Fuel price hike eating into income of delivery boys in Bengaluru: Activists

BENGALURU: The steep hike in fuel prices has dealt a crushing blow to the city’s delivery workforce, which is already overworked, underpaid and struggling to make ends meet. Delivery executives also have to deal with increasing traffic, road diversions due to infrastructure projects, harassment by traffic cops and the ‘on-time or free’ order clause.
In Bengaluru, the price of a litre of petrol increased from Rs 72 in March 2020 to over Rs 94 now. Firms like Zomato, Swiggy, Dunzo, Telyport, Rapido, Porter, Lynk, Pindrop, Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers, Jiomart, Licious and BigBasket are employing thousands of delivery personnel in the city.
Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary, Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), said: “App-based transport workers across the country are facing the burden of rising fuel prices. Workers have to bear the petrol cost from their own earnings. So, an increase in fuel price directly has a negative impact on their earnings. We have been demanding increase in per/km charges, but nothing has been done about it.”