Bengaluru: The 10-minute countdown began the moment Lokesh’s phone flashed an alert. It’s a new food order for a family of four in Koramangala, Bengaluru, who want pizza and cold drinks. It’s the perfect end to their day. But for delivery executive Lokesh, it’s the start of a race against time.
He throws on his helmet; there’s no time to check if it’s fastened. He weaves his bike through the cars, trucks, and buses, fighting against Bengaluru’s infamous traffic. If he’s late, not only will he have to face angry customers but his daily earning of Rs 1,500 will get cut due to the delay.
“Neither our company nor the customers ever bother to ask why we were late. Even though I risked my life by riding at breakneck speed, and jumped signals to deliver this order, I am deemed as a badly-rated delivery partner at the end of the day. So while you enjoy your food, I struggle to feed my family,” said Lokesh, who has been working as a delivery partner for Swiggy since 2016. He also often delivers for Swiggy’s new 10-minute food delivery service called Bolt.
Speed is the order of the day. Whether it’s the brand new iPhone 16 or Rameshwaram Cafe’s buttery masala dosa, the affluent urban population can get their hands on any item in a matter of few minutes. Everyone from well-established companies like Zomato, Blinkit, Zepto, and Myntra to newer services like Swish and Voosh are now offering ultra-fast deliveries in just under 10 minutes.
But instant gratification has come at the cost of delivery persons who work in extreme conditions and struggle against the poor infrastructure of the city.
“Hyperlocal platforms that deliver speedy meals and items are poised for a period of great growth in the coming years. But despite all the excitement around such innovation, the platforms are yet to figure out how to maintain the right balance between sustaining a large delivery workforce and staying profitable at the same time,” said R Srinivasan, a business strategy professor at IIM Bangalore who has done extensive research on food delivery companies.
Accidents and penalties
A delivery partner, working at Blinkit since 2024, starts his day at 11 am. He rushes through Kalyan Nagar, Hesarghatta, and Banaswadi, some of the busiest areas in Bengaluru, to deliver orders within a 10-minute deadline. His customers on any given day—mainly corporate and startup companies—are thoroughly pleased with his punctuality.
But only he knows the pain of dragging along his left foot that was injured in a speeding accident in the city.
“I was rushing to deliver a meal about 15 km away from me in under 10 minutes. I wanted to maintain my good delivery rating. But it was very late at night and it was raining,” said the delivery partner, who did not want to be named.
Visibility was poor and he ended up speeding over an unfilled pothole.
“My bike overturned,” said the executive, who lives in a small 2BHK in Kalyan Nagar with his parents, wife, and daughter. He is also the sole breadwinner in the family, earning Rs 420 per day.
His left foot took most of the pressure of the bike’s weight after it landed on him. Six months later, he still flinches every time he tries to kick-start the vehicle. “I wanted to reach on time so I might have missed the pothole,” he said.
Bengaluru’s infrastructure—poorly lit roads, potholes the size of craters, and the lack of lane discipline by motorists—makes his job even more dangerous.
In January 2024, a 29-year-old food delivery person was killed after he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into the road divider on Tank Bund Road near JP Park. In July 2024, a 27-year-old delivery worker lost control of his bike, crashed into the parapet of the bridge over a stormwater drain, and fell into the drain near the Jnanabharathi Metro Station.
When Swiggy first launched its Bolt service in October 2024, Bengaluru police noticed higher cases of reckless driving among delivery executives. The police booked 17,218 cases against gig workers in a single week of November, and spot fines worth nearly Rs 80 lakh were levied during this period.
The cases included wrong-side driving, not wearing helmets, and jumping signals.
“Delivery workers often face the pressure of delivering orders in a certain amount of time, which forces them to go against the speed limit or drive on the footpath,” said Shivaprakash Devaraju, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic Bangalore South Division.
The police have been conducting training programmes for delivery persons since November 2024, raising awareness about road safety and traffic rules. They hope these sessions will reduce the number of accidents and fines levied.
Ratings are a gold mine for delivery personnel. While the specific policies of each food delivery company might differ, the larger idea is the same. Workers with a higher ranking get perks such as the ability to book the following week’s shifts in advance and “attractive interest rates” on personal loans. Swiggy also offers health insurance as a benefit while Blinkit offers bonus pay after completing 26 days of duty. However, once delivery persons get a bad rating, they also get fewer orders and as a result, their salary takes a hit.
“I was once hit by a car when I was on my way to the customer. My bike took some time to start again so I was 20 minutes late. The customer wasn’t ready to listen to me and instead cancelled the order right as I was outside their door,” said S, who has been working with Swiggy Bolt since its launch.
Swiggy’s official spokesperson denied claims of penalties.
“There are no consequences for the delivery partners who are not able to deliver the order in 10 minutes. The delivery partners are not incentivised for quick delivery or penalised for delays,” the official spokesperson told ThePrint.
While delivery persons attempt to report these concerns to their managers, their communication is often limited to SMS or IVR calls, which have pre-recorded messages. Interaction with their actual manager or another representative of the company is rare, causing delivery agents to feel like they have no one to reach out to when they are mistreated.
Swiggy and Blinkit launched two new ultra-fast delivery services in the same week. Swiggy launched Snacc on 7 January, promising to deliver snacks, beverages, and light meals within just 15 minutes whereas Blinkit added electronic items like laptops, monitors, and printers to its 10-minute delivery bracket two days later.
Also read: Bengaluru has a hot new favorite dosa batter. Nandini is a cultural phenomenon
Tech city ambitions
In the bustling HSR Layout of Bengaluru where all the major startups thrive, delivery agents can be spotted waiting in chock-a-block traffic on their bikes. Some are dressed in classic orange and yellow t-shirts, belonging to Swiggy and Blinkit respectively. Others sport the lesser-known green-and-black uniforms of new food delivery startups like Swish. It’s a race between them to see who can capitalise more on the 10-minute trend.
“In HSR, you can get anything quickly—a dosa from a Darshini in minutes. But when it comes to online food delivery, the wait can be painfully long [due to traffic congestion],” said Ujjwal Sukheja, co-founder of Swish, during the app launch on 4 August 2024.
Currently operational in HSR Layout, Bellandur, and Koramangala, Swish aims to provide fresh, hot meals to customers in record time. It’s the first of such hyperlocal food delivery services in Bengaluru.
Days after its launch, customers marvelled at the service. Finance professional Srikanth Prabhu wrote on X, “#StressTested @justswishin while it was pouring heavily in #HSR Arrived in 15 minutes. Was warm and tasty. Ordering experience was good. Included seamless signup. Clean Interface.”
But human rights and labour lawyers were quick to point out some problems with this disruptive practice taking over the food delivery industry. Ultra-fast deliveries compromise not just the safety of the delivery partner, but the hygiene standards of the food preparation as well.
“Cloud kitchens of food delivery companies rely heavily on ultra-processed, ready-to-eat (RTE) foods which have alarming health implications,” said R Srinivasan. These foods contribute significantly to India’s looming obesity epidemic and pose a risk of diabetes and heart diseases as well, he added.
Companies offering such speedy meals, however, claim that food quality will not be compromised.
Unlike competitors that primarily rely on restaurant partners to fulfil orders, Swish co-founders said that they handle everything in-house. This includes food preparation, packaging, and quick delivery—all within their own network of cloud kitchens. Their “pod” model, which involves 250-square-foot cloud kitchens, enables them to set up hyper-local kitchens that can cater to a 1.5 km radius, ensuring the food remains fresh and is delivered in 10 minutes or less.
Just three months after its incorporation, Swish has raised $2 million (over Rs 16 crore) in a seed funding round led by venture capital (VC) firm Accel. Meanwhile, Swiggy’s Bolt accounted for 7-8 per cent of all its food deliveries within two months of launch, according to the company’s official spokesperson.
“The fastest delivery time was recorded at just 3 minutes for items like ice creams, burgers, and cakes,” the spokesperson said.
It doesn’t end here.
According to a report by Bernstein, India’s quick e-commerce industry is estimated to witness a 75 per cent or more year-on-year (YoY) growth in 2025 as it expands into categories beyond groceries and Tier-2 cities.
It’s what customers have come to expect.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)