The Ken is launching a Southeast Asia edition soon. Join the waitlist to get early access

Foodtech blues

Foodtech and the delivery personnel dilemma

Indian foodtech companies are looking to corner the market. But to do so, they need to scale their fleets. There are tens of thousands of jobs on offer, but delivery personnel aren’t coming cheap

11/09/18

Salman SH

Food delivery startups such as Swiggy and Zomato are scaling their delivery fleets to meet growing demand

Currently there are more than 185,000 delivery personnel on the road, with vacancies for another 100,000

But attrition among delivery personnel is high. Can a delivery company achieve scalable growth with such high attrition?

For now, these companies are throwing money at delivery personnel to keep them loyal. But is it sustainable?

pexels-photo-236398-1920x1280.jpeg

Want to read a free 200 word summary?

“Are they even making money?”

This was the question posed by 19-year-old Roshan*, a delivery personnel on the payrolls of UberEats, Uber’s food delivery arm. We’d been discussing his employment with UberEats, and the more I explained the company’s business model to him, the more worried he seemed.

Read the full story. Subscribe now.

Also read our exhaustive coverage about Acquisitions and Exits, Food Delivery Wars and Hyperlocal Businesses

Why subscribe? Let us explain.

Already Registered?

Related stories

More stories in /Analysis, /Reportage, /Startups & /Technology

See all in Analysis & Healthcare

This story is for subscribers only.
or

Read the full story. Subscribe now.

Also read our exhaustive coverage about Acquisitions and Exits, Food Delivery Wars and Hyperlocal Businesses

Why subscribe? Let us explain.

The selected story is available only for paid subscribers. Might want to change your mind!

Subscribe now

Already Registered?

Questions?

What is The Ken?

The Ken is a subscription-driven media site. We write one story a day (weekdays only). These stories have sharp, original insights on technology, business, science and healthcare from India.

Why do I have to sign up to read your stories?

Our stories are not free. Well, some select stories are. But, a significant part of what we write at The Ken is for subscribers only. We put in a lot of effort and resources in writing our stories and believe that you must pay for good journalism.
Hence, our three plans. 1) The annual membership
2) The free sign up
3) The recurring quarterly subscription

On journalism and why you should pay for it, if you haven’t already seen it, here’s a great explainer from John Oliver.

So, one must pay for journalism?

Yes.

How many stories will I get if I take an annual membership?

914+ stories.

And, in the free sign up?

Four stories every month.

Do I get a refund?

We allow you to sample our journalism for free before signing up, and after you do, we stand by its quality. But we do not offer refunds.

I am not getting my daily emails. Do I have to whitelist emails from The Ken?

An added benefit of your subscription (free/paid) are the daily personalised emails. These emails, at times, might end up in your spam/junk folder due to emojis, attachments or images. In case you’re not receiving these emails, it might help to whitelist us. If the problem still persists, write to us at [email protected].

Why am I unable to access the archives?

Full and unrestricted access to our archives is a feature of our annual membership.

My payment is not going through, what can I do?

Please write to us at [email protected] detailing the payment error or queries.

See all FAQs

    See all results for Ken

    No results found for Ken.