Days when anyone with a driving licence and a two-wheeler can land a job as delivery boy with online food aggregators are set to become a thing of the past.
Taking serious note of the security challenges posed by the near-total access enjoyed by delivery boys almost round-the-clock, the Kochi City Police are set to make police clearance mandatory for those recruited as delivery boys by food aggregators.
“The matter was brought to the notice of the District Police Chief [Kochi City], and a decision to introduce the verification of antecedents and police clearance was taken. The new system will kick in very shortly and will be applicable to not just new recruits but also those already employed. We are planning to convene a meeting of service providers in this regard,” K. Laljy, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ernakulam), told The Hindu .
The move is aimed at verifying the credentials of candidates and ensuring that anti-social elements do not infiltrate the sector. It has not come a day early, as dependence on delivery boys even during odd timings citing convenience has been raising hackles of at least a section of occupants in apartment complexes.
“We have made an arrangement whereby parcels will have to be dropped at the security cabin and those who order them will have to collect them from there,” said Dinesh Neelakandan, a resident of an apartment complex near Infopark.
Incidentally, the Infopark Police had suggested such an arrangement during their interactions with residents associations and apartment owners, to curb the access of delivery boys to a certain extent.
“Most of them are part-timers and hence it is not possible to track them down. Though they are supposed to follow a uniform code, many of them either don’t wear it or use jackets covering it making it hard to identify their job profile,” said Amrut Rangan, Sub Inspector, Infopark Police.
