A social activist recently took to LinkedIn to explain what he did after discovering a delivery agent eating a customer's food. Kiran Verma explained that while he was trying to park his car in Noida, he found a Zomato delivery agent eating on his bike. He took a photo of him when he apparently noticed that what he was having was a food order. He struck up a conversation with him and also asked his name. The LinkedIn user explained, "Out of curiosity, I asked, 'Why are you eating so late (it was around 5 pm)?' He replied, 'Sir I picked up this order at around 2 pm and I went to deliver the food but nobody turned up to receive the order.' Zomato people asked him to mark it as delivered."
The user added, "Technically this happens to reduce further attempts to reduce cost to the company on orders. If the order was not delivered, but to make payment to the delivery guy, the system should mark the order as delivered. Then he can do whatever with that food officially. It may sound unethical or wrong, but it is good practice, because that's how delivery partners save little money on their food and wastage can be controlled." The user then wondered why the delivery agent didn't eat the food earlier. The Zomato partner revealed "Due to Holi, we get incentives to deliver more orders and as afternoon was a peak time. I just kept delivering orders rather than having lunch."
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In the same post, the LinkedIn user claimed that the delivery person makes around Rs 10-25 per order and earns approximately Rs 20-25K a month. He also shared details about his background - he has two younger siblings and his father is a small farmer in Uttar Pradesh. Furthermore, the user wrote, "He is a graduate and couldn't find a suitable job for himself, that's why he had this easy option only. The whole family depends on his earnings, and that's why food like this is nothing less than a savings or lifeline to him. Sadly he's not going to celebrate Holi as he will slog on the festival too, to earn a little more. When I offered to help him in any way, he smiled and replied 'Sir I can work harder, but can't beg'." The user gave him some gujiyas as a gift and invited him to celebrate Holi with him. He also took a photo with the delivery agent.
Reflecting on the incident, the user concluded, "I don't know if marking "delivered" is right or wrong. I don't know if giving orders to delivery guys makes economic sense. But now, I do know that this is helping millions of Vishal in India and helping them in thousands of different ways. I request you all not to judge someone like I did for Vishal when they were having such food (I am still feeling guilty as I also judged him at first). Thank you Deepinder Goyal for building hope in such an impactful way. Hope you all are close to your families celebrating the festival and not like millions of gig workers, who are supporting us to create those moments into memories."
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The LinkedIn post divided users online. While some people defended the delivery agent and applauded the story shared by the user, others were not convinced. Several people raised concerns over the possibility of food orders being tampered with in some way. Read some of the reactions below:
"This was pleasing."
"Amazing gesture sir. Thank you."
"This was really heartwarming."
"As for the ethics around marking the package as undelivered, Zomato needs to make a simple change to the delivery confirmation app for their delivery associates by adding an option of "delivery attempted but customer unavailable". However, in my experience, many Zomato deliveries are "Unattended Deliveries" where the associate just leaves the food package at the customer's doorstep because the customer was not available to receive the package."
"Good act by Zomato but my experience says some delivery partners are intentionally not delivering and taking advantage. Particularly when you order from a train to be delivered at Nagpur station you remain hungry. It happened twice with me and Zomato didn't bother to inquire why food was not delivered. I am not serious about money but hunger."
"Logically, if food is marked as 'delivered' despite no response being received, the delivery person should actually leave the food at the doorstep for it to be considered properly delivered. Marking it as delivered beforehand and then allowing any actions afterwards creates an environment that invites exploitation, encouraging malpractice. Just a thought."
NDTV Food has reached out to Zomato for a comment, but they have not yet responded.
Disclaimer: NDTV does not vouch for the claims in the post by the LinkedIn user.