Swiggy temporarily shuts Genie across cities due to worker shortage: Report

Swiggy Genie services have been impacted across Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, said report

As it struggles to employ delivery workforce and keep up with the demand, Swiggy has temporarily shut its pick-up and drop-off service Genie across major metros, a media reported on Tuesday.

Swiggy Genie services have been impacted across Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

According to a report in the Economic Times, Genie service has been unavailable for the past 7 days.

The company is prioritising food-delivery and its quick commerce business Instamart, the Economic times said in its report.

Due to rising fuel prices and inflation, many food and grocery delivery companies have been unable to raise the wages of their riders, causing supply-side issues across the gig economy.

The demand for gig workers in the quick commerce industry has exacerbated the supply shortage, especially in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and New Delhi. Attrition and hiring new resources are also becoming harder, the report added.

Meanwhile on April 25, Swiggy launched an industry-first accelerator programme for its delivery executives to transition into full-time, managerial-level jobs with a fixed salary and additional benefits. The programme, named 'Step-Ahead', is aimed at giving an opportunity to those executives who want to move from their current flexible engagement with Swiggy to a dedicated, managerial role.

With ‘Step Ahead’, Swiggy is formalising this process and intends to reserve at least 20 per cent of all Fleet Manager hires for its delivery executives. At present, Swiggy has over 270,000 delivery partners across the country.