Zomato, India’s food delivery platform, has undertaken a massive drive across New Delhi to raise awareness amongst its delivery partners on the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Scheme, 2023 (“Scheme”). The Scheme mandates disclosure of all vehicles associated with cab aggregators, delivery service providers and e-commerce entities, and mandates EV targets on these fleets.
At these awareness drive camps organised across New Delhi, the company is working with delivery partners to seek their vehicle details so as to register them on the Govt’s portal - in an attempt to ensure that none of their delivery partners get excluded from participating in the platform economy owing to the Scheme.
As part of the proposed Scheme, all aggregators and service providers are required to declare all on-boarded vehicles in use by June 14, 2024 (on a portal notified by GNCTD). While historically, delivery service providers have not been required to collect vehicle data, the current deadline for declaring all existing fleet associated with an aggregator or delivery service provider is 14 June 2024. Any vehicle that is not declared will not be permitted to ply in Delhi.
So far, in its endeavor to ensure compliance with the ambitious timeline of June 14, 2024 and to ensure that no delivery partner is left behind, Zomato has so far organised camps at 15 different locations in the last few days across different spots in Delhi. The company has also undertaken awareness generation initiatives through notifications, calls, messages, reaching thousands of delivery partners across the city.
Over the years, gig work has become a preferred source of supplemental income generation opportunity for people, given the flexibility and welfare provisions it offers. Over the past six years, Zomato has provided earning opportunities for over 24 lakh gig workers across all states in the country and including 27,000+ women and 300+ specially-abled persons till date. The company offers Personal accident insurance policy with an accidental death cover of Rs. 10 lakh to all eligible delivery partners, covering permanent total disability and permanent partial disability due to accidents. It also offers Health Insurance policy for all eligible DPs, which includes IPD/ hospitalisation and day care with coverage upto Rs. 1 lakh, including ICU coverage, OPD, tele-consultation and online doctor consultation for delivery partners. For both, accident insurance and health insurance policy, premium expense is borne by Zomato.
Additionally, Zomato offers income protection cover in case deliveries cannot be fulfilled owing to non-accidental concerns such as Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Typhoid, Pulmonary, Tuberculosis, Meningitis, et. Zomato has also introduced an industry-first provision - maternity insurance which provides coverage up to Rs. 40,000 for birth as well as maternity complications (including miscarriage). These provisions are through a private insurance provider, and the premium expense is borne solely by Zomato.
