As the debate over gig worker pay, safety and social security continues to rage on social media, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has doubled down on his defence of the gig economy model, releasing a fresh set of data points to counter allegations of overwork, unsafe delivery timelines and lack of welfare for delivery partners on Zomato and Blinkit.
In a detailed multi-part post, Goyal argued that gig work on Zomato’s platforms is fundamentally designed for flexibility, supplementary income and autonomy — not as a substitute for full-time employment — and that demanding traditional employee benefits risks misunderstanding the model itself.
‘True gig-style participation, not fixed schedules’
Addressing claims that delivery partners are overworked, Goyal said platform data from 2025 shows the opposite. According to him, the average Zomato delivery partner worked just 38 days in the entire year, logging about seven hours per working day. Only 2.3% of partners worked more than 250 days annually.
“Demanding full-time employee benefits like PF or guaranteed salaries for gig roles doesn’t align with what the model is built for,” Goyal wrote, emphasising that delivery partners choose when and where they work. There are no assigned shifts, mandatory hours or fixed geographies, he said, and partners are free to log in and out at will.
This, Goyal argued, demonstrates that delivery work functions primarily as a secondary or stop-gap income source rather than a long-term lock-in. “Flexibility isn’t incidental to the gig model, it is the whole point,” he said.
Debunking the ‘10-minute delivery pressure’ argument
Goyal also pushed back against concerns that quick commerce and 10-minute delivery promises encourage unsafe driving. He said delivery partners are not shown customer-facing time commitments and do not operate with countdown timers in their apps.
According to Zomato’s internal data, faster deliveries on Blinkit are driven by proximity of stores, not by higher speeds on the road. In 2025, the average distance per Blinkit order was 2.03 km, with an average driving time of around eight minutes — translating to an average speed of roughly 16 kmph. On Zomato, where delivery times are longer, average driving speeds were about 21 kmph.
“The data shows that 10-minute versus 30-minute delivery is not affected by driving speed,” Goyal said, adding that road safety remains a shared challenge across logistics ecosystems, involving infrastructure, enforcement, customers and delivery partners alike.
Welfare spending and long-term support
On welfare, Goyal said Zomato and Blinkit together spent over ₹100 crore in 2025 on insurance coverage for delivery partners, with premiums fully borne by the company. Coverage includes accident insurance of up to ₹10 lakh, medical insurance of ₹1 lakh with OPD benefits, loss-of-pay insurance up to ₹50,000, and maternity insurance up to ₹40,000.
Beyond insurance, Goyal listed additional support measures introduced by the platforms, including two paid rest days per month for women delivery partners, income tax filing assistance used by 95,000 partners, access to a gig-specific National Pension Scheme variant with over 54,000 enrollments, and an SOS service for emergencies such as accidents, breakdowns or theft.
Ending his post, Goyal asked critics to reassess their assumptions: “Now tell me, is this unfair? Especially for an unskilled job, which is largely part-time, and has zero barriers to entry?”
