Business almost as usual for delivery services amid Karnataka Bandh

The state-wide bandh on Friday was not a big issue for hyper-local food and grocery services in Bangalore, with only a few disruptions reported across the city.

“We have seen no impact to our services at all. It has been business as usual for the company, with no disruption in deliveries or order count,” a spokesperson for grocery delivery service Zepto said.

“Some slowdown in operations was experienced initially, but we have ironed that out now,” a spokesperson from another major delivery service noted.

In fact, the unusually empty roads in a city often marred by traffic woes allowed some delivery personnel to reach their destinations much faster.

“Restaurants are only accepting online orders today and aren’t letting patrons dine-in. The lower order count combined with empty roads have allowed us to deliver orders faster. We met with our handler today who only instructed us to be slightly careful and carry all relevant documents, but the protesters have mostly allowed us to work undisturbed,” a Zomato delivery worker told DH on the condition of anonymity.

The number of restaurants offering online deliveries was quite low as many eateries decided to take the day off in support of the protest. At the same time, not all platform workers had a pleasant experience, as many were diverted from their routes due to road blocks and processions, while others were asked to go back by protesters, as per Shaik Salauddin, National General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), which represents app-based transport and delivery workers.

“Not all aggregator companies supported the strike and instead asked the workers to report for work as usual. If a gig worker will see a delivery opportunity, many of which include a surge fee, they will not let it go. Delivery companies should have stopped operations on the app level to ensure safety of the riders,” he said.

The bandh received almost unanimous support from Karnataka’s trade associations, with the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) reporting a Rs 400 crore loss to the government exchequer due to lower tax collections.

“FKCCI is happy to state that today’s Karnataka Bandh has been peaceful and 70 per cent of Trade, Industry across Karnataka have supported the bandh successfully,” the federation said in a press statement.

However, many customers reported that delivery times exceeded their normal time frames on platforms such as Dunzo and Swiggy’s grocery delivery service, Instamart, with an order that would usually take 15 minutes displaying an ETA of 50-60 minutes.

“I placed an order for groceries from Instamart and it showed delivery time as 27 minutes. Even after an hour, no delivery partners were reachable and I ultimately had to cancel the order,” a customer from Kasturi Nagar said.

Elsewhere in locations like MG Road, Kodihalli and Indiranagar, the Instamart store was not functional as of press time. Protestors did not allow Instamart stores to open in many locations where they had a stronghold, confirmed Salauddin.

Since inter-city bus services were affected, many gig workers travelling from the city’s outskirts found it tough to report to work, which could have impacted driver availability and increased ETAs, another gig worker said.

Zomato and Swiggy declined to comment when reached out to by DH.