Gig Subcontinent #7: Anxiety

The next emotion in Vandana Vasudevan’s OTP Please is anxiety.

 

Delivery boys have to drive through congested streets. Might they have an accident? Could a cop catch them? If deliveries are late, would the company penalize them? Street dogs can be a menace. Sometimes, they have been robbed on the way. Or college kids gang up, take the food and then refuse to pay (always a risk with Cash on Delivery).

 

In the subcontinent, the extreme heat is another problem. Being on the road in such conditions can be problematic, though to be fair, alternate jobs too expose them to the same elements.

 

Then there are the odd weird customers. In places like Greater Noida, with villages juxtaposed by urban life, rural folks try and trick. Like ordering food and then cancelling the order at the last minute. The restaurant won’t take the food back, and knowing this, the villagers will often offer (lesser) cash to the delivery boy to give them the food. Some folks taste the food, and then complain about it refusing to pay. Arguments on such matters can get dangerous (esp. in the north); it is always a loss of time; and fewer deliveries means lesser income.

 

We know women can be at risk if alone or late at night in a cab. Molestation, rape and even murder cases have made the headlines. Surprisingly, women can be perpetrators too, aka “reverse harassment”. Drunk women will sometimes ask the driver to go off route to pick up a friend; if the driver refuses, they threaten to give a bad review or worse, lodge a complaint with the company (or cops). In one instance, the girl threatened the driver that she’d lodge a sexual attack case unless he gave her the money he had! Though such incidents are few and far between, they are not unheard of.

 

Sometimes, a customer will get off, say they’ll go up to the home and get change and come. But then they slip away through the side streets. Just as a rowdy or drunk driver can be a source for stress for the passenger, the reverse is also true.

 

Then there’s unintended harm. Customers who don’t realize that anything other than a 5 star rating is deemed negative may give 4 star ratings, not realizing it hurts the recipient! And all this puts pressure on the driver. Does the rider want silence? Or polite conversation? Motives and moods of the rating giver can hurt, a “dozen variables that have nothing to do with the cab driver”.

 

The persistent state of non-permanent jobs creates its own stress and anxiety. No stable income to show can deny access to loans or houses for rent. Such is life.