New Delhi: The big Diwali festival season is here. But spare a thought for these deliverymen who have to slog through the festive season so that the goods reach you in time.
While the e-commerce companies are busy making big bucks around the festivities, most of the delivery personnel have to skip celebrations in order to cater to heavy duty orders pouring in. These foot soldiers are unhappy with the extra-long working hours and minimal salary.
“On Dussehra, I was delivering packages till 9pm starting from early morning. My colleagues have been under similar pressure all through the festival season and will be in the time to come. Most of us are contractual employees and therefore salaries are not great either,” said Prakash Yadav, a delivery personnel at a leading e-commerce platform, refusing to divulge his employer’s name due to fear of being pulled up.
E-commerce portals sold over USD 1.5 billion worth of goods in just the first three days of the festive sale period, according to a research firm, Redseer. The firm expected sales to reach USD 3 billion by the end of the five-day sale period. Official figures from the firms are yet to be notified.
The report also states that around USD 800 million worth of smartphones, USD 170 million worth of large appliances and USD 120 million worth of fashion accessories and apparels were sold during the first three days of the sale.
Yogesh Agarwal, another delivery guy, said the profits have nothing to do with them. “While our employers are making huge profits with all these items being sold, our work is to only slog. There is no linked benefit for us,” he said.
Ahead of the festive sale, e-commerce giant Amazon India had created over 50,000 seasonal positions across its network of fulfillment centres in the country.
Walmart-backed Flipkart hired 30,000 people to bolster its supply chain and logistics unit in the last few months. The e-commerce major estimates that its seller partners have added over 5 lakh indirect jobs. Most of the new hires are delivery boys and those managing deliveries in warehouses and hubs.
Several e-tailer employees also informed News18 that the otherwise 8-9 hour shifts cease to exist during festival season and delivery personnel are on duty almost the entire day.