Zomato riders will not don green uniforms, Chief Executive Officer Deepinder Goyal said on Wednesday after the food aggregator faced backlash over its 'pure veg mode' service.
While the separate fleet for vegetarians will continue, its riders will wear the same red uniform as other delivery partners, Goyal posted on X in the morning.
Doing away with the on-ground segregation is to ensure that "our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days", the CEO said. "Our rider's physical safety is of paramount importance to us."
Although there is no separate uniform, vegetarian orders will appear separately on the app and will be served by the veg-only fleet, according to Goyal.
Some customers "could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be nice if that happened because of us", he said.
Update on our pure veg fleet —
March 20, 2024
While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will…In a post on Tuesday night, Goyal the food delivery platform would roll back the vegetarian-only service in a heartbeat in case there are negative social repercussions.
He also sought to allay concerns that Zomato's regular fleet may be barred by some societies and resident welfare associations. "There's an opinion that some societies and RWAs will now not let our regular fleet in. We will stay alert for any such cases and work with these RWAs to not let this happen."
"Please note that this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet doesn't serve or alienate any religious, or political preference," Goyal clarified.
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