Amid backlash, both Grofers and Zomato recently put out clarifications about their delivery timelines and how their delivery partners are treated. This comes amid several allegations against both companies through social media users as well as news reports. Grofers received backlash over its promise of delivering groceries in ten minutes. In a note, Grofers CEO Albinder Dhindsa said that the allegations against the company are that the company is pushing riders to ride fast and break traffic rules, and that they “are an inhuman valuation seeking corporation which puts lives at risk to deliver groceries in 10 minutes”.
In his clarification, Dhindsa claimed the company’s partner stores are located within 2 kilometres of customers. “Our stores are so densely located that we can deliver 90% of the orders within 15 minutes even if our riders drove under 10kmph!” he said. He added that most orders are packed under 2.5 minutes, and that riders are not incentivized to deliver orders fast. “They do it at their own pace and rhythm,” he said. “We've had zero reported rider accidents in the last two months since we launched 10 minute grocery delivery,” he added.
He further said that “not all companies are built on the back of exploitation of the poor. There are companies which are built by creating large swathes of employment, and generating tremendous amounts of value for all stakeholders.” He alleged that people were cynical and envious of those trying to break the status quo instead of celebrating innovation.
“These ads were conceptualised 6 months ago (long before any social media chatter around gig worker payouts/working conditions), and were shot 2 months ago,” it said. Its goals, the company added, was to make delivery partners the hero of the ad and highlight that we should talk respectfully to delivery partners, and raise the level of dignity associated with a delivery partner's job.
“We believe that our ads are well-intentioned, but were unfortunately misinterpreted by some people,” it said.
“As we shared in our quarterly shareholder letter before, we've been actively working on this already, and our delivery partner Net Promoter Score (NPS) has increased from -10% to 28% (and continues to rise),” it said, adding that it will explain soon why it believes that the delivery workers are fairly compensated.
“We thank everyone for pushing us to do better and we urge you to continue keeping us on our toes. We won't shirk away our responsibility,” he added.
In response to Zomato, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers said that Zomato should have shown empathy and withdrawn the ad. “But it chooses not to and this reflects the mindset of the Zomato. That it has always been more invested in building its own brand image even if it is based on lies than to reinstate slashed rates, incentives, and better working conditions,” it said.
“Shifting the risks of your business model onto workers and subjecting workers to inhuman, super-exploitative work amidst massive unemployment and rampant economic vulnerability amongst workers who depend on such jobs is not a favor which corporates like zomato are doing for society,” it added.