Zomato shares insights on gig worker earnings patterns and delivery safety

As arguments intensify over gig worker wages, safety and working conditions, Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal has released detailed platform data showing that delivery partners on Zomato earned an average of ₹102 per hour in 2025. In data shared on X, he said delivery partners worked 38 days in the year on average, and logged delivery speeds that are not driven by pressure to ride faster.

The data comes amid a growing national debate around whether gig work offers fair pay and protections, with worker unions, policymakers and netizens questioning earnings stability, long hours and safety risks in app-based delivery jobs.

According to the figures shared by Goyal, average earnings per hour (EPH), excluding tips, rose 11% from ₹92 in 2024 to ₹102 in 2025. Over a longer period, Goyal claims EPH has shown steady growth.

Goyal clarified that EPH is calculated on total logged-in time, including periods when delivery partners may be waiting for orders. While earnings during peak or “busy” hours are higher, he said that metric does not accurately represent overall earnings.

Using the 2025 EPH, he estimates that a delivery partner working 10 hours a day for 26 days a month would earn about ₹26,500 in gross monthly income. After accounting for fuel and vehicle maintenance costs, estimated at around 20 percent, net earnings would be roughly ₹21,000 a month.

Goyal also clarified that tips form an additional component of earnings. Delivery partners receive 100 percent of customer tips, with no deductions.

On working hours, Goyal said most delivery partners use the platform intermittently. In 2025, the average partner worked 38 days in the year, logging about seven hours per working day. Only 2.3 percent of partners worked more than 250 days during the year, he said.

Delivery partners are not assigned fixed shifts or delivery zones, Goyal wrote in the ‘X’ post.

Addressing concerns around quick commerce and 10-minute delivery promises, Goyal reiterated such timelines do not translate into pressure on delivery partners to ride faster. Delivery partners do not see customer-facing delivery timers or countdowns in the app, he said. However, gig workers have been contesting this over the past two days claiming that the concept itself has fueled consumer expectations, adding pressure on their delivery timelines.

In 2025, the average distance per order on Blinkit was 2.03 kilometres, with an average driving time of about eight minutes, implying a speed of roughly 16 kmph. On Zomato, where delivery times are longer, average speeds were around 21 kmph.

Goyal said average riding speeds across platforms are broadly similar, suggesting that differences between 10-minute and longer delivery timelines are shaped by logistics and store density, not driving behaviour.

He added that road safety remains one of the most complex challenges across logistics ecosystems and requires shared responsibility involving infrastructure, enforcement, customers and delivery partners, irrespective of platform.

Goyal’s clarification through the data comes at a time where the call for a gig worker strike on December 31 sparked a massive discourse on social media around wages of delivery workers, the 10-minute delivery pressure and overall working conditions.