I ordered Domino’s Pizza
Big whoop. Not something all us have not done a million times without writing a blog about it. But this was not an ordinary order.
Well as you see I happened to be travelling by train on 19th September. Since it was going to be a long ride and I was alone, I was trying to keep myself entertained the entire journey. That is when I happened to glance upon this bottle of water that I had purchased from one of the vendors aboard the train. And on closer look at the label, I saw this ad:
For those of you who are not aware, IRCTC is a public company that deals with all the services related to Indian Railways starting from booking tickets online to serving food in the coaches to running their own scheduled trains in some instances. The food ordering ad that we see here is a relatively new initiative by IRCTC to get your food delivered to your seat on the train on an intermediate station.
Since my train would be passing through Kharagpur Junction (KGP), which was a large station, I naturally thought that it would be a good way to get some freshly cooked food instead of the dreadful reheated stuff they sell on the train. It would also be a good thing to test out because I anticipate travelling this route a lot in the coming months and years.
So I went on the website mentioned below. That opened the following page:
I entered my PNR details. There were not many options available. There were only two actual restaurants with most others being food aggregators with duplicate listings. As it was nearly not dinner time, I was looking for some light snacking options, Domino’s provided the only viable option with their selection of sides. The minimum order value was 330 which is a lot more than one would normally expect to pay on a train journey but gotta spend those big software engineer bucks somewhere (Thankfully I did not have to spend that much in the end).
So ordered a bunch of sides around 30 mins after the train departed Kolkata. I selected to pay on delivery as my internet was not working very well. I got a call a few minutes after that confirming my order. The call was from a private number which was a little unsettling to say the least, not helped by the fact that the caller id marked it as a scam. Anyways, I picked up the call and it was like trying to have a conversation with an Uber driver. The call was fairly simple. They went over the items and I confirmed it. Nothing happened for the rest of the ride till about 15 minutes before the train approached KGP. It was the same repeat call as the last one and once again it was from an unknown number which not was Domino’s registered but from a different person this time and it seemed the call was made from the kitchen as there was a lot of shouting going on in the background.
Anyways, the train pulls into KGP. I am at my seat having forgotten everything about this order. The train is going to stop there for 15 mins. 5 minutes before the train is about to leave, I get a call asking which platform the train was in and which coach and seat I was in. Again from a private number, not domino’s (seems absurd why I would give a total random number those details but I did.). Anyways I didn’t know which platform the train was on as I couldnot see a platform number marker nearby and I figured that they should know that given that it is announced at the stations from early on so that the passengers can get to the platform. Apart from this, my seat and coach number were mentioned in my order and I was not sure why he was asking me that again. The person on the other side who I am assuming was the delivery agent asked me to stand outside my coach to collect my order which was a bit surprising since I had to leave my lugguage inside unguarded but I took the risk. I stood there for 5 mins but no one came. The train whistled for departure and I went back into the coach fearing I would be left on the platform stranded.
The food never showed up. The train was leaving so I jumped back on board with the following thought in my head:
Let’s think this through. What all did the food delivery team need to know to get it actually delivered? My seat and coach information was already provided. So all the team needed to know was when the train was going to arrive and which platform it would be in. And that information is needed by the team atleast 30 mins in advance. I am estimating from the fact that in the normal case they do promise delivery within 30 minutes which includes transportation within 1.5km. So 30 minutes is a conservative estimate. Now onto the actual information about the train. There are various train tracking services which already provide information about the current position of the train. Moreover, the station actually announces the incoming trains every minute five minutes before it arrives with the platform details. So the delivery personnel have a lot of time to figure out where to go. Not only that the allocated platforms for trains are fairly regular and are not subject to change (because it is pre-scheduled and only in rare cases does it change). The same goes for coach positions. So in conclusion, it is not really that difficult. That is assuming of course that the restaurant caters only to railways which I am thinking might not be the case because clearly a person working out of the train stations would know the train schedule for the station by heart as is the case with most porters and ticket collectors.
Let me know what you think of this in the comments below. Am I missing anything?
