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India’s top delivery companies have started to drop promises of 10-minute service after the government warned them that expectations of speed were jeopardising safety in an industry that employs millions.
Labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya told executives from companies including Eternal, Swiggy and Zepto in a meeting last week that the 10-minute pledges compromised “workplace safety”, according to a person familiar with the matter.
While the companies argued the targets were just a marketing tool, they were persuaded to drop the branding, the person said. Eternal’s Blinkit platform on Tuesday changed its tagline to “30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep”, while Swiggy has dropped its pledge.
Gig worker unions hailed the government’s efforts to rein in what they called “hazardous” delivery promises, which had brought to the fore concerns about safety and low pay in a rapidly growing industry underpinned by India’s expanding urban class.
“This is a significant and much-needed step in protecting the lives and dignity of gig and platform workers,” Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers and founder president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union, said late on Tuesday.
“The 10-minute delivery model forced delivery partners into dangerous road behaviour, extreme stress and unsafe working conditions.”
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s quick commerce industry has expanded across the country’s cities, with lossmaking companies engaged in a war of attrition amid heightened demand for speedy deliveries, fuelled by an abundance of low-cost and underemployed labour.
The increasing pressures came to a head during the Christmas period last year, when thousands of gig workers embarked on nationwide strikes calling for better pay, social security and an end to 10-minute delivery demands that they said were exploitative.
To counter the impact, many ecommerce platforms offered short-term incentives over the festive period to workers — many of whom cannot afford to miss a day of work — and millions did not take part in the strikes. Elara Capital estimated that only 1.8 per cent of India’s gig workers participated, limiting disruption.
But the headlines drew New Delhi’s attention amid a wider debate over the lack of meaningful work opportunities in India, which has struggled to raise the number of formal jobs, despite its economy growing at the fastest pace of any major country.
Deepinder Goyal, chief executive of Eternal, also faced criticism after he claimed the 10-minute promise did not result in unsafe behaviour from its delivery workers.
“After you place your order on Blinkit, it is picked and packed within 2.5 minutes. And then the rider drives an average of under 2 kms in about 8 minutes. That’s an average of 15 kmph,” he posted on social media on New Year’s Day.
“If I were outside the system, I would also believe that gig workers are being exploited, but that’s not true.”
Karan Taurani, an analyst at Elara, said the removal of the non-contractual 10-minute delivery “catchline” was largely “optics-driven rather than business altering”.
In a statement late on Tuesday, Eternal said: “With respect to our quick commerce business Blinkit, there is no change in business model that could have any material impact on the company.”
