Blinkit Strikes Die Down As Riders Don't Want To Risk Livelihood
With an end in sight for this worker-led movement, the quick commerce arm of Zomato might end up on the winning side.
The disruption caused by Blinkit's delivery executives' strikes eased as the app came back online on Tuesday, promising 10-minute deliveries in various parts of Delhi-NCR again.
The company has stuck to its revised payout structure and riders have been forced to return to work.
Blinkit is trying to move from a fixed-fee model of Rs 25 per delivery to a hybrid pricing structure of Rs 15 per delivery, plus added incentives based on distance travelled. This has led to delivery executives deeming a significant cut to their earnings potential.
BQ Prime visited a dark store in Gurugram's Golf Course Road, one of the most prominent hubs for the app, with a delivery radius of four kilometres, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. While Monday evening saw muted activity at the hub, Tuesday morning saw at least 40–50 riders returning and fulfilling orders.
We also checked at about four different locations within Gurugram, and the app is now functioning as opposed to showing as temporarily unavailable for the past week.
"We had no choice. Blinkit hasn't listened to us, and we are being forced to work at the new, lower rates. We cannot afford to stay on strike for much longer; we need to pay rent and eat," a rider told us on the condition of anonymity. He has been working with the company for about three years.
Almost all riders at the hub were hesitant to speak on the record due to concerns over Blinkit cancelling their registrations on the app if they said anything adversarial.
However, the consensus among the 12 riders we spoke to was that the strike couldn't go on any longer, since Blinkit wasn't bowing down to any of their demands and it was a matter of survival for the riders.
"We used to earn a good amount—about Rs 1,200—working for about 10 to 12 hours. After maintenance and fuel charges, we could take home about Rs 800. That's set to reduce drastically for us," another rider said.
There could be a mass exodus in the coming days as unsatisfied riders look for alternate jobs. “Most of us riders have started to look for work elsewhere. This job does not make sense for us any more,” a rider told BQ Prime on the condition of anonymity. He has been working at a dark store in Ghaziabad for about six months.
The sentiment was similar at the Gurugram store. While riders returned to work begrudgingly, most of them have started exploring working with other apps. “I never thought of going to Zepto, but now I am considering if their payouts are good enough,” another rider said.
Queries sent to Zomato and Blinkit remained unanswered.
With an end in sight for this worker-led movement, the quick commerce arm of Zomato might end up on the winning side.