Thread by @NilChristopher

SCOOP: How a tiny tweak to Zomato’s algorithm led to lost delivery riders, stolen bikes and missed wages in Bangalore🧵

restofworld.org/2021/how-a-sma…

On Sept 26, Zomato had tweaked its algorithm to extend the riders’ delivery radius from one to four zones. All of a sudden riders found themselves being sent to pickups and drop-offs up to 40 km away. The blue areas on this map are an example of one rider’s extended zones

Riders are incentivized by the number of orders delivered in a day, rather than the distance covered per order

Rider Salman said being sent outside the city limits for delivery has halved the number of orders he’s able to take.

The only way to avoid regularly being sent progressively further away with each order is to turn off the app’s GPS at the distant zone, then turn it back on when returning to their home location. Riders work longer hours to make up for the time they lose in repositioning

Riders using bicycles to deliver — who are known as cycle IDs — have suffered more than their colleagues using mopeds

When Arun joined Zomato, he was promised to not be set farther than 6 Km. Today he has to peddle his deliver unto 10 km.

Most riders are frustrated because they are losing time and money, and are exhausted because of unilateral changes made without warning

This spilt over into a protest on Sept 30. @restofworld was at the protest side to document the claims

These few graphs paint a picture of the extent to which riders have to go to get their problems addressed, and enforce a roll back of an algorithmic change

Zomato refused to respond to queries sent by @restofworld