About 2,000 delivery personnel are dropping off every day in quick commerce and 5,000 in food delivery, according to estimates by Teamlease Services.
“A total of about 7,000 people – for quick commerce and food delivery – are needed for replacement hiring daily,” said Balasubramanian A, vice president and head of consumer and ecommerce at TeamLease. This is much higher than the daily exit of about 5,000 seen last year this time to cater to the typical summer season shortfall when many migrant labourers leave for their hometowns.
“An estimated 2.1-2.2 lakh people will be needed only for replacement hiring in the delivery segment in the month of June,” according to Balasubramanian.
Monthly attrition of riders, warehouse staff, pickers, packers, and loaders, is at a high of 30-40%, said industry officials.
At the same time, the record high summer temperatures are leading to productivity loss of up to 2 hours per day with many frontline staff falling sick with heat stroke and dehydration.“Due to the onslaught of heat waves, there has been an uptick of at least 20-25% in demand for last-mile workers, especially delivery executives,” said Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer, Operational Talent Solutions, Randstad India.“As people increasingly opt to avoid venturing out during these times, they are turning to quick commerce platforms to have everything from groceries and snacks to electronics and apparel delivered promptly to their doorsteps,” added Giri.
Some ecommerce and quick commerce companies have hired roles like hub managers, logistics coordinators, and customer support staff to handle the increased order volume due to summer vacations and the IPL.
The shortfall in supply of last mile manpower is accentuated with many migrant labourers – who left for their hometowns in April – not wanting to return till the end of the month or early July as they earned handsomely from election related work including participation in rallies.
Moreover, with the T20 Men’s World Cup Cricket starting from June 2, some of the larger firms are aiming to on-board additional 25,000-30,000 delivery executives each across their operations anticipating increased consumer demand, said Giri.
Some others are requesting their workforce to run multiple shifts with added incentives and rewards, he added.
Leading logistics company Ecom Express currently has an active rider base of 80,000-90,000 delivery personnel and nearly 40,000 staff deliver daily, up from about 30,000 a year ago to cater to the rising demand for online purchase.
“In May we onboarded a fresh batch of 3000 riders. In June again we will need to hire another 4,000-5,000 last mile people,” said COO Vishwachetan Nadamani.
“We have seen a 25% year-on-year increase in demand from the ecommerce firms and online sellers’ grocery who we service. This increase is coming from a lot of offline or store purchases moving to online due to the extreme summer conditions this year. That apart, May and June months also see vacation-related purchases such as children’s toys, art and craft articles, etc,” he added.
“The overall ecommerce and quick commerce segment is estimated to grow at 35-40% in the next two years with consumer habits changing towards online purchase and instant delivery,” said Angshuman Bhattacharya, national leader – Consumer and Retail at EY.
“Several of the larger ecommerce players are expanding the depth of their services while quick commerce platforms are entering new categories. That apart, the online players are also looking at expanding their presence in tier 2 and 3 cities. And to cater to the rising demand, it is crucial that companies get their manpower model right,” said Bhattacharya.
Quick commerce platforms like Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart are adding multiple categories such as fashion, electronics, home appliances and luggage. Large ecommerce players like Flipkart and Amazon could reportedly enter into a sub-segment of quick commerce delivery.