India’s 10-minute delivery model: why working conditions could be about to improve

A few years ago, a group of young boys barely out of their teens and newly hired by quick commerce platform Blinkit as delivery agents, were heard joking about their new role. One of them quipped: “Blinkit, Ma’am, Main aa gaya,” (Blinkit, Ma’am, I am here). Their quirky one-liner summed up the so-called ‘10-minute’ delivery promise of many online e-commerce apps: essential goods delivered to your home in the blink of an eye.

For instance, you wake up to discover you have run out of milk. No worries, you only need to open the app icon of one of the ultrafast grocery delivery platforms (such as Blinkit, Zepto, Big Basket or Swiggy's Instamart) on your mobile phone. A few taps and your order for a carton of milk plus fruit and bread for breakfast is placed. In a matter of minutes, or by the time your tea finishes brewing, everything you need has already arrived at your door.

And this isn’t a scene from a futuristic film, but the reality of how the rapid growth of the quick-commerce industry in recent years has changed everyday life in the mega cities of India.

Many business people and social commentators have marvelled at how the rapid expansion of the 10-minute delivery ecosystem in India has completely reimagined the world of logistics. Varuni Sarwal, CEO of the US-based AI healthcare company TriFetch, stated in a viral post: “San Francisco has self-driving cars. India has 10-minute everything. I’m not sure which is more impressive.” 

She added: “I just spent three weeks in India, and the biggest culture shock wasn’t the traffic or the food. It was realising that Amazon Prime’s 2-Day Delivery feels ancient compared to India’s 10-Minute Reality. We talk about US innovation being ahead, but in B2C logistics, India is living in 2030.”

Rising concerns
However, although a number of India’s e-commerce companies have made the 10-minute delivery promise a signature marketing hook, concerns are rising over the welfare and safety of gig workers employed by platforms that offer the ultra-fast service. On New Year’s Eve 2025, delivery workers held a nationwide flash strike in protest against the 10-minute delivery model, arguing the practice causes traffic accidents, injuries, mental stress and income instability. The gig workers also demanded comprehensive social security benefits, including health insurance and pensions, and criticised the automated systems used by platforms, arguing they penalise workers and slash their ratings if a delivery is delayed. 

Although the platforms state the delivery riders are not formally timed, and the fast delivery times are largely due to the proximity of distribution stores to customers’ homes, labour rights campaigners say delayed deliveries can result in lower ratings and financial penalties for the delivery agents. In turn, they argue, this encourages risky behaviour by riders, such as speeding, putting riders, other road users and pedestrians at risk.   

Labour rights campaigners also argue that because many platforms have decided not to classify their delivery agents as employees, this legally absolves them from providing the various social security and employment benefits workers are demanding. 

According to the Indian Federation of App Based Transport, more than 200,000 delivery workers across India joined the strike on New Year’s Eve 2025.

However, in comments posted on X, Deepender Goyal, the co-founder of Zomato, said both Zomato and Blinkit delivered “at a record pace” on New Year’s Eve, “unaffected by calls for strikes”.

“Support from local law enforcement helped keep the small number of miscreants [individuals who attempted to obstruct non-striking riders] in check,” he wrote, adding: “If a system were fundamentally unfair, it would not consistently attract and retain so many people who choose to work within it.”

However, in a post on X, the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union hit back, saying that 7.5 million orders “were delivered because workers cannot afford to log out, not because the system treats them justly”.

Crucial source of employment
Commentators concede that while they have concerns over the working and employment practices of fast-delivery platforms, India has a huge working-age population, and e-commerce players like Blinkit and Zepto provide crucial employment for millions. In fact, according to a 2023 report by government research agency Niti Ayog, India’s gig workforce is expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2030. 

Following the strike and discussions between a number of quick-commerce companies and the Union Ministry of Labour, Blinkit changed its tagline from ‘10,000+ products delivered in 10 minutes’ to ‘30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep’. At a meeting, the Labour Ministry had reportedly urged a number of platforms to consider removing delivery time assurances from their apps and advertising material, highlighting the government’s concerns about the potential impact of tight delivery times on deliver riders’ safety and wellbeing, including a heightened risk of road accidents. 

The Labour ministers also reportedly called on the quick-commerce firms to explore additional ways of improving the safety, working conditions and job security of delivery riders.

Indeed, many commentators are now calling for a collaborative approach between all stakeholders, including delivery companies, policymakers and worker representatives, to identify ways of ensuring and enhancing the health, safety and working conditions of delivery agents. 

One 31-year-old delivery agent working for Blinkit said he joined the nationwide strike because he was fed up with the humiliation he faced from customers and supervisors when deliveries were delayed, often due to factors outside his control, like traffic. He added he was also angry about poor job satisfaction, the absence of health insurance, retirement benefits or career development opportunities, and the risks he had to take while delivering orders, such as the threat of being injured in road accidents while attempting to rapidly deliver goods in packed urban areas. 

“I am glad that the government has acknowledged our concerns and intervened, and brought us some relief,” he said, asking for anonymity for fear of retribution.

Earlier, Goyal had defended the 10-minute promise in a post on X, saying it is “enabled by the density of stores” around homes, and argued that the typical road speed achieved during each delivery remained within safe limits.

“After you place your order on Blinkit, it is picked and packed within 2.5 minutes,” he added. “And then the rider drives an average of under 2kms in about 8 minutes. That’s an average of 15kmph.”

However, many delivery riders recount a different story.

To understand the daily challenges faced by gig workers, Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha recently went undercover as a Blinkit delivery agent. Chadha said the intention was not to directly attack any of the quick-commerce companies, but to learn how riders earn, work and survive, and to shed light on the everyday lives and working conditions of these ‘invisible’ workers.

Using a delivery app ID provided by a Blinkit worker named Shivam, Chadha accepted and delivered quick-commerce orders, experiencing first-hand the long working hours, late-night deliveries and constant pressure to meet targets experienced by the agents.

Upon signing up to work for Blinkit, Shivam said he hoped to earn between ₨40,000 and ₨50,000 per month, but he actually earns a lot less. At one stage, for 40 minutes of work he earned only ₨44, which is under ₨100 per hour. 

Riders are also required to pay for fuel, bike maintenance, repairs and mobile phone data to access the apps. Generally, riders earn between ₨22,000 and ₨25,000 per month but after deducting various costs often take home less than ₨10,000. Return trips – where riders return to a delivery hub or general assembly area on the highway to await further orders – are unpaid, further reducing rider incomes, and delivery agents also have to pay for their Blinkit branded jackets and raincoats.

Risk on the road
In a YouTube video, delivery agents allege the 10-minute delivery promise means they frequently feel forced to take risks on the road, putting their lives and the lives of others at risk. They allege that pressure to complete deliveries within 10 minutes, regardless of the traffic or road conditions, means they routinely ride at excessive speeds, jump traffic signals and sometimes drive on the wrong side of the road. As a result, allege the riders, they are frequently involved in road accidents. Shivam, for instance, said he had broken his hand and badly injured his leg while trying to meet the 10-minute delivery promise. However, Blinkit say there is no ‘10-minute countdown’ on the app, and refutes allegations drivers are pressurised into unsafe behaviour on the roads.

The shift in consumer expectations for rapid home delivery of items ranging from groceries to cosmetics can be traced back to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social commentators say lockdowns and safety concerns triggered an instant delivery mindset among urban customers, creating a rapidly expanding market and demand for fast, contactless delivery, particularly for essential items. 

Blinkit was created in December 2021, when Grofers, a next-day grocery delivery service, was rebranded as Blinkit, with a newly-announced promise to deliver products within 10 minutes. The new name was not just a cosmetic change; it was a complete operational and technological overhaul. 

Blinkit’s quick commerce model is powered by so-called ‘dark stores’ – micro-warehouses located within a few kilometres of high-demand neighbourhoods, stocking products with high consumer demand, such as key food items, cosmetics, medicines and even small electronics such as mobile phones. This makes it quick and easy to pick and dispatch orders.

Today, Blinkit has been joined by a number of other, competing quick-commerce platforms with similar promises of speedy delivery, such as Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and BigBasket. Commentators say the resulting battle for market share is pushing the industry into an aggressive race for customer loyalty. 

Together, the commercial growth of the various platforms reflects how rapid urbanisation and the digital lifestyle increasingly adopted by India’s ever-expanding middle class are accelerating the expansion of the gig economy, particularly in large cities.

A recent report, Unravelling Urban Transformation: Integrating Economic, Social, and Spatial Perspectives on the Gig Economy, by the International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) notes that urban areas, with their dense populations and advanced infrastructure, serve as hotspots for gig economy activities, ranging from ride-sharing and food delivery to freelance digital services. 

“The gig economy is not a new phenomenon; however, its accelerated growth has been catalysed by technological advancements and shifting workforce dynamics,” notes the report. 

“The proliferation of mobile apps and online platforms has enabled seamless connections between service providers and consumers, driving its adoption in urban centres. Cities with diverse economies and digital infrastructure have become laboratories for gig work innovations, presenting a unique intersection of challenges and opportunities. 

"Urban areas exhibit distinct spatial patterns of gig work. Economic hubs and affluent neighbourhoods often experience a high concentration of gig activities due to better infrastructure and consumer demand.

Conversely, peripheral urban areas and economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods face limited access to gig work, reinforcing existing spatial inequities.”

The report further states that the gig economy represents a transformative shift in urban labour markets, impacting economic, social, spatial and regulatory landscapes. “While it [the gig economy] provides new opportunities for income generation and workforce participation, it also raises significant concerns about labour market precarity, income inequality and worker protections,” note the report’s authors. 

“The concentration of gig work in urban centres contributes to spatial patterns of inequality, while the regulatory environment remains a central area of debate. A cross-disciplinary approach is essential for understanding and addressing the complexities of the gig economy, ensuring that its benefits are maximised while mitigating its negative effects.”

Recognise trade unions
Workers’ rights campaigners argue that to ensure safe and fair working conditions and pay for gig workers, app platforms should be required to recognise trade unions so workers can formally negotiate better pay and conditions, and the Government should legislate to ensure the practices followed by the apps, such as blocking workers from registering for work in the event of poor customer ratings, are fair and equitable.

However, an article published on the state-owned website ddnews.gov.in argues the forthcoming introduction of the new Social Security Code will mark a turning point in the working conditions and employment rights for people employed in India’s gig economy. Under the Code – which is reportedly due in force this year – social security coverage and benefits will be extended to all workers, including gig and platform workers, with a proportion of the costs of social security benefits for platform workers funded by a levy of 1–2 per cent on the annual turnover of aggregator platforms. 

In preparation for the move, in early 2025 the Government urged online platforms to begin registering their workers on e-Shram, the national database designed to allow workers in the unorganised sector to apply for and obtain social security benefits they are eligible for, so workers employed by aggregators can apply for eligible social security benefits when they are introduced in 2026. 

Commentators say the introduction of social security benefits for platform workers under the new Code will mean the workforce will for the first time have a formal legal status under social security laws and a formal right to appropriate benefits, such as pensions and health insurance covering the costs of basic medical treatment and hospital stays in the event of illness or injury to themselves or their families. 

They argue the creation of a national database of all gig and platform workers, mandatory financial contributions to social security funds by aggregators, the ability for workers to change from one app platform to another without losing social security benefits and a framework for future expansion of the range of available benefits, provide the foundations for an ecosystem where the flexibility of gig work can coexist with essential worker rights, security and benefits.