is deducted”
A5 Delivery order mechanism	87	“If you can endure hardship, you can work more than ten hours a day and receive hundreds of orders a day”
A6 Rating mechanism	119	“If you can endure hardship, you can work more than ten hours a day and receive hundreds of orders a day”
A7 Encouragement mechanism	6	“Platform would give 666 yuan for 60 days of work”
A8 Dispatch mechanism	202	“15 orders should be delivered every day, so that the day can be counted as full attendance”
A9 Delivery time control	150	“The time limit for delivery is often very short. The distance of 6 km is only 15–20 min. Once the time limit is exceeded, you will be fined”
A18 Ownership of work	208	“I’m just a rider. I don’t have so many ambitions. I just want to live by my own work”
A26 Dispute resolution mechanism	166	“The customer asked me to walk 2 km to deliver the takeout to the new location. I didn’t agree. Later, the restaurant finally agreed to refund the bill and asked me to send the meal back. Finally, I got a subsidy of 3 yuan after working for two hours”