As speed in delivery becomes focus, why action taken by Chennai police against executives assumes significance

The action taken by Chennai police

According to a statement by the police, it has slapped fines worth Rs 1,35,400 on 978 executives for various violations. Of this, 450 delivery workers were deployed by Swiggy, followed by 278 by Zomato, and 188 by Dunzo.

This is perhaps the first time that there is data to show that delivery workers often end up engaging in rash driving, violating traffic norms in a rush to deliver orders quickly as the companies they work for have been promising increasingly short turnaround times to their customers. App-based delivery times in India typically range from around 10 minutes to 25 minutes depending on the service and platforms users choose.

In a statement, the police noted that the companies promise quick deliveries to customers, “pressurising” delivery workers to drive quickly. The police also noted that the incentive-based payout structure that most of these companies have for their gig workers was forcing them to flout traffic norms.

What has been the reaction to quick delivery models?

Last month, when Zomato announced that it would start delivering food within 10 minutes, it was on the receiving end of fierce backlash as stakeholders from across the board raised concerns that the short delivery timeline may put added pressure on the already overworked delivery persons, potentially prompting them to engage in rash driving and traffic violations.

Trade unions like the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union said that Zomato should look at its delivery workers “as human beings” and not as “data points” for an algorithm to manage. Lawmakers, like Madhya Pradesh Home Minister and Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, had also said that the short delivery timeline may put additional pressure on delivery workers which could lead them to engage in rash driving.

Zomato, however, said that to complete a quick delivery, workers will typically ride for between 3 and 6 minutes at an average speed of around 20 km per hour.

Before Zomato, startups like Blinkit and Zepto popularised the 10-minute delivery segment in the country. Blinkit had earlier told The Indian Express that because its dark stores are located in close proximity to its customers, the workers “don’t need to break any traffic rules to deliver orders under 10 minutes”.

Zepto’s co-founder Aadit Palicha had, during an interaction with this paper earlier, said that in delivering a million orders, a very small fraction — “in decimals” — of its workers have been “mildly injured”.

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