11 things you need to know about Gorillas

If you believe that within minutes delivery is only a gag you obviously never ordered at Gorillas. We are so fast because of our amazing rider crew on their effortless e-bikes and our strategically located warehouses in the center of neighborhoods. But we don´t do the within minutes at all cost: If within minutes are not possible from your location, you will simply not be able to order at Gorillas.

Gorillas provides all riders with fixed employment contracts, health insurance, employer-financed accident insurance and paid vacation. We pay notably above minimum wage. Contractually guaranteed working hours are at max 8.5h per shift. The entire equipment including effort-saving e-bikes is provided for free. Our riders get paid by the hour, not by the number of deliveries made.

Effort-saving e-bikes and all necessary equipment are provided to all riders free of charge. This includes helmets, protective gear, backpacks and functional clothing such as jackets and rain pants plus shoe protection. Riders are free to use break rooms in the warehouses in-between rides and when it rains (in contrast to riders from other delivery services who wait outside in-between orders). Gorillas provides free non-alcoholic drinks and oftentimes snacks. All employees get a 25% discount on their personal grocery shopping at Gorillas.

This is actually true - it took us only one year to grow from zero to around 10k fix and steady employees. That is amazing growth, but it also comes with a responsibility to make sure that our processes and systems grow in a similar way in order to help us care for our employees the way they deserve it.

As a sign of gratitude by a company that considers itself rider-centric and rider-first, Gorillas gave out $1M USD to all riders and warehouse personnel, because it's them who helped the company grow in the first place.

The job as a courier is not easy. We would never question that. Riding the e-bike, walking up stairs, this is clearly physical labor and we appreciate what our riders do. That is why we want to make sure that this job is as convenient as possible. We provide effort-saving e-bikes and smaller bags which - for an average purchase - can hold no more than 10 kg. Should the bags still hold more than 10 kg (e.g. through many small and heavy items) we split the delivery on multiple riders.

We have grown from 0 to more than 10.000 employees within only 1 year. Less than two percent of our riders were actually paid inaccurately in June 2021. Obviously such a thing should never have happened. So, we have adapted our structures and systems to this extraordinary growth and made them future-ready. More importantly, all identified discrepancies have been reimbursed. We are a riders company and will continue to put our riders first, today and in the future.

Customers don’t order less since the end of the lockdowns. By providing essential grocery needs within minutes, we help our customers get back their time and spend it on what actually matters to them: more time with the family, the job, on hobbies or just relaxation.

All our riders are employed on a permanent basis including regular working contracts with health insurance coverage, employer-financed accident insurance, paid vacation etc. All our employees have working contracts with a six month probation period, as is standard practice e.g. in German employment law. Anyways, we would never hire to fire, to the contrary: we want our employees to grow with us. Hence we offer all employees growth and career development opportunities with our internal mobility program and regularly promote our riders to higher positions (in the last quarter alone, 400 riders were promoted to other jobs in the company).

Just like with supermarkets, deliveries to our warehouses might occur outsideoffice hours, for instance early in the morning. But we are making sure that all our suppliers respect statutory rest times. But we want to do more to reduce the potential noise impact on residents. To this end, we have made structural changes: the pallet truck wheels were changed from hard plastic to pneumatic tyres, community areas for downtimes were created in the warehouses and adjacent parking spaces have been redesignated as bicycle parking spaces. In addition, we developed clear guidelines internally on how to behave at and in front of warehouses.

Our vertically integrated supply chain allows for foods to get from farm to table in 4 days (vs. 10 for regular supermarkets). Hence, we reduce the use of preservatives and lifetime-extending packaging and minimize overall waste. We also reduce big domestic pantries, because people only fulfil their essential needs. That is why on-demand delivery reduces food waste which is responsible for ~8% of global CO2 emissions. Delivering groceries home by bike instead of driving to the supermarket with a car reduces CO2 emissions by up to 29%. And: Within minutes delivery also means easier access to groceries for people that have difficulties going to the supermarket due to health, family or merely time issues.