Having worked in the express delivery sector for 19 years, 39-year-old Ma Shiguang has taken part in voluntary social management events and works to expand benefits for the flexibly employed.

Ma began working as a deliveryman in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province in 2003, before moving back to his home in Changsha, Hunan province, to continue working in express deliveries in 2013.

"I viewed being a deliveryman as a simple job for the first five or six years, but I became determined to achieve something more. But if you don't put in the effort, you don't reap the rewards," he said.

And so in 2017, he took part in a State-level skills competition focused on express deliveries as a representative of the Gaoqiao branch of YTO Express in Changsha.

"The competition tested a range of skills including collecting and delivering parcels, identifying prohibited items, packing fragile items and designing postal routes," Ma said.

His impressive performance won him first prize in the Hunan province preliminaries.

Ma is not only dedicated to his job, but also to going the extra mile. When the pandemic broke out in early 2020, he worked continuously for over two months.

"I remember going back to work in February, right after the Spring Festival. I didn't have any masks at the time so I borrowed one to go back to work," he said. "The delivery station was short-handed due to the epidemic. I fetched parcels from the transfer center early each morning and delivered them and had to disinfect each one. As a result, my trousers became faded from disinfection. As a Party member, I felt that I had a responsibility to keep working at the time."

After joining the Communist Party of China in August 2019, Ma was chosen as a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for his diligence and impressive work ethic.

He also organized a workshop in June focused on promoting awareness of fraud and drugs and arranged for volunteers to perform nucleic acid tests for residents.

"The workshop was composed of flexible workers like express deliverymen and food deliverymen. Whenever Gaoqiao Street Community, where my company is located, needed my help, I called up volunteers through WeChat groups. I'm proud that flexibly employed workers volunteered to serve the people," he said.

Ma now works as an operation manager at the YTO Express branch in Gaoqiao, and as a delegate works to secure benefits for flexible workers, such as resolving problems their children face getting an education and access to social security.

"I also submitted proposals on the sustainable development of the express delivery sector, which would help secure a better life for us all," he said.

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