Speed At Any Cost? Why 10-Minute Delivery Is a Market Failure, Not An Innovation

I want to make it clear that for me, E commerce and app based delivery are not the villains of this debate. They are among the most consequential consumer innovations of the past decade. During Covid lockdowns, they became our lifeline. They have democratised access, supported small merchants, and reshaped urban consumption habits.

To me, convenience is not a moral failing and scale is not a sin. But, and that’s a big BUT, there is a line between innovation and extremity. India’s growing obsession with guaranteed ultra fast delivery codified most popularly as ten minutes, sometimes less definitely crosses the line.

What Happens When Ultra-Fast Delivery Becomes A Metric For Success?

This debate is often framed as one about logistics, algorithms, or dark store density. It is rubbish to do that. At its core, it is a market question about incentives, power and who absorbs risk when speed becomes a brand promise rather than an operational outcome.

In any supply chain, intensive pressure flows downhill. When a brand hardwires extremity into its consumer proposition, that pressure does not disappear because of disclaimers or app design choices. It merely concentrates at the weakest link. Alas ! the case of ultra fast delivery, that weakest link is the delivery worker.

Who is the typical gig worker - poor, migrant,hard pressed and vulnerable. When a platform advertises a 10 minute delivery it sends a clear signal to consumers, to merchants, and crucially, to workers namely that speed is the defining metric of value.

Whether or not a countdown clock is visible on the rider’s screen is totally beside the point. Consumer expectation itself becomes the timer. Ratings, tips, repeat orders, and algorithmic prioritisation is the enforcement mechanism. This is not coercion in the legal sense. It is compulsion in the branded /economic sense.

India’s labour market reality makes this especially problematic. Gig work sits within an already increasingly informalised economy, with limited safety nets, weak enforcement of protections and high replaceability of labour.

Also Read: Why India Will Remain The Fastest Growing Economy In FY26?

As a marketer, i observe that in the Darwinian, funded, valuation chasing world extremity does not remain optional for long and rapidly becomes the norm.

Defenders of ultra fast delivery argue that smart design and infrastructure, not pressure, enables speed. They claim that Dark store density, routing optimisation, and proximity, make ten minutes safe and feasible. That argument sounds neat on a whiteboard. On Indian roads, it collapses into tragedy.

India’s urban roads are among the most congested and hazardous in the world. Two-wheelers which are the backbone of last-mile delivery  already account for a disproportionate share of accidents and fatalities. Any business model that scales by placing more time pressure on two wheeler riders is not innovating around risk but worsening it.

Even if only a fraction of deliveries are pushed to the edge, scale ensures that the absolute number of exposed workers rises. Accidents, fatigue, churn, and insurance claims are not external anomalies. In compressing timelines in a high risk physical environment they are only to be expected.

How e-Commerce Majors Have Transferred Risk To Gig Workers?

This is where the market failure becomes evident. The consumer enjoys speed. The platform enjoys growth and differentiation. The risk in totality be it physical, financial, psychological sits with the worker. That is not a neutral outcome. It is a transfer of risk.

Supporters often point out that gig workers choose this work. That is true but incomplete. Choice in a constrained market is not the same as empowerment. When alternatives are limited, opting in does not imply consent to escalating risk. The rise in worker protests, churn, and attempts at unionisation across platforms is not ideological theatre. It is market feedback.

Unionisation does not emerge in comfortable systems. It emerges when workers feel unheard, unsafe, and disposable. Politically provoked or otherwise there is no smoke without fire.

There is also a broader societal dimension that deserves attention. Roads are not private supply chain assets. They are public spaces. When we culturally accept the idea that roads exist primarily to fulfil ever shrinking delivery promises, we change how those spaces are used and valued.

Pedestrians are seen ans obstacles. Traffic signals are perceived as inconveniences. Safety norms become negotiable. Over time, this degrades civic standards of living.

No serious economy treats public infrastructure as a pressure valve for private speed claims.

The argument here is not for banning fast delivery. Speed as a capability is valuable. Speed as an occasional privilege in case if emergencies, for specific use cases  makes sense. What is dangerous is speed as a guaranteed default, marketed as entitlement.

Thirty minutes, Forty five minutes or even an hour. These timelines still deliver enormous consumer value. They allow for efficiency, predictability, and dignity. They create room for safety, rest, and humane decision making at the last mile.

Guaranteed immediacy, by contrast, should be a privilege, not a prerogative.

There is also a brand dimension that companies should reflect on. Brands that anchor themselves on extremity eventually become prisoners of it. Once ten minutes is normalised, the next competitive move is nine, then seven. Differentiation becomes escalation. Margins thin, risk rises, and reputational exposure compounds.

Sustainable brands ought to be built on trust, not adrenaline

Finally, consumers themselves must confront their role in this ecosystem. Convenience is never free. Are willing to accept the conditions under which that speed is delivered ? Are we sensitive to it ?

Market maturity comes when consumer evaluate what companies offer. India does not need to win a global race to the bottom on delivery times. It needs to build models where innovation coexists with human sensitivity and public responsibility.

E-commerce is welcome. Gig work is real. Technology will keep advancing. But fast delivery should not come atop slow empathy.