Zomato claims to disburse Rs 216 crore every month to 230,000 riders

Food delivery platform Zomato has announced that income earned by its delivery partners has crossed Rs 200 crores for the first time. The company has disbursed around Rs 216 crore to its fleet of more than 2.3 lakh delivery riders throughout the country.

The Gurugram-based company's founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal tweeted the figures yesterday, claiming the riders who execute deliveries 8 hours a day, 5 days a week take home around Rs 20,000 every month.

While the average payout comes to around Rs 9,400, the company claims that is because many delivery partners deliver part-time and do not process enough deliveries every month.

Although, it is debatable how many delivery partners in their almost a quarter-million strong fleet earn Rs 20,000 every month, considering they bear the costs of fuel and maintenance.

Zomato has had a complicated relationship with its food delivery partners. It
faced flak for mistreating its riders, with protests and frequent strikes by delivery riders groups in different parts of the country.

A couple of months ago, around 4,000 Zomato delivery riders in Ludhiana went on strike after the company reduced the commission paid to them from Rs 40 to Rs 30 per order.

Lured by the incentives and commissions as high as Rs 60 per order, the riders felt cheated by the company and went on strike.

This year, Zomato has been expanding its online ordering vertical aggressively. At present, the company claims to have a reach around 500 cities and does about 35 to 40 million total deliveries in a month.

According to Goyal, Zomato plans to hire another 10,000 delivery boys in September to meet the increasing order volume.