NEW DELHI: Online food delivery platform Zomato was on Tuesday forced to clarify over the road safety of its delivery partners as its plans to start instant 10-minute food delivery faced backlash on social media.
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, who had on Monday announced the company's plans to start a pilot of 'Zomato Instant' with four stations in Gurugram from next month, took to social media to clarify that there are no penalties for late deliveries and no incentives for on-time deliveries for both 10-minute and 30-minute deliveries.
The 10-minute delivery will be for specific nearby locations, popular and standardised menu only, he said in a series of tweets.
He was responding to criticism directed to the company over its plans of starting instant deliveries as it would put the delivery partners at risk on the roads.
In a post on Twitter, Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti P Chidambaram said, "This is absurd! It's going to put undue pressure on the delivery personnel, who are not employees & who have no benefits or security, who have no bargaining power with @zomato I have raised this in Parliament & have written to the Govt. Will pursue this further."
Similarly, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also tweeted, "Please consider the safety of delivery agents - this pressure can be hazardous. I am sure no one has a problem waiting 30 minutes for food delivery, the world won't end if food not (sic) delivered in that time frame, the world won't be any happier at 10-minute delivery."
Many others on Twitter also hit out at the company, calling the instant delivery as unsafe and unwanted and said it would lead to racing by the delivery personnel on the roads thereby risking their lives and also others.
Responding to the criticism, Goyal said, "Delivery partners are not informed about promised delivery time for both 10-minute and 30-minute deliveries."
He further said Zomato is building new food stations to enable the 10-minute service for specific customer locations only. "Yes, we will also serve you Maggi through our 10-minute food stations :)," he quipped.
Moreover, he said Zomato Instant will only be for items that are popular, standardised, and can therefore be dispatched within two minutes.
The approximate kitchen preparation time for 10-minute delivery is 2-4 minutes while the average distance travelled is 1-2 km with 3-6 minutes of time travelled. Goyal asserted that Zomato's 10-minute delivery will "lead to lesser time spent on the road per order".
"We continue to educate our delivery partners on road safety and provide accidental/life insurance as well," he added.