Mumbai’s dabbawalla’s to Flipkart’s rescue!

India’s leading online retailer Flipkart has come up with a new strategy for its last-mile deliveries to customers. The popular e-tailer is now relying on an army of about 5,000 Mumbai's famed dabbawalas to get its goods delivered.

The Bengaluru-headquartered firm told the Economic Times that the first batch of dabbawalas has undergone training at Flipkart's delivery centres. Currently, they will be using a paper-based tracking system and will gradually train them on the use of apps and other wearable tech, the ET report stated.

Raghunath Medge, president of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust, also known as the Dabbawala Association, told the ET, "Dabbawalas are famous the world over and it's great if a company like Flipkart can also benefit associating with us.”

The ET also stated that in the initial stage of association, as a partner to eKart, Flipkart's logistics arm, the dabbawalas will collect Flipkart marketplace shipments from the delivery hubs and deliver it to the customers—while picking their dabbas. At this moment, the dabbawalas will not be interacting with the sellers at this stage, a company statement said.

Neeraj Aggarwal, senior director, Last Mile Delivery at Flipkart, told the ET, "Mumbai's dabbawalas are one of the most reliable and trusted brand in the city. Their delivery system has survived the test of time—even under extreme conditions that are atypical to a city like Mumbai. We are partnering them and leveraging this unique expertise to enhance our last-mile delivery capabilities."

Another ET report has revealed that the biggest online retailer is paying million dollar-plus salaries along with stock options worth millions more to a clutch of engineers and a strategy expert it has poached from marquee global firms such as Google and McKinsey as part of its strategy to aggressively build a technology capability that can rival Amazon in the country. (Image: wikimedia)