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Webinar | Last Mile, First Priority: Policy Perspectives on Delivery Rider Safety
Every '10-minute delivery' carries hidden risk. Our expert panel made the case that protecting riders means redesigning the systems they ride in.
8 min readCrashfree India Team

What's at stake
India's quick-commerce promise is built on the backs of two-wheeler riders racing 10–15 minute SLAs. Every minute shaved at the platform end becomes a measurable injury risk at the road end.
From the panel
“Riders are not asking for sympathy. They are asking for a system that lets them ride safely and still earn.”
“The unit economics that depend on a 10-minute SLA are not unit economics — they are a social externality.”
What riders need
- Realistic SLAsDelivery windows calibrated to road, weather and time of day.
- ISI helmets, freeContract-mandatory, replaced on schedule by the platform.
- Rest and hydrationFunded micro-hubs across high-traffic delivery clusters.
- Crash insuranceStandard, no-questions claim path for any on-shift incident.
What everyone can do
Citizens can rate delivery experiences on safety, not just speed. Regulators can mandate anonymised crash data sharing. Platforms can publish their rider safety metrics, the same way they publish growth.
Take action
Speed cannot cost a life
A safer last mile is a procurement, infrastructure and policy choice — not a goodwill gesture.
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An expert panel on the systems that put gig riders at risk — and the reforms that can fix them.