Mangaluru: ‘’If you don’t get a suitable job for your educational qualification, don’t be frustrated. You don’t hesitate to do any work which supplements your income. But make sure that your earning is legal. That is enough”, says Meghana Das, a resident of Urwa, who opted for food delivery profession in an online food delivery company ‘Zomato.’
Meghana, who did her graduation in literature was working as a technical executive in an international company Hewlett Packard (HP) for few years in Bengaluru. Later, she moved abroad and worked as a manager in a company. As she had some family issues, she was forced to come back from abroad. Though she tried to secure a job as per her qualification, she did not get one. Although some companies offered jobs to her, the salary they offered was meagre. As riding was her passion, she applied for an online food delivery company ‘Swiggy.’ When they denied her the job, she applied to another company ‘Zomato’, where she is now earning around Rs 900 to Rs 1200 per day.
A total of four food delivery companies are operating in Mangaluru, where over 1500 delivery boys have been working. ‘Zomato’ is the only food delivery company which has extended jobs to women. Along with Meghana Das, two others Ramya from Kottara Chowki and Asha from Mangalaru are engaged now in food delivery profession. All of them admit that it is a nice and tension free job when compared to any other jobs.
When contacted, Meghana told Newskarnataka.com that she was on leave for a day due to some personal reasons. “I took leave as I have some personal commitments today. If I am working for any other company, lot of procedures need to be followed for getting even a one-day leave but there is no such procedure in this company. No harassment from our higher-ups. I love this job very much”, she adds.
Meghana has constructed a house on her own and she expresses her dream of owning a separate fast food outlet. She has a daughter who is studying in UKG. “I want to make my daughter a good citizen of our country. I will give my complete support to whatever she wants to become in her life”, she says.
Hariprasad Nayak, manager of ‘Zomato, told Newskarnataka.com that over 500 delivery boys were working in ‘Zomato’ alone and each earning over Rs 1000 per day. Among the 500 employees, most are well-educated persons who have worked for different companies before joining us. Many of them are graduates, diploma holders and engineers, he says.
‘Zomato’ pays Rs 25 per delivery to a staff, if the food order needs to be delivered within a distance of 5 km. If the delivery is beyond 5 km, then the company provides them Rs 10 per every additional kilometre. In addition to this, the company also fixed some specified amount for a certain number of food deliveries. If a delivery boy or girl handles 11 food orders, he or she would get Rs 200 extra income. If they deliver 16 orders, they get Rs 325, for 20 orders Rs 450 and for 24 food orders per day, the delivery agents get Rs 650 additional income.
