Tag: Zomato And Swiggy

Prem Prakash

‘A Delivery Guy Is Perpetually Racing Against Time’

By LokMarg

Prem Prakash (name changed), a ‘delivery partner’ with Zomato in Lucknow, says his back-breaking work entails covering a minimum of 100 km every day on a motorbike. His story:

Before the 2020-21 pandemic days I was working as a marketing executive with a FMCG company. Covid and lockdown forced the company to limit its operations and I lost my job. It wasn’t a very high-paying job but it was comfortable enough. With few opportunities available, I took up the role of ‘Delivery Partner’ with app-based food delivery chain Zomato. In the last three and half years I have seen things going from bad to worse for delivery partners, as the competition gets tougher due to new entrants in the market.

When I joined Zomato, there was a gig system – hourly work and payment that gave me enough time to search and look for work elsewhere. However, for the past couple of years, the company has brought in several stringent norms that leave little space or time for me to spare. I work for 12 hours at a stretch and yet struggle to reach my target income of Rs 22,000 a month.

My income has two components – salary or retainership and commission per delivery. I therefore try to many delivery as possible, without missing any deadline. If you want a break in receiving orders, you need to inform the company two hours in advance. If there are frequent breaks, which is called cancellations, then your order ID may get suspended. Such punitive rules remind me of the days bonded labour in feudal India but there is little one can do about. We are always short of time.

Earlier, Lucknow city was divided into six zones and the deliveries were restricted to zonal partners. Now, due to competition, a delivery partner from can take up orders of another zone, irrespective of the distance and time. We have to match the 20-minute-or-free offers from pizza delivery outlets or Blinkit and Zepto. However, the company does provide relaxations in rules when weather is bad or a worker has health issues.

ALSO READ: ‘25% of My Income Goes Into My Bike’s Fuel Tank’

Every morning I wake up when my children have gone to school. I pack my meal and leave for work before 10 am. Thereto I continuously pick and deliver orders. There is little time to spend with family. Time is precious in my profession. It often requires driving fast and taking shorter routes to save time. What to say about my health, this work takes a toll on my motorbike too, which requires regular maintenance to remain in good working condition.

To make matter worse, we often face rude customers. At times there are bulk order, particularly during late evening hour, meant for small parties. There have been instances when patrons under the influence of alcohol at such parties misbehaved with me, complaining about late delivery and hurling abuses over something as little as a free sachet of chili flakes or oregano. There is little respect for Delivery Partners in our society. The company has provided us with a Panic Button on our phones but we prefer to take it in our stride.

My only worry is that I can work as a delivery person when I am young. It would not be possible to carry out with such punishing hours once I cross 35. Already my lower back pains at the end of every day. I must think about my future and sort it out sooner than later.

As told to Rajat Rai

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Weekly Update: High-risk Lives of Food Delivery Men; Where Are All The Judges?

By Lehnga Singh

Last weekend, in north Delhi, a food delivery man zipping on his motorcycle to meet a deadline crashed into a car. The gory accident led to at least three deaths. Anyone who has been commuting or driving on the roads in India’s big cities would have seen the sheer number of food delivery people on their bikes, weaving in and out of traffic, often breaking traffic rules, in their quest to deliver food from restaurants and other outlets to consumers. They operate on tight schedules, and what they earn depends largely on the number of deliveries they can complete each day.

On paper, in India, where the per capita income per month is a measly ₹1,025, a delivery person for the more popular app-based food delivery platforms can earn up to ₹50,000 a month. In addition, many of them can get cash incentives linked to their performance. But all of these come at a cost. It is hard work, involving bike rides through India’s notoriously frenetic traffic and carrying huge loads on their backs. 

Besides the risks of driving against tight deadlines and carrying loads, delivery persons for services such as Zomato and Swiggy often have to put in 12-14 hours a day in order to earn enough to make ends meet. Last year, a couple of them took to social media anonymously to talk about the conditions under which they work. One of them compared their status to that of slaves.

India’s urban middle class and richer strata of households have got used to the convenience of ordering food that can be delivered to their homes, sometimes even round-the-clock. But behind the ease of clicking an app and getting what you want–the platform has also led to a mushrooming for food outlets in most cities–is the darker reality of the risks that those who work in food delivery face. The north Delhi incident took place soon after a leading food delivery company offered deliveries within 10 minutes after a customer placed an order. The market has turned competitive and companies are pushing the limits to offer an edge over their rivals.

The employment opportunities that such Business-to-Consumer (B2C) services offer to India’s burgeoning youth is certainly welcome but it is also necessary for the players in the business to ensure that basic safety, health and other work-related conditions are protected. Delivery persons are usually not employees; they work on contracts that provide little in terms of health insurance or other safety nets; and often the pressure on them can force them to take risks as happened when the delivery person in Delhi lost his life.

Where Are All The Judges?

India’s chief justice N.V. Ramana recently revealed that there are more than 40 million cases pending in lower courts. That is a mind-boggling number that could take decades, if not longer to be disposed of.

What that huge backlog signifies is the acute shortage of judges in the Indian judicial system. Take the situation in high courts alone. In India’s 25 high courts, the number of total judges sanctioned is 1,104 of which 833 judges are permanent and remaining 271 sanctioned for additional judges. But as on date, 35% of these posts are vacant because there are no candidates available. In lower courts, the situation is worse.

India’s judicial system is hugely inadequate when it comes to judges. India’s ratio of judges to population is ridiculously low. For every million people there are just 20 judges. In the US it is 107; and in the UK, 51.

At the same time the volume of litigation is on the rise in India. Delays are commonplace and legal relief, particularly for the poor, is often fraught with years of waiting and incurring high costs. If India has to reduce the backlog of pending cases, the crucial thing would be to attract more judges to the judicial system. For obvious reasons, legal professionals prefer to work as advocates and lawyers rather than as judges. Judges in India, particularly in the lower courts, get salaries that are low compared to what a lawyer can earn. The starting basic salary of a district judge is ₹26,000. This has meant that in lower courts it is difficult to attract competent judges to fill posts.

It is time for a major reform of the judicial system. And if India has to tackle the growing backlog of legal cases that are pending, it must start by attracting more judges to head its courts.