I opened my door and saw the delivery boy drenched, his raincoat muddy. He handed me my order, and started limping towards the stairs. I asked him what was wrong, so he told me he had been in a minor accident. The reason? He was speeding to deliver my order in under 10 minutes.

Sign my petition to ask our food and grocery delivery startups to give up their need for speed. Click here to share this petition on Twitter.

I don’t need to name the company that puts such a strict time restriction on their delivery partners. And I don’t want to, because by naming one, I’ll probably exonerate the others. But the truth is that Swiggy’s Instamart, Dunzo, Zepto, Blinkit, all are competing to deliver our orders in 10-20 minutes. I’ve never understood this ‘need for speed’ among India’s food and grocery delivery startups.

To me, this was never a need of the consumer. Everyone was doing just fine by getting their groceries delivered in bulk in a day or two, or buying them from their neighbourhood Kirana store. But India’s growing consumerism has coincided with an increasing penchant for techno-solutionism among both the state and society. Regrettably, our adoption of technology lacks empathy. So delivering my order of coke and cigarettes in under 10 minutes assumes more importance than the safety of the delivery worker.

After this incident, I started researching a bit more about incidents of food delivery workers getting injured while on the job. Several such instances have been documented in media reports, here, here and here. But food delivery startups claim that these are rare occurrences. They also claim that they don’t penalise the drivers if the latter fail to deliver within the stipulated time. But it means that the driver will lose out on his daily or weekly bonus for completing a certain number of deliveries within the peak hours. Isn’t that penalisation enough?

To me, it seems that these 'quick commerce' startups have gamified the working day of a food delivery worker. They aren't increasing the base pay, which is the minimum payout per order, for their delivery workers. It remains paltry at around Rs 20-30. So the only way a food delivery worker can increase their daily earnings, is by getting their hand on the daily incentive or bonus. They'll get this bonus, if they complete a certain number of deliveries during the peak hours; ergo, by driving fast.

Tragically, consumers like us couldn’t care less about our food delivery workers. How many of us take care to thank the delivery person or pay them a tip? I happened to talk to the delivery boy who showed up at my doorstep because I had noticed his limp. Most of them hide their scars and race again for the next order!

I can wait for my order of groceries. I don’t need it in 10 minutes! If the delivery partner can make it, great! But I don’t want the food delivery app to promise me 10-minute deliveries. I don’t want someone to risk their life by driving fast, all for delivering my junk food. The 10-minute delivery option should only persist for medicines and NOTHING ELSE!

Sign my petition to ask Swiggy's Instamart, Dunzo, Blinkit and Zepto to give up their promises of deliveries in 10-20 minutes. These promises should not be a part of the brand marketing of these companies. And it should certainly not be a sword hanging over our delivery workers.

#ICanWaitForMyGroceries

Image credits: Quartz

Karti P Chidambaram

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