The move came after several people criticised the idea of a 'pure veg' fleet calling it discriminatory and regressive.
Published Mar 20, 2024 | 10:09 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 20, 2024 | 10:09 AM
Zomato rolls back on part of 'pure veg' fleet idea. (X)
A day after announcing its controversial “pure veg” fleet—with riders wearing green uniforms to mark the difference—to deliver food from only vegetarian eateries, food delivery app, Zomato, rolled back its on-ground colour segregation of the riders.
Despite criticism against the “pure veg” notion attributing puritan values to food, the company has decided to continue the fleet but remove the colour segregation, which would put the ”delivery partners in danger”.
The CEO and founder of Zomato Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday, 20 March, announced on X that, “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 wear the colour red. ”
The move came after several people criticised the idea of a “pure veg” fleet calling it discriminatory and regressive.
Many have also pointed out the imminent danger to the safety of the riders and customers who would opt for non-vegetarian food, as the fleet would make it more clear.
Claiming that the delivery partners’ physical safety is most important to them, Goyal wrote: “This means that the fleet meant for vegetarian orders will not be identifiable on the ground (but will show on the app that your veg orders will be served by the veg only fleet). This will 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… our riders’ physical safety is of paramount importance to us.”
Goyal further thanked the people, who spoke of the fleet and pointed out the issues with the idea. “We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us.”
Update on our pure veg fleet —
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…
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 20, 2024
Goyal on Tuesday, 19 March, announced that the “pure veg” fleet would deliver food from only vegetarian eateries, specifically ones that do not serve non-vegetarian food.
The Zomato CEO on Tuesday said the food delivery platform will “roll it back in a heartbeat” in case there is a negative social repercussions.
In a late-night post, Goyal defended the “Pure veg” fleet and reasoned: “But why did we need to separate the fleets? Because despite everyone’s best efforts, sometimes the food spills into the delivery boxes. In those cases, the smell of the previous order travels to the next order and may lead to the next order smelling of the previous order. For this reason, we had to separate the fleet for veg orders.”
He emphasised that the new service strictly serves a dietary preference irrespective of a person’s religion or caste and delivery partners’ participation in the new fleet will not be decided on their dietary preferences.
“I would like to repeat that this feature strictly serves a dietary preference. And I know there are a lot of customers who would never order food from a restaurant which serves meat, irrespective of their religion/caste,” Goyal said.
(With PTI inputs)
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
