The Chennai police registered 978 cases and imposed fines of Rs 1,35,400 on the delivery workers, drivers and other service personnel of various apps for flouting traffic rules. The most cases were registered against delivery workers with Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo. In a statement, the Chennai police said that with rising popularity, the number of delivery personnel who have signed up with aggregators has increased manifold.
On Thursday, March 30, a special drive was conducted only to focus on delivery partners violating traffic rules particularly for those not wearing helmets and driving on the wrong side of the road.
The statement said that it was noticed that most services promise delivery in a very short period of time, pressuring food delivery partners to drive swiftly. “It is also noticed that, due to the nature of payment terms, most of the food delivery partners are flouting traffic rules like signal violation, wrong side driving, driving without helmet, using mobile handsets while driving, and over speeding in an attempt to earn more by delivering quicker, endangering their lives and the lives of other motorists,” the statement said.
A total of 450 drivers signed up with Swiggy were found in violation of rules, along with 278 who drive for Zomato, 188 for Dunzo and 62 who belong to other companies, which include Rapido, ShadowFax, Amazon, BigBasket and Flipkart.
As per the Chennai police, it was curb to this that awareness had regularly been conducted for the food delivery partners about the importance of traffic rules and the penalties if these rules are violated.