KOCHI: On Tuesday, foodies across the country woke up to the news of online food delivery giant Zomato acquiring Uber Eats in an all-stock deal. Closer home, the development has sparked speculation among Kochiites about the repercussions, with many believing that decreased competition would lead to a hike in charges of services rendered by food aggregators.
The three major food delivery apps operating in the city, Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats, have a combined crew of roughly 23,000 delivery partners, including permanent and part-time personnel. “Our fleet is as big as 8,000-10,000 but active partners on the ground at any given point of the day are around 2,500,” said a spokesperson for Zomato in Kochi. Uber Eats, on the other hand, reportedly has close to 4,000 delivery personnel in its ranks who will now be inducted into Zomato.
Uber Eats delivery personnel received an SMS in the morning welcoming them on-board by Zomato. “The message had a link through which we could register ourselves with Zomato right away. The personnel who were ready to start delivering through Zomato from today were offered a starting bonus. However, we haven’t received any communication from Uber Eats so far and no one had any clue about this takeover,” said Bony Babu, a part-time delivery partner with Uber Eats for the last five months. The now-defunct app is reportedly soon expected to direct its delivery crew to clear their dues by the end of next month.
Tara Thomson, an employee at Inforpark was surprised to be redirected to Zomato when she opened the Uber Eats app on her phone to order breakfast. As a regular user, she is apprehensive if she has to shell out extra bucks to order her favourite meal. “I became a customer of Uber Eats in November 2018. Since then, I’ve religiously ordered food solely through it. Uber Eats had a multitude of discounts, which honestly made me want to keep coming back to the app. Also, the neat interface was pretty easy to navigate. Will undoubtedly miss Uber Eats,” she said.
“With additional personnel joining our fleet, the frequency of surcharges levied on the customer would come down as the additional charge is only levied when there are fewer delivery boys,” added the Zomato spokesperson.