The slowdown is being driven by stress among restaurant kitchens, particularly cloud kitchens, and smaller operators dependent on delivery platforms.
New Delhi : Delivery riders across major Indian cities are seeing a decline in orders, lower utilisation and shrinking earnings as restaurants downsize menus and reduce operating hours amid a surge in commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices driven by the military conflict in West Asia, said staffing firms and job platforms.
Riders are completing fewer orders per shift and earning less for the same time than before, they said.
Average orders per rider have declined 10-20% in recent weeks during peak shifts, according to Suchita Dutta, executive director, Indian Staffing Federation. "Rider utilisation rates have declined modestly... while average earnings per hour hover around Rs 90-110," she said, adding that full-time riders could see a 15-25% drop in weekly take-home pay.
The impact is uneven across the workforce.
Full-time riders are facing reduced shift availability and lower order volume, while part-time workers have more flexibility to pivot to other gigs. Newly onboarded workers are seeing the sharpest impact, with slower activation and fewer incentives, as experienced riders retain priority access to available shifts, Dutta said.
The slowdown is being driven by stress among restaurant kitchens, particularly cloud kitchens, and smaller operators dependent on delivery platforms.
"When gas prices spike, a cloud kitchen operator faces a binary choice of either absorbing the hit and destroying margins or reducing throughput. Most choose the latter," said Kartik Narayan, chief executive-marketplace at Apna.co. This results in "fewer active hours, fewer menu items, fewer orders flowing onto the aggregator platform", he said.
Riders are completing fewer orders per shift and earning less for the same time than before, they said.
Average orders per rider have declined 10-20% in recent weeks during peak shifts, according to Suchita Dutta, executive director, Indian Staffing Federation. "Rider utilisation rates have declined modestly... while average earnings per hour hover around Rs 90-110," she said, adding that full-time riders could see a 15-25% drop in weekly take-home pay.
The impact is uneven across the workforce.
Full-time riders are facing reduced shift availability and lower order volume, while part-time workers have more flexibility to pivot to other gigs. Newly onboarded workers are seeing the sharpest impact, with slower activation and fewer incentives, as experienced riders retain priority access to available shifts, Dutta said.
The slowdown is being driven by stress among restaurant kitchens, particularly cloud kitchens, and smaller operators dependent on delivery platforms.
"When gas prices spike, a cloud kitchen operator faces a binary choice of either absorbing the hit and destroying margins or reducing throughput. Most choose the latter," said Kartik Narayan, chief executive-marketplace at Apna.co. This results in "fewer active hours, fewer menu items, fewer orders flowing onto the aggregator platform", he said.
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