Zomato Ltd. has launched a fleet to serve orders from pure vegetarian restaurants.
Chief Executive Officer Deepak Goyal unveiled the dedicated fleet in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
"India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most important feedbacks we've gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled," wrote Goyal in the post.
India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most important feedback we've gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled.
March 19, 2024According to him, the 'Pure Veg Mode' will consist of a curation of restaurants that serve only vegetarian food and will exclude restaurants that serve non-vegetarian food items.
"Our dedicated Pure Veg Fleet will only serve orders from these pure veg restaurants. This means that a non-veg meal, or even a veg meal served by a non-veg restaurant will never go inside the green delivery box meant for our Pure Veg Fleet," the CEO wrote.
The new fleet doesn't serve or alienate any religious or political preference, according to Goyal.
"This feature will see a phased rollout across the country in the next few weeks. We remain committed to listening to our customers and serving our community in the best possible way," he said. "In the future, we plan to add more specialised fleets for special customer needs."
Zomato will also launch a special cake delivery fleet with hydraulic balancers, which prevent the cake from getting smudged during delivery, he said.
The move by Zomato has seen pushback from the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, an association of gig workers based out of Hyderabad.
In a statement, Founder-President Shaik Salauddin questioned whether Zomato will now also filter out delivery workers who are vegetarian-only to service the new fleet.
"If Zomato has today launched a 'Pure Veg Fleet' in response to customer feedback and requirements, then will Zomato in the future also take customer feedback about who can deliver their food and who cannot? Will it filter our delivery brothers and sisters by caste, community, and religion?" he said.
"We would like to ask Deepinder ji: Will Zomato assure its delivery workers that it will also address the safety and dignity of our delivery brothers and sisters in the future?" he said.
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