Zomato rolls out delivery bags with a 'hotline phone number' to report rash driving by its delivery partners

Livemint | 03/11/2022 06:00 PM

Deepinder Goyal, founder of online food delivery platform Zomato said on Wednesday that Zomato has started rolling out delivery bags with a "hotline phone number" to report rash driving by its delivery partners. In August at the company's annual general meeting, Deepinder Goyal had said that Zomato would put a phone number on the bags of its delivery partners for people to call and report if any one of them were found to be speeding. "As promised earlier, we have started rolling out delivery bags which mention a hotline phone number to report rash driving by our delivery partners," 

He further asserted, "Please remember – we don't incentivize our delivery partners for on-time deliveries, nor do we penalize them for late ones. We don't even tell them what the estimated delivery time is – if someone is speeding, it is of their own accord. Please help us make the traffic on our roads saner."

When Zomato announced plans to start instant 10-minute delivery in March this year, it faced criticism from different quarters over the road safety of its delivery partners and the possibility of pressure put on them to meet the deadline.

Goyal had, however, said the company was not putting any pressure on its delivery partners to deliver food faster but would achieve the target by relying on a dense finishing stations' network, located near high-demand customer neighborhoods. On the safety of delivery partners, he said it has always been a priority for Zomato, and "no compromises have been or will be made here", while also asserting that the platform does not incentivize riders to be on time. 

Online food delivery platform Zomato has decided to narrow its focus on three key areas of food ordering and delivery; supplies to restaurants through 'Hyperpure' and quick commerce, company Chairman Kaushik Dutta said earlier in August.

In his address to shareholders at the company's annual general meeting, Dutta said the move was part of a strategy to focus "only on areas that have the potential to become meaningfully large businesses ten years from now".

In FY22, he said Zomato was able to achieve strong top-line growth while keeping its "adjusted EBITDA burn under control", despite multiple challenges such as disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, macroeconomic uncertainty, rising inflation, and fuel prices, among others. 

This year after reflecting on the strategic priorities as a company, given the size and scale of the platform now, Dutta said it was decided that the focus would be only on areas that have the potential to become meaningfully large businesses ten years from now.

Subsequently, he said Zomato would narrow its focus to three key areas -- food ordering and delivery; Hyperpure, and quick commerce.