url URL date not supplied amazing story about the dabba wallahs india s NUMBER year old meal delivery system that outdoes fedex using pictograms bicycles and largely illiterate but well compensated deliverypeople as part of the tiffin distribution process every day the meals are picked up from commuters homes in mumbai long after the commuters have left for work delivered to them on time then picked up and delivered home before the commuters return each tiffin carrier has painted on its top a number of symbols that identify where the carrier was picked up the originating and destination stations and the address to which it is to be delivered after the tiffin carriers are picked up they are taken to the nearest railway station where they are sorted according to the destination station at the destination station they are unloaded by other dabba wallahs and re sorted this time according to street address and floor the NUMBER kg crates of carriers carried on dabba wallahs heads hand wagons and cycles are delivered at NUMBER NUMBER p m picked up at NUMBER NUMBER p m and returned when they came the system relies on multiple relays of dabba wallahs and a single tiffin box may change hands up to three times during its journey from home to office link NUMBER discuss NUMBER _thanks tom _ NUMBER URL NUMBER URL 