Delivery apps face shortage of gig workers  

BENGALURU: With Swiggy’s Genie and Supr Daily temporarily unavailable, citing worker shortage across the state, the reasons being attributed to it are many, including rising fuel prices, inability to keep up with shorter delivery time demands and lack of regular work. Another major reason is the ongoing harvest season.

Rohit Rathi, founder of KarmaLife, a platform which provides financial schemes for gig workers, told TNIE, “According to a research by us, the shortage is cyclical, with workers usually travelling back to their hometowns for the harvest season and companies finding excess workers around the festive season when money is short for workers. But now with ot­her pressures mounting, it does not seem like they will return to Bengaluru,” he said. Post-pandemic, the change is more acute, leading to platfor­ms like Swiggy shutting down some of its services, he said.

“The need to return home for the harvest season might also be fuelled by rising petrol and diesel costs. Especially when they are not paid on a monthly basis, it becomes less of an incentive when fuel prices often exceed their payouts,” he added. 

Shorter delivery time adds to woes of gig workers

The shortage of workers is also attributed to the growth of these companies, the gig workers admit. “Due to an increase in demand during the pandemic and less traffic, workers were able to make more deliveries and earn more. However, with demand not going down post-pandemic, and customers preferring to order food and groceries online, the pressure of navigating congested roads has become difficult.

It is more challenging as the platforms promise shorter delivery time and offer only non-permanent work arrangements, making gig working less desirable, especially with some companies lowering their rates of commission,” said a food delivery partner.

“The emergence of quick commerce business models over well established ones is definitely a contributing factor. Workers face increasing pressure due to promises of 10 to 15 minute delivery time,” said a member of the Food Delivery Partners Association.

While the shortage may not affect food supplies directly, customers may have to deal with increasingly longer waiting time for their food and grocery deliveries till companies resolve the crisis, the Association members said.