BENGALURU: For the last three days, it has been quite difficult for people to order food on Zomato, as many restaurants haven’t been taking orders due to delivery partners logging out of the app to protest against revised rate cards and cutting down of incentives and commissions. Software engineer, Meenakshi Srinivas, who tried ordering multiples on the app, couldn’t find a restaurant that would accept her order. “I tried multiple times on Sunday to place orders, but in vain. I tried many restaurants, but none were taking orders. I tried again on Monday and Tuesday, but it was the same scenario. I thought something was wrong with my phone and reinstalled the app, which didn’t work either.”
Business development manager, Sherin CM, said she tried ordering many times on Zomato, and after failing each time, she was forced to switch to another app. More than 600 delivery partners took out a bike rally on the streets of RT Nagar, Kamanhalli, Sahakarnagar and Rajajinagar on Tuesday. The delivery partners revealed that the app has cut down the minimum pay per delivery.
“We were getting `40 per delivery, but now it has reduced to `30. For 14 deliveries, we would get paid `300, and for 20 deliveries, the pay was `600. However, it has now come down to almost half,” said Raghunandan, a delivery partner.
It was also disclosed that when the delivery partners make longer distance trips, they were paid `10 per extra kilometre, however, now it has reduced to `50 paise per extra kilometre. “In this age, paisa coins means nothing. Now since we are protesting, I’m sure they will remove us from our jobs too,” added Raghunandan.
The partners further said that that they have daily targets to meet, such as 11, 16 or 22 orders per day, which stresses them out. “At times, it is highly impossible to reach these targets. If we reach them, we get bonus points, because of which we keep making deliveries back-to-back, which takes a toll on our health,” said another delivery partner. They also pointed out that daily fuel expenses were incurred by them, and that they do not get any PF or extended benefits.