Swiggy Order food online for home delivery in Bengaluru on 19th June 2023.
DH Photo/ S K Dinesh
Deliveries of food and grocery orders booked on apps are slowing down, and business insiders are attributing it to delivery agents moving out of their jobs.
Metrolife spoke to several delivery agents who said they were keen to move out as their earnings were dwindling.
The main reason for people wishing to quit the gig economy is “a drastic fall in income,” says Vinay Sarathy, president, United Food Delivery Partners’ Union.
“Since 2023, delivery agents have been struggling to make ends meet. They have become overburdened. Since last year, the delivery apps have been bringing in new rules to reign in the pay and incentives enjoyed by delivery agents,” he says.
The ‘rate card’ is one practice that keeps delivery agents anxious, he says. “The companies have rate cards for each locality, and they keep unilaterally revising the rates. Lately, they have been doing it more frequently. This makes it difficult for delivery agents to get a grip of which locality to focus on and they end up losing money. One of the companies has introduced a ‘slot system’. Only if you manage to get a slot for the day can you make deliveries.”
In April, 33-year-old Anil Kumar quit his job with a food delivery app. “I started in 2020 after I lost my job during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to that I was in a clerical post in a garment factory, and I used to make a little over Rs 20,000. My first two years as a delivery agent were great. I was making Rs 7,000 more,” he says.
However, things changed when the app introduced new regulations. “Earlier, the company would pay us for both pickup and drop. In 2023, they stopped paying for the pickup. The petrol spent on picking up the order goes from our pockets. Plus, due to the growing number of people taking up the job, it became increasingly hard to get orders,” he says.
Anil called it quits after facing severe burnout in February and March. “My body and mind were both tired. I was slogging away every day in the heat for close to 10 hours, and making less money than I did in my previous job. Plus, I didn’t have any time off, as I was working all seven days,” he says. He is now back to working at a garment factory in Peenya.
Suresh G and Suriya are two more who moved out of the gig industry in April. While Suresh quit as it became difficult for him to fend for his family of three with an average monthly income of Rs 15,000-Rs 18,000, Suriya left as he began to “lose interest in the thankless job”.
“It was impossible to please the company and the customers. The app would promise food delivery in five minutes but that was impossible because of high demand. There used to be such long queues at the store that getting the order would take at least 10 minutes, and then it would take another 10 to deliver it. The customers would shout at me for late delivery and raise a complaint. The company would pay me less for delayed delivery,” says Suriya, 20. He now works at an AC repair and maintenance company. Many gig workers told Metrolife they would like to return to the jobs they held pre-Covid-19. Among them were garment factory workers, mechanics and an automobile salesman.
Food and grocery delivery apps Metrolife contacted did not respond to queries.
SALE FREQUENTLY PUT ON HOLD
The past two weeks, two grocery delivery apps had turned off their services for up to four hours. This was a result of a recent supply problem, say delivery agents. “Online orders in Bengaluru are increasing every day. A few days ago, our dark store near M G Road got so many orders that they ran low on stocks. The app had to pause its services for some time. This has happened twice since April,” shares Raju, who says he makes about 30 to 35 deliveries a day in the CBD area.