Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Eternal, rejected the claim of delivery workers getting exploited and even killed due to 10-minute delivery rush amid row, claiming they have no pressure of timing. In a podcast with Raj Shamani, Goyal said the 10 minute delivery is enabled by the density of orders.
“Our delivery partners are not given any fixed timeline that they must deliver the food by a certain time. 10 minutes is not enabled through us asking people to drive fast; 10 minutes is enabled by density of stores. They are just so close to you. Delhi NCR has about 400 plus Blinkit stores,” Deepinder Goyal said when asked about the claims on alleged exploitation of delivery partners.
He explained, “That means if there is a store at every corner, the average packing time is about 1 minute 40 seconds. A person can easily cover one kilometer in eight minutes, so there is no need to make them rush or speed excessively. There is no human pressure being created to make this work.”
He further clarified that only customers can only see timer when the product is getting delivered and not the delivery partners. Goyal added a delivery partner gets a job assignment to go and drop it off, he completes the delivery, and then comes back, further calling it a “shuffling job”.
While describing a scenario of delivery partners getting very late, he said, “We call them to check if they are okay and ask what’s going on. If we realize there is a problem, we help them. Otherwise, sometimes they are just relaxing or having a smoke, and we tell them, ‘Please do that later—go and complete the delivery first.’”
Raghav Chadha seeks an end to 10-minute delivery ‘cruelty’
Meanwhile, referring to delivery personnel from platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, and Zepto, as well as Ola and Uber drivers and service providers from Urban Company, Aam Admi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha last month noted that they are officially termed gig workers but described them as the invisible wheels driving the Indian economy, according to ANI,
He said he wanted to bring their struggles to the attention of Parliament, pointing out that while quick commerce has transformed daily life, it relies on a quiet workforce that toils in all conditions and frequently puts their lives at risk to meet the demand for speed.
The Punjab MP urged that gig workers be treated with dignity and provided proper protection and fair wages.
“Companies are earning in billions because of these workers, and many upped their valuations and became unicorns. But the conditions of the gig workers are worse off than daily wage labourers,” he added. “…I want to tell you that these people are not robots. They are also someone’s father, husband, brother, or son. The House should think about them and end this cruelty of 10-minute delivery.”
