By Dr. Ginu George, Dr. Mary Rani Thomas
The 21 days lockdown for the entire nation announced by PM Modi on 24th March 2020 came has a major panic to the public. The lockdown was with the objective to “Break the Chain” of COVID19 which was declared as pandemic by the WHO and to fight against this pandemic.
The news created anxiousness among the public thinking about how it is to be like not finding supplies or essentials for the next 21 days. Public rushing to nearby retailers, supermarket, kirana stores and ordering online to stock up essentials during the lockdown.
Good number of people in the society are depended on e-retailers for their basic essentials like milk, vegetables, pulses etc., 25th March, first day of lockdown in India was not so smooth as expected for most of the delivery agents in cities.
The lockdown has brought a lot confusion, chaos and problems to the delivery agents and e-retailers leading to delay and cancellation of delivery. These issues faced by many e-retailers and delivery agents are due to ambiguous message on the do’s and don’ts regarding the supplies and deliveries of essentials during the lockdown.
Issues were like stopping agents from reaching the warehouse, restricting their travels, forcing to close down the stores and also in some instances certain delivery agents has been abused and assaulted by officials.
Even from the customer side things were not so pleasant for the delivery agents after reaching their delivery place, securities were instructed by the respected flat association not to allow the delivery agents inside the flats and gated colonies.
These issues are a real concern and need to be tackled at the earliest. Many of us fail to understand that e-retailers comes as a saviour at this point of time as through online delivery we will able to avoid public or mass gathering to a greater extent.
It also supports to the two most important request of PM Modi that is “Stay at home” and “Social Distancing”, which is otherwise not so easy to be executed.
These e-retailers are also helping general public from getting exploited by the vegetable vendors and other small retailers who are charging exorbitantly high price for vegetables due to panic buying that is taking place across the nation.
There are various ways in which these burning issue can be tackled with some practical and easy measures few of which are already in the process of implementation. The first main measure is proper communication to be conveyed by the government to all the concerned authorities regarding the delivery of items, apart from that other measures are authorities or companies can think about issuing a pass to all the delivery agents, e-retailers and government together can decide on pre-defined time for delivery rather than allowing delivery any time of the day, allowing to deliver items only on company vehicles with supporting documents authorised by the retailer, providing uniforms for delivery agents with company name and logo printed, issuing employee ID card, having some standardisation in packing of items like how food delivery partners has a customised tape to seal food, fumigating the outer package just before delivery, educating and ensuring the delivery agents are taking precautionary measures like wearing a mask, using handwash and sanitizer, wearing a hand glove etc., also practicing pulley system method of delivering goods so no contact with sales associates otherwise known as contactless deliveries.
Often, we forget to understand that these delivery agents are also human beings who are exposed to the same risk and threat of COVID19, however they work 24*7 for their survival. Hence right measures need to be taken by all concerned authorities to ensure smooth deliveries and avoid delay and chaos for both delivery agents and public.
About the Authors:
Dr Ginu George: An Academic Professor & HR Professional; offering more than 10 years of experience showcasing expertise in managing matters related to the management, market research, delivery of teaching, administration of research and all aspects of HRM; Currently working as an Assistant Professor with Christ University, Bangalore. With respect of my educational background completed MPhil and Phd ( HR). Published papers in many refereed journals and also contributed a chapter in the book name Evolving Paradigms in Tourism and Hospitality in Developing Countries published by Apple Academic Press,INC
Dr Mary Rani Thomas: Currently working as an Assistant professor in CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India from the year 2010. Has completed MPhil and her PhD from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. Areas of specialisation and subjects handled are Marketing, Management, Human Resource Management and Organisation Behaviour. Research interests and publications are in the fields of consumer behaviour and Organisation behaviour and have attended various seminars and workshops. Also published in reputed UGC listed journals