Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
As the debate over pay, safety and welfare for gig workers continues to rage on social media, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has doubled down on his defense of the gig economy model, releasing a new data set to counter allegations of overwork, unsafe delivery times and lack of social protection for delivery partners on Zomato and Blinkit.
In a detailed, multi-part article, Goyal argued that gig work on Zomato’s platforms is fundamentally designed for flexibility, additional income and autonomy – not as a substitute for full-time employment – and that requiring traditional benefits risks misunderstanding the model itself.
“Real concert-style participation, no fixed times”
Responding to claims that delivery partners are overworked, Goyal said platform data from 2025 shows otherwise. According to him, the average Zomato delivery partner only worked 38 days out of the entire year, or about seven hours per working day. Only 2.3% of associates worked more than 250 days per year.
“Requiring full-time benefits like PF or guaranteed salaries for work roles is not what the model is designed to do,” Goyal wrote, emphasizing that delivery partners choose when and where they work. There are no assigned shifts, mandatory hours or fixed geographic areas, he said, and partners are free to log in and out at will.
According to Goyal, this demonstrates that delivery work functions primarily as a secondary or interim source of income rather than as a long-term lock. “Flexibility is not incidental to the gig work model, that’s the whole point,” he said.
Debunking the “10-minute delivery pressure” argument
Goyal also pushed back on concerns that fast trading and promises of 10-minute delivery encourage dangerous driving. He said delivery partners are not shown time commitments to customers and do not operate with countdown timers in their apps.
According to Zomato’s internal data, faster deliveries on Blinkit are due to proximity to stores and not 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, which translates to an average speed of around 16 km/h. On Zomato, where delivery times are longer, average driving speeds were around 21 km/h.
“Data shows that delivery in 10 minutes versus 30 minutes is not affected by driving speed,” Goyal said, adding that road safety remains a common challenge across all logistics ecosystems, involving infrastructure, law enforcement, customers and delivery partners.
Social 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 the premiums fully borne by the company. Coverage includes accident insurance up to ₹10 lakh, medical insurance up to ₹1 lakh with OPD benefits, wage loss 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 days off per month for female delivery workers, tax filing assistance used by 95,000 partners, access to a variant of the national pension scheme specific to gigs with more than 54,000 registrations and an SOS service for emergencies such as accidents, breakdowns or theft.
Ending his message, Goyal asked critics to re-evaluate their assumptions: “Now tell me, is this unfair? Especially for unskilled work, which is largely part-time, and has no barrier to entry?”
