Permit app-based cabs to work as delivery support for e-commerce, retailers: Assocham

Amid nationwide lockdown, industry body Assocham has urged that app-based cabs be permitted to operate as delivery logistics for online platforms and traditional retail stores. "With people rightly avoiding crowded markets, there has been a sharp increase in pick-up orders from online platforms. There has also been a big rise in families placing telephonic orders to the retail grocers who too are organising themselves into the home-delivery models of businesses," Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said.

He also noted that with a rise in this format of selling, the delivery logistics can be filled in, as emergency and stop-gap measures, by lakhs of app-based cabs, who are facing a severe reduction in passengers. Sood said as the drivers of the app-based cabs are facing a severe crunch in their business, finding it difficult to service their bank EMIs, the RBI may also consider forbearance for them as a measure of emergency support.