With the heat wave having killed more than 1000 people all across India, this may be the right time for online firms and third party logistics providers to consider the poor conditions of their delivery boys.
Delivery boys are as essential to connecting the seller/marketplace to the consumer and play a very vital role in the supply chain. But with the peak of summer on us, the lives of delivery boys – most of them in their 20s and 30s – isn’t easy.
The following is just a sample of their everyday problems:
Any human being, for the health of his spine and neck is allowed to carry only 10-15% of his own body weight. Unfortunately this doesn’t feature in the lives of delivery boys. They carry up to 40 kgs on their backs every single day, between 9-6 pm.
Santosh Yadav, a delivery boy said he began working in order to support his family. Talking about the conditions around the time of Diwali, he said, “The company prefers to send even printers and laptops through us because mini vans may get stuck in traffic.”
The delivery boys cannot leave the bags on their bikes given that the goods may be stolen. This means they end up carrying all the goods in their bag to every single house.
Carrying up to 40 kgs when the human body can manage only up to 15 kgs puts these delivery boys under a lot of stress. This results in neck, back aches and stressed shoulders. Even though these can be temporarily relieved through pain killers or other ointments, it may lead to disc slips and collapses in the future.
Apart from the hazards of carrying these heavy weights, delivery boys also face the trouble of road accidents. Logistics being a pricey department requires regular maintenance of the motorcycles of the delivery boys. Balancing heavy bags and trying to navigate through the heavy traffic of cities can be a daunting task for delivery boys.
Dr Yash Gulati of BLK Super Specialty Hospital feels that delivery boys are almost like porters except that at least porters can say no to heavier baggage. “The latter can make a choice about the weight they may carry but these young individuals are forced to do so to earn a livelihood. Accidents caused due to poor balancing of the backpacks while riding bikes is common,” he said.
Commuting through the city in a motorbike carrying a 40 kg bag with innumerable houses to drop off parcels at is very laborious. Especially the traffic conditions in metros and the congestion of roads can cause delivery boys to lose time and therefore struggle beyond the fixed working hours of a day.
Unlike the US or UK where the GPS and location services are well defined, several Indian streets and cross roads are yet to find themselves on the GPS. This means that it is not easy for delivery boys to go from street to street trying to identify the location of the customer, especially with the given load of products being carried for delivery.
Every festival or special occasion is a reason for online marketplaces to reduce prices on products and give out special discounts. This means more deliveries for delivery boys during this time. Their usual working times between 9am and 6pm is extended up to midnight.
Santosh Yadav, a delivery boy in Delhi, said, “With so many people ordering online ahead of Diwali, work hours often get extended to midnight.”
But not all is lost for delivery boys across the country. Steps are taken by certain marketplaces like Jabong.com to help delivery boys in their everyday work. Jabong has partnered with DMP Carrycases to provide delivery boys with bags which don’t stress them out to such an extent.
“DMP Carrycases, a Delhi-based company run by Yogesh Wadhwa, helped the e-commerce player understand the material, design, feasibility, weight and other critical aspects of the bag that costs Rs 1,100. About 2,000 to 3,000 bags have already been deployed by Jabong’s logistics provider, GoJavas. We will be producing 10,000 such courier bags. Besides GoJavas, other logistics providers have also shown interest,” said Praveen Sinha, Co-founder of Jabong.
Other online marketplaces and retailers should follow the example set by Jabong taking into consideration the health of delivery boys all over the country.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
Leave a Comment
