It took the murder of a delivery boy, colorfully named Wishmasters to get Flipkart, an Indian ecommerce behemoth create a panic button and also try to increase safety of its delivery boys.
The delivery boy; Nanjunda Swamy was murdered last month by a customer who had ordered a smartphone he had no intention of paying for.
After the ugly incident, Flipkart got to work and now they’ve added the Nanjunda button to their app to allow delivery boys quickly cry out for help.
This raises up a lot of questions about the on-demand economy, and the future of logistics.
The truth about ecommerce is that it is a more expensive undertaking that traditional commerce operations. For all the talk about e-platforms empowering people and creating jobs, the reality is that the bottom tier of these online operations are just messy.
mPesa’s agents in the rural villages of Kenya are not amassing easy wealth for providing banking services to the underserved people. Delivery boys working for e-commerce companies are unsung heroes who keep the services running, and yet have no real stake in the bigger scheme of things.
The people who make all the money still at the top of the ladder. Those below do a lot of work, get paid peanuts and will soon be replaced by machines.
REFLECTION
Am I a real stakeholder in my place of business operations, or am I just a disposable delivery boy?
Do I respect my partners and workers and treat them well?
ACTION
Move up the ladder. Respect people that work for you and look after them properly, don’t wait for a disaster to happen first.
