Quick delivery makes Chennai cops see red; Nearly 1,000 cases filed against Q-commerce partners in a single day

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Coincidently, the Chennai police’s action comes close on the heels of widespread criticism of Zomato’s10-minute food delivery scheme.

The Greater Chennai Traffic Police registered nearly 1,000 cases of traffic violations on a single day against erring delivery partners of food and grocery apps, fining them a total amount of Rs 1,35,400.

These delivery app-based services include Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo and the 978 cases and fine relate to traffic violations on March 30.

Coincidently, the Chennai police’s action comes close on the heels of widespread criticism of Zomato’s10-minute food delivery scheme.

There has been concern the delivery partners would violate traffic rules owing to the pressure on them to deliver the food in time.

In an attempt to earn more by delivering quicker, they might end up endangering their lives as also the lives of other motorists.

The police said that most food delivery partners were flouting traffic rules; they were violating signals, driving on the wrong side of the road, not wearing helmets, speaking on their mobile handsets while driving and breaking speed limits.

The cases were registered against delivery workers with Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo during a special drive conducted by the police to focus on delivery partners violating traffic rules particularly for those not wearing helmets and driving on the wrong side of the road.

The Chennai police said in a statement a total of 450 drivers signed up with Swiggy were found in violation of rules, along with 278 who drive for Zomato, 188 for Dunzo and 62 who belong to other companies which include Rapido, ShadowFax, Amazon, BigBasket and Flipkart.

With the rising popularity of the apps, the number of food delivery personnel (food delivery partners) engaged by the aggregators have increased manifold.

“In order to curtail these violations, awareness programmes were regularly conducted for food delivery partners with respect to the importance of traffic rules and the penalties for violation of these rules,” the statement said.