[speedmiester]

We all have faced them everyday and pretty much at all times. The rash and dangerous riding by the food delivery executives on their two wheelers.

Be it Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats or others, all of their delivery executives are known for their rash driving with little or no care to traffic rules and fellow road users.

It is made worse by the companies offering 30 minutes or free offer if the delivery is delayed which only encourages such rash riding.

Even the quiet residential neighborhoods have not been spared by this menace.

It is high time these companies take some responsibility in ensuring their executives adhere to traffic rules.

A quick search on google yielded the following news article detailing a survey in Chennai.
I am sure it is no different in any other city.
Nearly-73-of-online-food-delivery-boys-violate-traffic-rules-survey

[Engine_Roars]

Technically, it is not the executives who are a menace. It is the competition of delivering food earlier between all those food delivery apps. It is us the consumer who do not think before raising a complain of food not being delivered in 30 minutes as promised.

These delivery guys do not earn enough and with all the allowances & penalties in place, they do everything possible to deliver the food on or before time.

I am not denying that they don't ride safe but it is not just because they are crazy, it also because of the market and its consumers that they work for.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

We all have faced them everyday and pretty much at all times. The rash and dangerous riding by the food delivery executives on their two wheelers.

Be it Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats or others, all of their delivery executives are known for their rash driving with little or no care to traffic rules and fellow road users.

Good topic, perhaps this should make its way into the Safety thread. I've been against Swiggy since a long time but things have changed a bit ever since, I'm myself guilty of ordering food from them because of the nearly insane deals available when hunger strikes.. these food delivery apps basically have made food so cheap that it becomes much more expensive to travel to the restaurant, sit down and eat, than to have the hot meal delivered at work.

I've not used them for a couple of months now, but I have enough experience to understand that a lot of things must change other than the actual process of delivery of food from the restaurant to the consumer.

For starters, the companies themselves must insist on safe riding, safety gear and parking in front of the actual location of the delivery rather than 2-3 buildings away or on the opposite side. The delivery guys must adhere to this to the last detail as well, they ride against one-way, zig-zag like its their last day on earth and also park very very carelessly and almost on the middle of the road when in residential areas.

Awareness must be spread, across users, the delivery companies and delivery boys themselves that this cycle of inter-dependence is actually creating havoc on the roads.. it is essential for everyone to understand that its not about how fast the food reaches from point A to B, but rather how safely it reaches, by satisfying all the road rules and regulations. If there is a market/demand for something, no matter how hard or how illegal, that demand would be fulfilled subject to profitability.. sometimes we just have to put our foot down and cut off that aspect which is creating trouble for the world at large. I am making do without their delivery services.

[zaheer5776]

I totally agree with this. Yesterday I found one Swiggy guy with a earphone plugged into his ears and continuously talking on the mobile phone while making rounds at a cross road. For sometime I couldn't figure out in which direction he would head as he was taking instructions and changing directions and in the meanwhile, he was blocking my way! This is a menace and a driving risk. And these type of incidences are very common among these guys. Especially, they are found on junctions while following instructions over the phone. And yes, many of them are without a helmet too.

[sharktale]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Good topic, perhaps this should make its way into the Safety thread.

Different opinion :

Companies can only go so long to provide an on-boarding program to the delivery personnels. Whatever rules are being broken are statutory rules, not directives/special company policies. Passing the buck to the companies seems easy, but enforcement is not.

It's an overall system which is at fault.

The riders are often reckless, to reduce turnaround time, as it would result in more order frequencies for them, therefore more commission.

The parking agent's refuse to let these agents park in commercial places, without the parking fee, so that the guy can collect the order from the restaurant. Thus, they often have to resort to parking away.

We as customers often haggle/quarrel with the agents/app, if the food is taking long, and is served cold. That's the last blow to a hungry stomach is cold food.

Lax enforcement by the authorities is the main culprit. Since, it's lower on the priority of the cops to manage helmet-less drivers, their main priority is to manage the traffic!
Hilarious reply once I got from a cop once, " The speed in the Kolkata traffic is never enough during the day to cause any injury during an accident :P "

We as a society need to be sensitised, not just the poor souls battling the traffic on our behalf.

Suggestion : Zomato has a tipping option for the agents (AFAIK). I'd request all members, to just donate INR 10 for every order if they can. Our contributions can just makes the lives of those around us, a bit more easier.
My mother always offers waters to any person who comes to the door, whether it be the Amazon guy or the Swiggy guy. From a personel experience I know, they remember that household then, and treat that order more efficiently further-on.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Engine_Roars

Technically, it is not the executives who are a menace. It is the competition of delivering food earlier between all those food delivery apps.

So can we mention "competition of delivering food earlier, while jumping a signal, hit my car" in the insurance claim form?

This is all rationalization. These Zomato/Swiggy types are a menace on Bangalore roads at least (Dominos/Pizza Hut too). There has to be a way of making the companies responsible for their brand representatives' conduct. If Zomato has to pay the signal jumping/one-way/wrong side driving fine of their executives, then they'll at least start thinking of ways to deliver on time without resorting to this blatant flouting of rules and the safety of their own staff and other road users'.

[Rajeevraj]

Earlier I was against delivering food and grocery using Swiggy/Zomato etc... but with changing circumstances, I do order now. Try to follow the following self set guidelines.

• Try to always order from restaurants which are close to home. Helps reduce the need for the delivery executive to rush to meet the committed timelines.
  
• Always tip them a small amount. Can make out from their expression that it is appreciated.
  
• Avoid ordering during inhospitable conditions like during rains, peak traffic times etc..
  
• For grocery items, never do the 90 min express delivery that many companies (like Big Basket) have. The executives balance a huge bag with crates inside for these deliveries.

With respect to following rules and riding sanely, they can be considered a menace. Having said that all these so called 'menaces' like delivery guys, Uber/Ola and the likes, have sprung up and become popular to cater to an ever increasing demand to make life comfortable for another set of people who can use these services. With our current system and infrastructure, don't think it is possible to have the best of both worlds.

Originally Posted by sharktale

My mother always offers waters to any person who comes to the door, whether it be the Amazon guy or the Swiggy guy. From a personnel experience I know, they remember that household then, and treat that order more efficiently further-on.

Could not agree more with you.

[msdivy]

Couple of points:

1) Food is usually ordered from nearby restaurants. Most delivery times fall below 30 minutes. That is why the food delivery apps can guarantee the delivery times. I am not sure whether the apps allow to order from another part of the city.

2) Whoever on road have to follow the road discipline. It is easy to make excuse like I am a food delivery person, I am a student, I have the office to attend. Whatever their background, everyone has to follow traffic rules.

It boils down to poor enforcement of traffic rules and inability to maintain traffic discipline on road on part of traffic police.

It will unfair to expect Zomato, Swiggy, Uber Eats, Food Panda executives to follow rules, when the general public doesn't.

Note: Glad to know their designation is Food Delivery Executive. Shortly, they might upgrade the title to Food Delivery VP

[selfdrive]

I have ordered earlier from these food delivery apps. Whenever the delivery guy turned up, I never asked why he was late. Just as I believe that leaving home early is better than speeding up on your commute/ drive, I also tend to order food in advance to beat the rush hour. It usually ensures better food preparation, packing and delivery. I do not have any last minute order on any food delivery apps. In such cases, I prefer to walk/ drive down to the restaurant after placing my order on the phone. There is an option to call the restaurant directly and most neighborhood places are more than happy to either deliver it themselves or keep it ready for takeaway/ dinein. If nothing else, I find Maggi or dal khichdi to be a better option. I am sure I must have lost some weight (or at least not gained any extra kilos) since I have stopped ordering in for food.

As someone already mentioned, many of these people rushing around are only looking to make more commission in less time. A bit similar to the auto rickshaws running all around town. In my opinion, everyone else also drives/ rides pretty much the same nowadays. Perhaps these guys are identified easily because they are in uniform or on their coloured motorbikes. Similar to our IT labourer group who goes around in formals with laptops hanging around.

In an indirectly related topic, startups elsewhere are debating how to mine from asteroids and our startups are still making business plans to VCs on how to deliver food.

[Engine_Roars]

Originally Posted by binand

So can we mention "competition of delivering food earlier, while jumping a signal, hit my car" in the insurance claim form?

without resorting to this blatant flouting of rules and the safety of their own staff and other road users'.

I don't remember mentioning what should we mention in the claim form. That was a perspective that I shared, use it the way you like to.

[blackwasp]

The problem is the way these people behave. Most of the times they are rude, ride on the footpath, honk like crazy and when not driving they loiter around a public place parking their vehicles haphazardly.

While my experience with delivery apps and such chaps has been good so far (in terms of food delivered), I always see them in a tearing hurry when on the road. Further, with lax provisions of the RTO, I'm sure they won't be brought under any rules for sure anytime soon.

Just like Ola/Uber, these chaps need to get a separate section in the rule book!

[boniver]

My house is in the central part of my town (Barrackpore, WB), and therefore there are countless restaurants, food joints etc around my place. The traffic situation here is pretty bad too. Zomato was launched here two years ago, and since then the situation has worsened, multiple times over. There are Zomato bikes and scooters parked everywhere. My neighbourhood (100% residential) has had every inch of free space occupied by these scooters. The moment one scooter goes, another comes and occupies its place. Traffic comes to a standstill on the main road here because multiple Zomato bikes are parked on the road itself, in two or three lanes, in front of the restaurants. There are no parking signs everywhere, but no one follows them. The local police is useless too, since the local police commissionerate HQ is just a stone's throw from my house and there are Zomato bikes parked all along its boundary walls.

The following pictures are taken during the day, thus there are less bikes present. In the evening the situation is extremely messy.


Parked right in front of a neighbour's garage which clearly displays a "No Parking" sign:




The place in front of another neighbour's house is completely occupied by these guys:

[drmohitg]

It is funny how sometimes the topic deviates from the cause at hand to society in general. Food delivery outlets and services exist in the western world too. I am guessing we weren't the pioneers in this field. Do drivers their jump signals and zig zag their way through traffic, giving small marks of remembrance to nearby vehicles as they zoom past them?

Tipping them and poor salaries and hard working conditions is a flawed argument. If that was true then we have no reason to complain about cops taking bribes too. Poor pay scales, deplorable working conditions and work hours. Rather we should next voluntarily stop next to a policeman and reward him 100 Rs ( or whatever suits you) for his good work to keep him motivated.

Please don't confuse law with emotions. And yes the company needs to be responsible. If you feel that the 30 mins or less promise of delivery is not sustainable in our traffic conditions then just remove that clause. Will I stop getting food delivered if that is the case? No.

In addition to that I live in an apartment complex. A regular delivery boy will take 10 minutes at the minimum to just be able to get through the security and reach my tower, floor and apartment finally. No way he can keep up the 30 minutes promise.

Just my 2 cents. A delivery boy or anyone else for that matters putting my life in danger or the others on road, hitting my vehicle only because he is breaking the law trying to rush through traffic or jump a signal is completely unacceptable to me.

[boniver]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

In addition to that I live in an apartment complex. A regular delivery boy will take 10 minutes at the minimum to just be able to get through the security and reach my tower, floor and apartment finally. No way he can keep up the 30 minutes promise.

Just one small clarification, in case of the "30 minutes or free" offer, the delivery time is taken to be the one when the delivery person arrives at the first checkpoint/barrier point of your residence (in your case, the main gate of your apartment complex).

Attaching a screenshot from the Domino's India website regarding the same (read the first line of the second paragraph):

[Dry Ice]

Guys, hang on, what are we on about?

Don't we already know we are not a law abiding country? We have threads for bad drivers/riders/cabs, city specific traffic threads are filled with rants for probably every type of vehicle on the road (including rickshaws, autos), accident thread has umpteen examples of bad riding/driving vehicle type not withstanding (including school buses risking young lives). It is who we are and how we behave on the roads. Heck, we even manage to make the law abiding people behave like maniacs (roam around Goa, and its easy to spot rash overseas guests on rented bikes/scooters).

Truth is, every one of us needs a rap on the knuckles, not just food delivery boys. If rules are enforced strictly and diligently, it would apply to everyone across the board.