The Price for Fast Delivery can be Quite steep
The New York Times recently printed an article on the many delivery companies in India, some of whom promise delivery in less than 15 minutes. The article describes how a 29-year-old motorcyclist named Shivam Tirupati Niralwar speeds through Hyderabad traffic, even running red lights, to deliver an order of fried okra to an office worker within 11 minutes.
That raises an important question: Do we really want people risking their lives to deliver okra? Whether we love a particular dish or not, we shouldn’t need it delivered so rapidly that drivers have to put their lives (and the lives of other motorists) at risk.
All the single-order deliveries are contributing to traffic congestion and pollution, but just as concerning is the stress on drivers. They have to cut corners to make speedy deliveries. One company, Zepto, even promises to make deliveries in 10 minutes or less.
It helps that Swiggy and Zepto have built distribution warehouses in busy areas to reduce driving distances. But even in these fulfillment centers, workers face intense pressure to fill orders as fast as humanly possible.
“Customers get angry and complain if they don’t get their orders on time,” a store packer for Zepto told the Times. “They don’t think about us.”
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Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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