Food delivery giant Zomato recently announced their quick delivery service ‘Zomato Instant’ through which they claim to deliver hot and fresh food in under 10 minutes.
Announcement: 10 minute food delivery is coming soon on Zomato.
Food quality – 10/10
Delivery partner safety – 10/10
Delivery time – 10 minutesHere’s how Zomato Instant will achieve the impossible while ensuring delivery partner safety – https://t.co/oKs3UylPHh pic.twitter.com/JYCNFgMRQz
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 21, 2022
Their new feature will start with four stations in Gurugram from next month onwards, reported India Today.
While their approach to delivering food in such limited time attracted eyeballs, it also raised questions on the safety of their delivery executives who might have to rush between deliveries to stay put in time putting them at risk.
However, the company did announce that it would not involve any risks or penalties for the delivery partners.
Wohoo! Zomato Instant is here to deliver your food in just 10 minutes – without any risks or penalties for the delivery partners.
Read more about Zomato Instant here: https://t.co/pbr9ySCJ9Z https://t.co/Q82FgOcks4
— zomato (@zomato) March 21, 2022
Despite their official statement, Zomato faced a lot of flak online from general public as well as their delivery partners.
Zomato is facing a backlash for its plans to roll out a 10-minute food delivery. Many executives on LinkedIn raise concerns about road-safety of riders, forcing Zomato to issue clarifications. India is already witnessing a quick commerce boom with Blinkit https://t.co/kEBeZaTSZE
— Aditya Kalra (@adityakalra) March 22, 2022
The 10-minute delivery offer from @zomato is both dangerous and unnecessary: more than anything, it will endanger the lives of both riders as also people on roads and so something best avoided. No one is in such a rush or such an idiot to decide what to eat only 10 mins before!
— SUHEL SETH (@Suhelseth) March 22, 2022
Bad news ! I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s accident .. no zomato for me thanks https://t.co/VMuWbCX0sf
— Karuna Gopal (@KarunaGopal1) March 22, 2022
I don’t need food delivered in 10 Mins. Don’t want to risk lives of delivery guys. @zomato
RT if you agree!
— Cdr Aanan 🇮🇳 (@Veteran__007) March 22, 2022
The 10-minute delivery model by Zepto, is emulated by Swiggy, Blinkit. And now Zomato. These companies refuse to acknowledge their delivery providers as employees, and hence you see words like "drivers" "captains" "riders" being used for them. 1/n
— kushal (@kushchronicle21) March 21, 2022
Dear @zomato, I will not use your app if you implement this 10 minute food delivery nonsense. Those who order food online can comfortably wait for 30-40 minutes. Pl do not put your riders under stress and at grave risk, just to appear ostensibly different from your competitors.
— Prabhash Ranjan (@pranjan12781) March 22, 2022
Some also took to social media to express their displeasure via memes:
#Zomato situation right now#ZomatoInstant #10minutedelivery
🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/xy7enS4N4v— Ayus Kumar Barnawal (@AyusBarnawal) March 22, 2022
Latest: Pradeep Mehra is now training for Zomato 10 minutes delivery. pic.twitter.com/IX9GV31HIg
— Rofl Gandhi 2.0 🏹 (@RoflGandhi_) March 22, 2022
From now onwards stay away from #Zomato riders. pic.twitter.com/PwqEhv7EeI
— Amul Joshi (@amul_joshi) March 21, 2022
#Zomato plans to deliver food in 10 mins
Le Indian traffic and roads: pic.twitter.com/WVbuTUrFMj— ALFIA TAUSEEF 🇵🇸 (@alfiatauseef) March 22, 2022
Zomato guys delivering food in 10 mins be like pic.twitter.com/s8As5jAocN
— Grishma Shah (@Grishma89133825) March 21, 2022
The Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT), a partner’s association with 35,000 service professionals condemed this move and said Zomato should see delivery executives as ‘human beings’, reported Business Insider.
Shaik Salauddin, the national general secretary of IFAT and the founder state head of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) said, “Zomato in most of the cases has not been able to resolve issues like leaked meals, which arises from faulty packaging and executing fast delivery. As a result delivery partners/workers have been penalised quite a few times. While planning to provide 10-min [sic] deliveries to its customers Zomato needs to resolve these issues and concerns of the workers.”
He added, “Further we urge Zomato to look [at] their delivery workers as human beings [as they] are more than data points for the algorithm to manage. Even robots would not be able to perform at this speed. And they are expecting humans to deliver.”
Following massive backlash for their ‘lightening fast delivery’, Zomato’s founder Deepinder Goyal further clarified in a series of tweets that their new feature won’t compromise the safety of the delivery workers.
Hello twitter, good morning 🙂
I just want to tell you more about how 10-minute delivery works, and how it is as safe for our delivery partners as 30-minute delivery.
This time, please take 2 minutes to read through this (before the outrage) 😀
(1/2) https://t.co/PKKn97NhTf pic.twitter.com/NAfw20K1rF
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 22, 2022
He also shared their plan and charted how this feature would work.
Again, 10-minute delivery is as safe for our delivery partners as 30-minute delivery.
God, I love LinkedIn 😛
(2/2) pic.twitter.com/GihCjxA7aQ
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 22, 2022
“Due to demand predictability at a hyperlocal level, we expect that the price for the customer will get significantly reduced, while the absolute rupee margin/income for our restaurant partners as well as our delivery partners, will remain the same,” Goyal tweeted
He added that, “If Zomato Instant works as envisioned, it will create significant impact on affordability (at least 50 per cent reduction in cost to the end customer), accessibility (reduction of delivery time from 30 minutes average to under 10 minutes), and quality (with influence over the supply chain, we will be able to ensure highest grade ingredients and hygiene practices across the supply chain).”
Earlier, companies like Blinkit (Grofers), Zepto, and Dunzo also came up with their ’10-minute delivery’ model and also faced a lot of backlashes.