Deepinder Goyal, founder of food delivery portal Zomato, pushed back against the calls for better pay-outs and improved working conditions for gig workers, saying that the 10-minute delivery promise, provided by his quick-commerce company Blinkit is not enabled by asking delivery partners to drive fast.
A section of gig workers have been demanding better pay-outs and working conditions and held a massive strike on December 31, New Year's Eve.
He added, “One more thing. Our 10 minute delivery promise is enabled by the density of stores around your homes. It’s not enabled by asking delivery partners to drive fast.”
Delivery partners don’t even have a timer on their app to indicate what was the original time promised to the customer, he said.
Explaining how the orders are processed on Blinkit, Deepinder Goyal said once an order is placed, it is picked and packed within 2.5 minutes, after which the rider drives an average of under two kilometres in about eight minutes. “That's an average of 15kmph.”
“I understand why everybody thinks why 10 minutes must be risking lives, because it is indeed hard to imagine the sheer complexity of the system design which enables quick deliveries,” Goyal wrote in his X post.
He urged users of these services to “JUST ASK” any rider partner why they voluntary take up platform work and prefer it over regular jobs.
“Also, if you've ever wanted to know why millions of Indians voluntarily take up platform work and sometimes even prefer it to regular jobs, JUST ASK any rider partner when you get your next food or grocery order. You will be humbled by how rational and honest they will be with you,” Goyal said, assuring changes to make the platform better.
“Having said that, no system is perfect, and we are all for making it better than today. However, it is far from what it is being portrayed on social media by people who don't understand how our system works and why,” he said.
If I were outside the system, I would also believe that gig workers are being exploited, but that's not true, he added.
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