Smoother delivery across Delhi, cops assure e-tailers amid Covid-19 pandemic

Coronavirus update: E-commerce companies had called out police and local authorities for forcibly shutting their warehouses, not allowing delivery staff to cross borders and harassing agents on their way to deliver orders.

Delivery of essential items ordered online could become a reality once again after days of customers having to put up with abrupt cancellations and e-commerce ground staff facing harassment at check posts where police personnel seemed unaware of who was allowed to function despite the lockdown and who wasn’t.

Coronavirus update: Many agents said they were harassed by police while delivering products. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Delhi Police assured representatives of e-commerce companies on Wednesday that their delivery boys would be allowed to enter the Capital and deliver goods. In a meeting with the representatives, additional commissioner of police Mandeep Randhawa told them that their employees would be given curfew passes to cross interstate borders, and would be allowed to move within the city for home delivery of essential items.

Randhawa assured them that the police would help the companies open their warehouses and ensure they face no problems. “The work has already started. Curfew passes will be issued at the earliest. Home delivery of essential services will not be affected. We are working with the companies to ensure that neither their delivery persons nor citizens face any inconvenience,” Randhawa said.

From Sunday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for a day-long people’s curfew across India, customers have been complaining that the stock of essential products, such as groceries, vegetables, fruits and even medicines, have been short on apps such as Grofers and Big Basket.

These companies had called out police and local authorities for forcibly shutting their warehouses, not allowing delivery staff to cross borders and harassing agents on their way to deliver orders. “Our warehouse in Faridabad was closed by the local law enforcement on Tuesday. While we understand that they are doing their duty, essential items to over 20,000 households in Faridabad and Delhi would have been affected every day, if this situation had persisted,” said Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder and chief executive officer of Grofers.

Freshtohome, a company that delivers meat, fish and poultry products, also sent out a statement alleging that their agents were being harassed by the police. “We are facing hardships in delivering due to local authorities stopping us in spite of clear guidelines that food deliveries are exempted from the lockdown. We are trying to convince the authorities,” a message sent out to Freshtohome customers on Tuesday read.

Many of these sites had completely shut operations from Tuesday evening owning to the confusion among enforcement agencies. Sites such as Big Basket were yet to resume service till late Wednesday. “We are currently not operational, and we are not sure when we’ll resume operations. Our operations are completely shut down due to severe restrictions imposed on our staff and movement of vehicles,” a statement issued by Big Basket on Wednesday evening read.

Narrating their experience over the last three days, many delivery agents said that they were abused and beaten up by police, and their vehicles damaged while delivering products. “I was near IP Extension on Sunday when two policemen stopped me and started kicking my motorcycle. They asked me for my identity card and then screamed at me saying that I could not go any further, and if I did, they would arrest me,” a delivery agent of Big Basket said.

During the hour-long meeting on Wednesday, police and the e-commerce representatives also discussed ways to ensure stringent hygiene standards for all its employees.

“Home delivery of essential items is important. We encourage citizens not to step out of their homes. The essential items will be delivered at their doorstep. There is no need to panic. If people face any problems during this lockdown, police is there to help them,” Randhawa.

Delhi Police have also started asking residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) across the city to allow delivery boys to drop off essential items. The representatives of e-commerce companies informed police that at many colonies, their delivery staff were stopped by security guards and not allowed to enter.

It is not just the local distribution that has been affected, many residents have been complaining of delays and cancellations of grocery orders on e-commerce websites as well. Companies who deliver these services said the government needs to communicate the definition of “essential goods” to the enforcement teams on-ground.

“We will start accepting orders and delivering essential groceries at the earliest. Local authorities are helping us in restarting our operations. We did face some problems over the last few days, but we will be on track now,” a spokesperson for Grofers said on Wednesday.