10-Minute Delivery By Swiggy, Dunzo, Grofers Should Be Stopped? Online Petition Filed, Check The Arguments!

Despite the increasing craze of 10 minute delivery among Indian startups from last year, several critics have questioned whether this is really something the customers want. 

Critics Voicing Their Opinion

They are voicing their opinion on Social media, as they are filled with such critics who have been raising voices against the quick commerce project led by several tech companies.

This includes the service providers like Swiggy, Zomato-backed Blinkit (formerly Grofers), Reliance-backed Dunzo and Zepto.

Online Petition Against 10 Minute Delivery

While all this is happening, now a netizen has gone a step ahead and launched an online petition.

This step is to force these companies to roll back their ambitious 10 minute delivery project, saying that it was “never the need of the consumer”. 

The petition says that “Everyone was doing just fine by getting their groceries delivered in bulk in a day or two, or buying them from their neighborhood Kirana store,”.

Further, highlighting that this just fuels impulse buying and does very little to “safeguard the delivery partner”.

While describing the situation, the person wrote in the petition, “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,”.

These types of incidents are pretty common in the 10 minute delivery scenario, confirmed Shaik Salauddin, the national general secretary of Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT). 

Delivery Partners Under Immense Pressure

According to him, the delivery partners are under immense pressure to make deliveries under 10 minutes otherwise they will be penalized.

In his words, the delivery partners are forced to resort to breaking traffic rules and over-speeding that does make them more prone to accidents, to avoid bad reviews or penalties. 

They also don’t have any clarity on the company’s plan of action in case a partner is injured while making deliveries.

He said, “Jaan ka khatra hai. Essential kya zaroorat hai pehle meri baat company se yeh hai. Agar aap delivery 10 minute mein nahi kar rahe toh kisiki jaan jane walli hai vahan pe? Aisa toh koi product grocery toh nahi hai na ki agar nahi hai toh jaan chale jati. [This endangers lives. I would first like to ask them what essential products are they delivering? It’s not like someone would lose their life if they don’t get that product or grocery within 10 minutes],”.

Blinkit Assures

In its defense, Blinkit has assured that “Our network design ensures stores are located within 2 kms of the customer. With this density of stores, our partners don’t need to break any traffic rules to deliver orders under 10 minutes and we don’t incentivise them on speed of delivery at all. We also provide medical and life insurance cover to all our delivery partners in case of a rare unfortunate incident,”. 

Comments from other delivery providers like Swiggy, Dunzo and Zepto on this online petition are still awaited.