COVID-19: Zomato offers 'contactless delivery' as preventive measure

With the entire world gone into a tizzy over the outbreak of COVID-19, businesses are scrambling to retain their customers in a bid to keep their cash boxes ticking.

In a novel attempt, Zomato, a restaurant aggregator and food delivery app has come up with a distinct feature of “contactless delivery” to ensure hygienic and safe service.

Deepinder Goyal, the founder of the food delivery start-up, on Friday (March 13) took to Twitter to inform about the rollout of this new feature.

He tweeted, “Contactless food delivery is already available on the Zomato app through our ‘delivery instructions’ feature.” He further said that an app update will be provided by this weekend which will make things even more clear to everyone.

Here is what we are doing as precautionary measures to address COVID-19.

Contactless food delivery is already available on the @zomato app through our ‘delivery instructions’ feature. An app update over the weekend will make this explicitly clear to everyone. pic.twitter.com/HJ012g5zfH

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 13, 2020

Goyal has posted a photo with a tweet that explains the whole process in which the user has to choose the option of a ‘contactless delivery’ while ordering food. It can be availed only for online payments option, his tweet read.

Thereafter, a delivery person will leave the parcel outside the door on a clean surface after which the users will receive a photo of the delivered food packet. Customers can choose to take it inside at their own convenience and the app will confirm the delivery via an in-app notification.

Related news: 81 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India: Health Ministry

Goyal also said, “We are especially emphasizing best practices of how to handle food packages to ensure safe and hygienic delivery.”

The advisories released by the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs are being sent to delivery partners to keep them updated about the situation, he added.

Talking about other preventive measures taken by the company he said that delivery partners are asked to self-quarantine themselves if they see any symptom. Also, the company has promised to provide financial assistance to delivery partners in case they get diagnosed with COVID-19.

The users have also been sent out emails educating them on how to use this feature to avoid contact with a delivery person.

India has reported 81 cases of the COVID-19 to date and the central and state governments are also taking precautionary measures to curb the outbreak.