Leveraging dozens of millions of square feet of logistics infrastructure spanning Korea, Coupang’s flagship service Rocket Delivery moves millions of products each day, delivered by the company’s drivers called Coupang Friends. But when Jeong-hoon Park, 40, joined the company in April 2014, Rocket Delivery was an unfamiliar service that had only launched the month before.
Jeong-hoon joined Coupang as a driver based on a friend’s recommendation that the company, having just launched an innovative new service, had a bright future ahead. Jeong-hoon found pride in being part of a team that delivered products in “the fastest and most convenient and customer-centric way,” but what really struck him was the company’s culture, which was unlike any he had experienced before in the industry.
“There is no company with a better work-life balance than Coupang,” said Jeong-hoon. “We strictly follow a 5-day workweek, with 52 hours per week.” This stood in direct contrast to many other delivery companies, which required 6-day workweeks. Jeong-hoon was also given 15 days of annual leave right when he joined the company, which has since increased to 18 days. Other companies didn’t provide such leave, even requiring drivers to pay the company hundreds of thousands of won per day to hire replacement workers on the days such drivers couldn’t work. “I even know a parcel delivery driver at another company who went on a honeymoon for a week and had to pay the full cost of his leave to the company to hire an alternative worker,” said Jeong-hoon.
In contrast, “Coupang Friends can use their annual leave freely,” Jeong-hoon said. “Since my wife’s family lives in Jeju Island, I take a long weekend break once every two or three months for three or four days.” Jeong-hoon also praised the company’s benefits, noting that Coupang Friends received full insurance benefits, childcare support, and health check-ups, among other benefits, which most drivers in the industry did not receive due to their status as independent contractors. He added, “If Coupang wasn’t a company that respected work-life balance, it could have been difficult to stick around for seven years.”
Jeong-hoon was also impressed by the collaborative culture Coupang had created through its full-time employment and leave policies. “We Coupang Friends have a culture of ‘sharing,’ working together to get deliveries done,” said Jeong-hoon. “If one delivery camp has a lot of employees using leave, for example, Coupang Friends from another delivery camp nearby come to support. This collaboration allows us to freely use vacations while keeping our company’s promise to customers.”
Although Jeong-hoon has been with Coupang a long time, he remains as excited as ever about its future. “It’s been seven years since I joined the company, but I think the company is still in its early stages. We haven’t even gotten to the middle,” he said. “Will I be able to work for the next 10 years? The answer is yes—I’m still excited about the company’s vision.”
