Flood-hit Bengaluru residents face double whammy as delivery apps hit pause button

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The heavy rainfall in IT and startup capital Bengaluru, which resulted in severe flooding of the Outer Ring Road in the Marathahalli and Bellandur areas, not only left people stranded in their homes but also hampered their only lifeline – the delivery of essential groceries and supplies.

A Bellandur resident, whose building was flooded, tweeted that without food and water supplies, they were at the mercy of food delivery apps and their delivery partners.

...and owners shall forget about it for a month or so.

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- There is no food supply or water supply given by BBMP or any authorities to help the society for last 24 hours now. We are on the mercy of delivery apps and the delivery partners. When they are assigned we are calling them

— aakash (@iamindividual) September 6, 2022

Social media is full of videos of residents who were forced to leave their still-flooded homes and shift to hotels or stay with family and friends after it became impossible to get essential services and even drinking water.

However, the heavy rainfall and flooding also disrupted the operations of quick commerce companies, with deliveries taking longer than usual or services suspended. These companies are still cautious because more rain has been predicted for the city and the overcast skies threaten to open up at any time.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted rainfall till September 11 in Bengaluru.

Also read:  Construction in Bengaluru unlikely to be affected by flooding

Access hindered

Dunzo had to halt its quick commerce offering Dunzo Daily in some areas after some delivery partners protested and waterlogging hindered access to homes in many parts of the city.

Although the delivery workers were instrumental in “reducing the havoc caused by heavy rains,” Dunzo paused deliveries in areas with excessive waterlogging to ensure their safety, a company spokesperson said in a statement to Moneycontrol. The company said that it was trying to keep services running and was taking steps to keep customers in the loop.

“If orders are delayed due to rains, we keep our customers informed, prioritising partner safety. On the other hand, we also want to ensure that our customers have access to daily essentials, especially when they can’t step out of their homes,” the Dunzo spokesperson said, adding that the startup is even using trucks for deliveries in the affected areas.

Zepto cautioned its delivery partners to look out for weather alerts and clarified that they could decline orders that were to be delivered in the impacted areas.

“But we were happy to see that most of the delivery partners actually went up 24/25 floors to deliver an order. They were also assisting people with their vehicles and so on,” said Aadit Palicha, founder of Zepto.

TK Balakumar, chief operating officer of BigBasket, said BBNow’s operations were impacted in the Bellandur, Yemalur and Whitefield areas.

Also read: Bengaluru floods: Residents may have to cough up crores to fix drowned homes, cars

Using tractors

“It was challenging to run operations as the company also had to operate with reduced capacity and deploy tractors,” he said.

For Swiggy, Instamart head Karthik Gurumurthy said operations in Sarjapur, Marathahalli and Bellandur were impacted badly and while orders may be delayed, they would be delivered.

Zepto cautioned its delivery partners about the weather alerts and clarified that in they can decline orders in the impacted areas. 

#Bangalore friends. We know that #bangalorerains has impacted certain areas like #Sarjapur #Marathahalli #bellandur badly. We are working with our sellers to serve as many orders as possible today. Count on us...Your orders may be delayed but we will deliver. #bangalorerains

— Karthik Gurumurthy (@KarthikGurumur6) September 6, 2022

A senior executive of a quick commerce company said that while operations were impacted, volumes actually grew because people across the city were not able to step out to buy essentials, which led to a surge in purchase volumes.

An Amazon spokesperson said the e-commerce company is evaluating the situation and ensuring that its associates do not venture into areas with excessive waterlogging.

Startups such as BlinkIt and Zepto have been having a hard time ever since they started to bet on 10-minute grocery deliveries a few months ago. Their plans attracted strong criticism and delivery partners cited reasons such as bad roads, heavy traffic, and unpredictable weather as some of their major concerns.

Gradually, the much-hyped concept of 10-minute delivery lost momentum after the companies faced a dearth of delivery executives during April-June, which inevitably led to longer delivery times.