Cops summon Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats officials

The Mumbai traffic police have summoned the executives of food delivery Apps such as Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats to a meeting on Wednesday to address the issue of rash and negligent driving by their delivery boys who are perpetually in a tearing hurry to meet their targets.

Joint Commissioner of police, Mumbai Traffic, Amitesh Kumar is likely to chair the meeting, where the executives will be briefed about the traffic rules and how the delivery boys were violating them. The companies will have to face severe consequences if they fail to adhere to the norms, the traffic police said.

The cops have already started acting against all delivery vehicles standing outside malls and pizza joints.

“We are flooded with complaints of traffic violations by delivery boys of online food services like Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats. Most of these complaints relate to rash driving, parking in no-parking zones, helmetless driving, riding on footpaths and jumping traffic signal. We are not going to take this lighting,” Kumar said.

In the past too, Mumbai traffic police had sensitised officials of the companies about road rules. “We will write to the RTO for cancelling their licences if they continue to ignore law,” Kumar added.

Another traffic police officer pointed out that the food delivery companies have to be realistic while serving customers.

“Swiggy has the tagline — Lightning fast delivery. This is setting unrealistic targets. After getting an order, some 20 minutes or so is required to prepare the food. If the customer is staying within the 2-km radius, another 20 minutes are required to deliver the food. But to meet this deadline, which is say 30 minutes, the delivery boys really ride rash and violate traffic rules. Many times, they end up meeting accidents,” the officer said.

Last year, a Swiggy delivery boy died after meeting with an accident near Behrambaug in Jogeshwari.

As for the crackdown on illegally parked vehicles, the traffic cops said that all traffic chowkies have been asked to take action. “We are targeting illegally parked vehicles of delivery boys outside pizza joints and malls. They don’t have any special permission to use a two-wheeler for commercial use, so we have started booking them under the necessary legal provisions,” a traffic police officer said.

Source:-https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/food-services/cops-summon-swiggy-zomato-and-uber-eats-officials/68367981