On New Year’s Eve, Blinkit and Zomato together witnessed a record high 75 lakh deliveries, ordered by 63 lakh customers who were served by 4.5 lakh delivery partners.
Gig workers serving the society at large by enabling 12-20 min delivery of food, grocery and eatables had announced a strike mid-December. Their rhetoric was low-pay, high work load and immeasurable stress.
The strike was announced on two important days, on the eve of Christmas and New Year.
In a note on Linkedin, Deepinder Goyal, Founder of Eternal, the company that owns Zomato, Blinkit, District, Hyperpure, etc. claimed that the disruption caused by a clutch of workers didn’t have much impact on the supply chain for last mile delivery.
“Zomato and Blinkit delivered at a record pace yesterday, unaffected by calls for strikes that many of us heard over the past few days” said Deepinder Goyal.
“Support from local law enforcement helped keep the small number of miscreants in check, enabling 4.5 lakh+ delivery partners across both platforms to deliver more than 75 lakh orders (all-time high) to over 63 lakh customers during the day.
This happened without any additional incentives for delivery partners – NYE does see higher incentives than usual days and yesterday was no different than the past NYE days.”
He also thanked the local authorities across the country for clear enforcement and to the ground-team for their swift coordination.
“Most importantly, thank you to our delivery partners who showed up despite intimidation, stood their ground, and chose honest work and progress”, he added.
He also requested everyone to not get swept away by narratives being pushed by vested interests, clarifying that if the system was fundamentally unfair, then it would not consistently attract and retain so many people who work in it,
Editor’s Note
Deepinder noted, “The gig economy is one of India’s largest organised job creation engines, and its real impact will compound over time, when delivery partners’ children, supported by stable incomes and education, enter the workforce and help transform our country at scale”.
Sadly, his statement is incorrect when seen from the eyes of the Gig economy workers.
Most of the delivery partners get paid by the order – which means they earn more when there is a surge, they risk their lives during rains and floods and they get proportionately low pay when there is not enough work.
That the market for last-mile delivery is extremely crowded and competitive is one thing. Most of the delivery partners assume their “gig work” to be their primary employment, which is a pity.
From what we understand through the delivery partners, they are simply demanding fair payouts commensurate to what the platform earns.
If elite, capitalist Founders deny the truth, then they are not building a new system, rather are fixing a broken one, which is beyond repair.