The recent announcement by Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal of its plans to deliver food to customers in 10 minutes has raised a small twitter storm, forcing the CEO to put out a clarification. This raises several questions on the nature of delivery platforms, and the impact on delivery workers.
Platform industry is all about grabbing market share. This is done by introducing innovations to increase “efficiency”, which in the case of food delivery implies cost reduction and speed; both directly impact the platform worker, or “delivery partner” as he is euphemistically termed. It is the earnings of workers that represent the only variable cost element; cost reduction finally pinches his earnings. It forces him to “run twice as fast just to stay in the same place” to quote Alice in Wonderland.
Mr. Goyal in his clarification claimed, “We do not put any pressure on the delivery partner to deliver food faster.” Well, in the platform world where the customer is the king (or queen), it is the delivery partner who will face the wrath of the customer for late delivery. There are enough anecdotal experiences from platform workers of the wrath turning ugly with customers even refusing to pay leaving the partner at the mercy of the platform, which often is insensitive to the grievances of the workers.
