Ecomm firms say they can ride out Maha Covid rules | Economic Times

Maharashtra’s new Covid-related restrictions will likely have minimal impact on ecommerce, firms said.The state government had on Sunday ordered that delivery and supply chain staff of ecommerce companies must either be vaccinated or carry a negative RT-PCR test report, starting April 10. Top company executives told ET they will ensure continuity of operations despite increase in costs on account of mass testing.Hari Menon, co-founder and CEO of India’s largest online grocer BigBasket, said that the company has reached out to the state authorities to understand if they would be organising camps for mass testing of their workforce, or if they would give any special permission to allow vaccination of last-mile delivery agents. “We’re extremely well prepared this time, both in terms of physical capacity and people,” he said .Impact on Food-Ordering Apps“We’ve sought clarifications from the government… but even if the government doesn’t do mass testing... we’re going to do it ourselves… but there’s a cost attached to testing 6,000 people twice a month," added Menon. 81923563A top executive at one of the large ecommerce marketplace which has roughly 20,000 delivery executives in the state said that the company has already invested heavily in the safety of its workforce, and that the added cost of testing everyone would be borne by the company, but hoped that the government would restrict testing only to last-mile delivery agents."We’ve already started testing and are confident we should be able to test almost all last-mile staff before the April 10 deadline," the person added. "We hope that the state realises that it might be impossible to test everyone associated with the supply chain, and is something that might not be required as we’re following strict protocols within warehouses."Grofers said it was adhering to all the Covid-19 protocols and guidelines laid down by the government."…Until vaccination is available for all, we are conducting regular testing for all our frontline team members. We have already witnessed a 30% spike in weekly demand in these markets. With the state government announcing stricter lockdown norms, we are ramping up our capacities to serve our customers in a safe and secure manner," said a company spokesperson.Online food-ordering companies Swiggy and Zomato, which have a combined workforce of around 55,000 delivery agents in the state, have also approached the government to seek clarifications on the mode of testing, a person with the knowledge said.Sources close to the companies said they have sought more time from the state government.