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Police fined, counselled delivery persons who violated rules; met execs of companies

MUMBAI: The Mumbai traffic police on Wednesday held a meeting with executives of online food delivery services to discuss traffic violations by their delivery persons.

A police team, led by joint commissioner of police (traffic) Amitesh Kumar, had detained 174 bike-borne delivery persons on Tuesday for flouting various traffic norms. Of those detained, two were found to be riding under the influence of alcohol.

The drive, police said, was started more than a month ago, when they started penalising these riders for speeding, rash driving, jumping signals, riding without helmets, riding on footpaths or parking in ‘no-parking’ zones.

“Some food delivery apps promise customers that orders will be delivered within a stipulated time. To meet this requirement, drivers often speed and do not follow traffic rules. We have asked the companies to do away with this rule,” said Kumar.

“We detained 174 riders in a single day. They were fined, counselled and then allowed to go,” Kumar said. “The company executives [on Wednesday] were asked to submit a list of riders employed with them and the registration number of their vehicles. In return, we will provide them with a list of pending e-challans against the riders. We have told the managements to take action against those who fail to pay fines.”

Online food delivery platform Swiggy issued a statement saying they urge their delivery partners to strictly abide by the traffic rules.

“If a traffic violation is brought to their [delivery partner] notice, they investigate and suspend the delivery person, if needed. We do not penalise our delivery partners for unforeseen delays in order delivery,” the statement said. A spokesperson from Zomato, another food delivery website, said, “We place user experience at the centre of everything and continuously educate our delivery partners on following traffic norms and etiquettes, as part of our delivery partner training. They are never hard-pressed on time and we recommend that they do timely deliveries, which positively impacts their customer rating. We don’t commit to unrealistic time slots. Additionally, we encourage our users as well as restaurant partners to proactively share feedback with us through multiple channels and use that feedback to retrain our delivery partners. We are happy to work alongside the authorities to further sensitise our delivery partners on road safety norms and together work towards the betterment of the city.”

Uber Eats, which is the latest entrant in the online food delivery space, said they will support the traffic department’s “intent of ensuring road safety in the city”.

“We will be working with the authorities to further educate Uber Eats delivery partners about the traffic rules they need to adhere to when they are delivering orders,” said a spokesperson.