Zepto rider uses pedestrian pathway, allegedly punches man when confronted

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Yet another incident of a delivery person breaking traffic norms has come to light. A resident of the city took to Twitter to call out an incident where he confronted a Zepto delivery person for using the pedestrian pathway.

“Last Sunday at HSR Layout, a Zepto delivery person was driving over the footpath and he almost ran over me but I quickly saved myself. I politely told him to drive cautiously. He started pushing and hitting me,” Parag Jain, said on a Twitter thread. He added that citizens nearby intervened before the situation turned serious.

However, he was injured badly and hospitalised for a few hours due to heavy nostril bleeding. Jain continued to say that he reported the issue to Zepto, however, their response to the matter was causal, with their justification being that the delivery person was not their employee but only a thirdparty source.

“Zepto has created crazy pressure on delivery personnel to keep up with the 10-minute delivery promise. Behaviourally, it has made drivers more impatient and irresponsible,” he said.

Along with Zepto, other brands like Blinkit, that promise to deliver their service in a span of 10 minutes have been heavily criticised by many. In order to avoid bad reviews or penalties, delivery partners are forced to break traffic norms and over-speed, which makes them more prone to mishaps and puts innocent lives on roads in danger.

The bigger issue is that there is no clarity on what the company’s action plan would be in case their partner runs into a mishap while making these deliveries.

“Every time something like this happens, companies blame the delivery person and walk away with zero liability. I don’t want the person’s close ones to suffer over this. It’s harder for people on daily wage to go through this,” Jain said, urging authorities to take action against delivery companies that promise service within 10 minutes.

A report released on Tuesday, done by Fairwork India in association with Oxford University, which rated 12 digital platforms based on their pay, work conditions, contracts, management, and representation, scored Zepto a two out of 10.

“In the eyes of the law, gig workers are independent contractors, which means they are not entitled to labour rights in a manner that unorganised workers or employees are,” Professor Balaji Parthasarathy, the Principal investigator of the team, said.

“A starting point to improve their working conditions would be to ensure that they receive at least the hourly minimum wage, after considering work-related costs, and ensuring that the demands they make through collective action are heard, acknowledged, and considered by the platforms,” he explained.