Zomato clarifies 10-minute delivery plan, says will continue to provide life insurance to riders

The clarification came after the Indian food-delivery giant faced heat for its plans to roll out a 10-minute food service that critics said raises road-safety risks for delivery riders.

New Delhi: Online food delivery platform Zomato was on Tuesday (March 22, 2022) 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 CEO 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 his official Twitter account and said that "we continue to educate our delivery partners on road safety and provide accidental/life insurance as well."

He also stated 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, Goyal said in a series of tweets.

His clarification came after the Indian food-delivery giant faced heat for its plans to roll out a 10-minute food service that critics said raises road-safety risks for delivery riders.

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".

The Zomato CEO's Monday announcement started by saying: "We will start with a clarification ... we do not put any pressure on delivery partners."

"Nobody in the world has so far delivered hot and fresh food in under 10 minutes at scale," Goyal had written on Twitter. 

"We were eager to be the first," he had added.

(With agency inputs)