Zomato sacks 5,000 delivery partners monthly over food theft and fraud

Mumbai: India’s leading food delivery platform, Zomato, removes approximately 5,000 delivery partners from its network every month due to fraudulent activities and food misappropriation, according to company founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal.

Speaking on a podcast with entrepreneur Raj Shamani, Goyal disclosed that the terminations are primarily driven by complaints regarding the manipulation of food deliveries and financial fraud.

Zomato and its quick-commerce subsidiary, Blinkit, currently employ a combined workforce of approximately 800,000 delivery partners. Goyal noted that the platform sees high churn and recruitment rates, with nearly 200,000 new candidates registering for delivery roles each month.

The majority of these partners work on a part-time basis, with many leaving the platform after a short stint.

Goyal clarified that the company adopts a lenient approach towards first-time errors but takes decisive action against repeat offenders.

"We don't remove people for a single mistake," Goyal explained. However, those found consistently engaging in malpractice face immediate removal. Common offences include marking food as 'delivered' without handing it to the customer, consuming the customer's meal, and misappropriating cash collected during cash-on-delivery transactions.

To address these challenges, Zomato has implemented a proprietary system called 'Karma', designed to monitor and rate the behaviour of both delivery partners and customers. Despite these technological safeguards, Goyal admitted that detecting specific instances of fraud remains a complex operational challenge for the company.