Courtesy/News Source: newindianexpress.com

VIJAYAWADA: After almost a week of 240 city hotels logging out of Swiggy, one of the leading online food aggregators, no resolution was reached among the parties as yet. The Vijayawada Hoteliers’ Association had decided to boot out Swiggy, protesting the hiked commission of 18-25 per cent from the earlier 10-15 per cent.

Neither the hotels nor the food aggregator has reported any loss in their businesses as a result of the ongoing protest. "Swiggy is not the only App we use. We have Zomato, UberEats and Foodpanda, through which we are now getting maximum orders. Earlier, these orders were distributed between Swiggy and others. Now, the users have shifted to the rest of the apps due to good discounts," said Anil, the owner of Heera Fusion and a member of the Association.

Another hotelier who wished to remain unnamed said that no hotels were incurring losses to his knowledge. "Swiggy used to eat up almost all our income on even small orders. For example, if a customer ordered biryani, which costs Rs 150, and availed 40 per cent discount, then Swiggy would take the 40 per cent amount of the cost from us, as well as its 25 per cent commission on the remaining amount. This meant, we had to shell out 65 per cent of the bill amount, which is more than Rs 80 in this case," he said.

Also, Swiggy did not report any damage or loss to its business over the last five days of protest. "Only some of the big names have logged out and not all reputed brands. Some big hotels (which he did not wish to name) are still supporting us and using our service. Along with them, cafes and food chains such as Dominos, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s continue to use our service," said Swiggy Vijayawada in-charge A Mohammed.

Meanwhile, the only persons who seemed to have been affected by the decision were the 500 delivery partners working with the food aggregator.  They said they were being paid their minimum salaries despite not delivering as many orders as before. However, they still wanted to change their jobs as their income has halved since the protest began.

"I earned Rs 600-Rs 700 per day before this problem. We are happy that the company is at least providing the minimum payment of Rs 300 per day. Since I am the only earning member in my family of four, this amount is not enough. I am looking for other jobs as I need at least Rs 20,000 to take care of my wife and kids," said S Krishnaiah.

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