Swiggy launches ‘Safety First’ programme for delivery partners

Swiggy, India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform, on Wedneday announced its delivery partner focused initiative, Safety First. It is a collaborative effort with Round TabIe India and CII Young Indians (Yi is a part of the Confederation of Indian Industry) to conduct road safety programmes for delivery executives.

Through Safety First, the company will enable sensitisation, awareness and training of its delivery partners on the various nuances of road safety.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Swiggy and Round Table India and CII Young Indians.

Sachin Kotangale, Vice President, Operations, said, “Road safety becomes important as Swiggy’s delivery partners have to deliver food parcels every day. With Swiggy’s Safety First, our delivery partners are being trained on the various aspects of road safety, along with being equipped with skills like providing first aid in times of need. This initiative shall help in making roads safer for them and the wider community.”

Over 100 Swiggy delivery partners participated in an hour-long awareness workshop that was conducted before the press event. After conducting pilots in association with Bangalore Traffic Police in Electronic City, Indiranagar, and Koramangala for one year, the programme has been structured. It will be conducted multiple times in two shifts each day from 9 am - 12 pm and 4 pm - 7 pm.

In the one-and-a-half hour session of training, first 20 minutes are devoted to developing an emotional quotient. It is an ice-breaker session, where participants are made aware on how their driving affects lives on road. The rest of the session deals with:

• Guidelines for safer riding experience for Swiggy’s partners

• Emergency situation management

• Accident response

• Safety for self and emergency victims

• Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation techniques

In this partnership, while Yi and Round Table India provide expert trainers, Swiggy is in charge of all the operational costs.

Young India is outsourcing its trainers from startups such as Cab Dost. Inputs from several automobile dealers who conduct road safety programmes regularly, and the Banaglore Traffic Police were taken for designing the programme.

With over 70,000 delivery partners, Swiggy has the largest delivery fleet in the country. Post its launch in Bengaluru, the company plans to roll out this mandatory training programme across the country.

“Our next target is cities such as Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai,” said Vedanth Girish, the head of Road Safety, Yi Bangalore.

In the next six months, Swiggy plans to train one lakh delivery partners.

The programme was launched in the presence of the Commissioner for Road Transport and Safety, VP Ikkeri. Ajith Mathew George, Co-Chair CII Young Indians and Dhruv Dalmia, National President, Round Table India were present at the event.