Chennai: It has been over five weeks now since a video showing a Zomato delivery executive eating food from a sealed box meant for delivery went viral. Although many criticised the man, a few empathised with him. Some social media users blamed it on gruelling work hours which are in most cases fuelled by the delivery executives’ need to get incentives. The company, later, clarified that the delivery personnel had flexible hours and designated eating spots.
Companies however, should make the effort to ensure there is no compromise on work ethics.
Recently, I placed an order online from a popular restaurant at Ashok Nagar. The delivery man came along with another person. They were carrying the food container on the foot rest. When I asked them about it, they replied that the restaurant had no carry bag.
Can such an attitude be attributed only to the ban on plastic? Why can’t restaurants opt for eco-friendly bags so many days after the Tamil Nadu government banned plastic?
Gautham Balaji, who is familiar with the system, says, “I think the organisation is to blame and not the delivery executive. Hotels should provide alternatives to plastic bags. This is not an isolated incident.”
In any case, poor handling of the food box predates the ban on plastic.
G. Arun Prasanna of PFCI says, “I’ve seen delivery executives place the items between their feet. Spillage issues are regular. A few days ago, I ordered dosa and idli from a very popular idli shop in T. Nagar. The delivery man came with one packet. I thought they had forgotten to deliver the other item. The food was not packed properly. When I opened it, I found the idli placed on top of the dosa.” The delivery man blamed the restaurant.
“In my experience, most of the time the food is delivered cold,”says Arun who blames it on non-use of delivery bag-packs which are designed to the keep food warm.
Swiggy, the app-based food delivery company says all delivery partners are equipped with delivery bags. The question then is, why there are instances of mishandling of food packets and why some restaurants have not substituted plastic carry bags?
When this newspaper asked Swiggy, the company said it had given vendors several innovative eco-friendly packaging solutions and had created a marketplace, ‘Swiggy Packaging Assist’, to purchase from.
Swiggy launched the programme in Chennai last month. Additionally, Swiggy has connected restaurants in Chennai and Madurai with vendors to provide eco-friendly carry bags for their orders.
When DC contacted Zomato about its delivery man placing the food packet near the feet, the company said it would look into the matter.
A Zomato spokesperson said the company had launched its eco-friendly packing range in Chennai and was working closely with restaurant partners since the plastic ban announcement. “We have advised all our delivery executives to not handle products packed in plastic,” the spokesperson said. The company plans to give extra benefits to restaurants that shift to eco-friendly packaging, in terms of additional marketing visibility.
“Bamboo products (which also provide employment to tribal communities), corrugated paper with coatings and other products will be supplied. These are initial steps that we have taken towards a plastic-free future with an aim to drive the entire restaurant industry towards a sustainable direction,” the spokesperson said. UberEats, another popular food delivery platform, maintains that reliable delivery of food items is at the heart of its business. The question is then troublesome: Who do we blame when food is mishandled, badly carried and poorly packed?
