BigBasket responds to viral Facebook post about ill-treatment of delivery boys

Pic Courtesy:Facebook

New Delhi: A few days ago, a Facebook post claiming ill-treatment of delivery boys went viral on social media. The post was shared over 30,000 times and many people commented and expressed their concerns. However, after receiving a lot of flak on social media, the company came forward and issued a statement.

In a longish post, a Facebook user Saurabh Tiwari highlighted the sorry state of delivery agents.

Here's what his post read:

Dear Bigbasket, Please see these pictures and think if this is the way one should treat it's employees? Even the animals shouldn't be treated like this. 
5 days back, this delivery person came to my place. He came via bike carrying this huge bag, the temperature outside was around 43 degrees and the guy was literally bending forward due to the heavy weight of the order he was carrying on his back. He was sweating severely. 
He told me that his income is based on the numberoforder he delivers in a day and company is not concerned about their plight. Be it scortching heat, rain, storm or whatever, the company pays him only on the basis of total orders delivered and does not provide any assistance to improve their convenience for the same. Despite being a market leader and one of the most customer centric organization, it was highly unexpected to see your treatment towards your employees. You guys should be dealt with strong action under law. Friends please share it as much as possible.

Soon after the post went viral, KB Nagaraju, Chief Customer Experience Officer, posted a long message on company's Facebook page. 

Here's the post:

We've had a few questions over the last couple of days regarding the weight of the load carried by our delivery boys when they deliver express orders. We thought we'd clarify these directly.

First, we feel as pained as all of you who have expressed anger regarding the weight of the loads. We are very conscious of the hardships our delivery boys go through.

Second, our process does not allow a delivery boy to take a load in excess of 15 kilograms. As soon as an order for a route exceeds 15 kilograms in weight, it is split into two routes by our route optimization software. Orders will be delivered by two bikers. However, there have been some rare exceptions where in a misplaced sense of commitment to on-time delivery, the order allocator has assigned a load of more than 15 kilograms. These usually get picked up during our audit process. We have been taking stringent actions against individuals violating the process.

Third, the key reason for the voluminous bag is that we have used crates (rather than smaller bags) for packing orders. Crates minimize damage to products in transit, but make life a little more difficult for the delivery boys. Our innovation team, led by Praful Thachery, has been working very hard with vendors on to come up with design modifications that will avoid the need for a delivery boy to carry a bag on his back, while also minimizing damage during transit. The idea is to have each order packed in just 1-2 small, easy-to-carry bags. When that happens, orders will no longer be packed in crates. Insulation boxes will also be replaced by insulation bags.

Fourth, we are acutely aware of the need to help our delivery boys in the context of their overall well-being. With this in mind, we have been quietly operating a Trust for all our blue-collar staff, including the delivery boys. Through this Trust we pay for the education of their family members, pay for their up-skilling, enhance the financial literacy of their spouses, and provide them with term/life/health insurance at no cost to them. We are doing all this because we believe it is the right thing to do.

We are working hard on the process and technology changes highlighted above. You can expect these to be rolled out over the coming months.

Thanks for being a bigbasket customer. If you have any additional queries or inputs, please write to me directly at kbn@bigbasket.com

Yours truly,
KB Nagaraju (Chief Customer Experience Officer)

BigBasket also clarified that they are an employee-friendly organisation and have apparently done a lot for their employees.