‘ACCEPT NEW ORDER’The words flashed across the screen, accompanied by a siren-like alarm. It was 7am and my first day as a delivery partner had begun. It was faster than I expected, since I had opened the delivery partner app less than 10 seconds before. The blaring continued unabated as my fingers fumbled to silence it, but it refused to mute. My options were to either accept or deny the order. I rejected it and lost Rs 50 even before I could deliver my first meal. Thus began the first of my three days as a gig worker, part of India’s 30-lakh delivery partner workforce. I signed up with Swiggy, Zomato and BlinkIt. I learned how quickly choice disappears when you sign in. My wallet was already at Rs -50.
‘TWO PONGALS, THREE IDLIS, AND A NIGHTMARE’I didn’t have time to worry as within seconds the blaring alarm returned and ‘Accept new order’ flashed. I quickly accepted for fear of losing more money. The restaurant details appeared on the screen, but the customer details were unavailable to view.I clicked the map icon, drove to a restaurant in Anna Nagar, and picked up two pongals, one dosa and three idlis. As I glanced at the bill, it struck me that I hadn’t eaten breakfast. No time to grumble (though my stomach was) as another alarm interrupted my thoughts, showing me where my customer waited.I delivered the order to the customer within 20 minutes, who received it with a smile. No time to dwell as I immediately got another order with the notification ‘Order delayed, head to the restaurant for pickup’. I raced through the streets with a sense of dread, of anxiety, and somehow managed to success fully deliver the second order.Throughout the day, I shuffled between restaurants, sometimes picking up two orders from the same place and delivering them to two different locations, with no option to decline an order. The app decided the pace and locations, and I had to follow instructions.‘WAREHOUSE, WHAT NOW?’In between, I was asked to pick up orders from Instamart warehouses, where deliveries are timed to the minute. It was chaotic there. People shouting, store pickers rushing to pack orders, delivery partners yelling for QR codes to be scanned. I had no idea what to do. I could hear alarms ringing everywhere, so much so that I did not notice that the one-minute pickup timer on my phone had run out, and now my phone was buzzing.
I froze. A kind fellow delivery partner stepped in and showed me what to do. Moments later, I was handed a bag with an Eno and a tooth brush. I thought to myself, ‘All this for a tooth brush’. I was back on my scooter, delivering my cargo.‘OUT OF RANGE, BUT WHO CARES’By the next day, the alarm no longer startled me. I was immune now. I opened Zomato almost mechanically, hoping for shorter distances. First order in and accepted. Two ghee podi idlis and one masala rava dosa from a restaurant in Kilpauk. Like with Swiggy, Zomato also does not make the customer’s address viewable until after the pickup.KK Nagar!That’s 6km away from where I was. Despite the traffic, I managed to deliver it on time. But no tip. With Swiggy, orders stopped once I left my assigned zone in Anna Nagar, forcing me to ride back before the next order came in. Zomato worked differently, continuing to assign deliveries farther and farther from my zone. When the app asked me to pick up an order from Vadapalani, I declined because it was too far away. A 15-minute countdown began on my screen, warning that if another delivery partner was not assigned within that time, the order would be returned to me.Within 5 minutes, the app notified me that no partner was available and instructed me to head to the pickup location. No time for lunch. I gulped down some water and headed to the restaurant. One chicken dum biryani.‘ARE YOU TAMIL? THEN SPEAK HINDI OR ENGLISH, PLEASE!’Up until I took up this job, I was frustrated by the way delivery partners rode through streets, speeding, jumping red lights, and going the wrong way, but being in their shoes for three days showed me a different side to the story.The sense of urgency and anxiety these apps create with IVR calls asking why the order is delayed or denied, and chimes and notifications for slow pickups, is enough to make anyone panic. I noticed I had begun speeding, cutting in and out of traffic, evading cops as if on-time delivery was all that mattered.At warehouses, as I sat with delivery partners waiting for orders to be assigned, they cracked jokes about placing their own orders to mark attendance for the day. Others spoke about travelling long distances and completing more than 10 orders, only to find that the incentive, meant to add to their trip earnings, had not been credited. A few said failing to complete the required number of orders in a shift resulted in a loss of pay.While I was still figuring out the process, I called partner support for help. I selected the ‘Tamil’ option and waited to be connected. The executive who came on the line began speaking in Hindi. Although I speak and understand Hindi, I chose to respond in Tamil. She then switched to perfect English and, in a condescending tone, asked, “What is this? Tamil or Telugu? Do you know English?” I replied in English after that. When I later asked other delivery partners if this had happened to them, they said it had, and that they often had to insist that executives speak to them in English.‘DELIVERIES, DAY AND NIGHT’Most of the customers I interacted with were women. The few men I delivered to were polite, and two even tipped me Rs 20. While the men often seemed surprised to see me, the women appeared pleased and frequently came down themselves to collect the order. The men waited at their door steps, while I navigated the tight security protocol of gated communities and climbed several flights of stairs in apartment buildings without lifts.
As evenings set in and the apps sent me into narrow lanes, quieter neighbourhoods, and more isolated stretches, I began to feel unsafe and worked out a strategy. I called ahead to confirm that a woman would be coming to collect the order, and parked my scooter at a distance that allowed a quick getaway if needed. In one neighbourhood, when I asked a customer to come down and collect the order, he hesitated, irritation in his voice. He came down eventually. I handed over his chicken sausage, my last order.‘ORDERS VS MONEY’Delivery partners can decline three orders in a row on Zomato without penalty. Swiggy doesn’t allow for any denials and immediately deducts money from earnings. Most of the time, I was delivering orders back-to-back, with a 10-minute app-assigned break. Although partners are as signed a zone 5km to operate within, these apps don’t really abide by it and force delivery partners to travel distances as long as 16km.Although apps show that the delivery is free, delivery partners are required to fulfil the order and earn based on the bill amount. Delivery partners are expected to work prime shifts, such as the morning and lunch shifts, and complete a minimum of eight orders, regardless of distance. Failure = loss of pay.
