As zomato announced its 10-minute delivery policy, while some applauded the idea of biryani in 10 minutes others were concerned about the delivery partners.

How will it work?

After unveiling their 10-minute meal delivery service, named Zomato Instant, on Monday evening, popular food delivery app Zomato received a tremendous reaction on social media. Zomato’s new speedy meal delivery service claims to deliver your food order in 10 minutes or less, but there’s a catch. Your meal orders will not all be delivered in 10 minutes. From next month, the Zomato Instant service will launch with four outlets in Gurugram.

Deepinder Goyal, the company’s creator, stated on Tuesday that the 10-minute delivery service will only be accessible on products that are “popular, standardised, and can thus be dispatched within 2 minutes.”

In response to a Twitter question, the Zomato creator emphasised the types of meals that will be delivered in 10 minutes. He stated that culinary items such as “Bread Omelette, Poha, Coffee, Chai, Biryani, Momos, and so on” will be served in 10-minutes via the Instant service. In such situation, whether you order noodles, fried rice, or pizza, the delivery time will be 30 minutes or more, depending on the distance.

The zomato blog reads:

 “ We narrowed down to these eight principles around which we are building Zomato Instant– 

  • (Almost) as affordable as home-cooked food
  • Highest quality of fresh food
  • World class hygiene practices
  • Minimal use of plastic packaging
  • Convenient packaging for quick/easy consumption 
  • Traceable supply chain (v2)
  • Delivery partner safety 
  • Deep collaboration with restaurant partners”

Safety of delivery partners

Soon after launching the Zomato Instant service, the meal delivery app was mocked and questioned for failing to prioritise the safety of its delivery partners. Goyal reiterated in a recent Twitter post that the firm will continue to train delivery agents about road safety. “We continue to educate our delivery partners on road safety, and we also provide accidental/life insurance,” Goyal said in a tweet.

He further stated that delivery partners will not be notified of the guaranteed arrival time. This, he feels, will relieve the delivery agent of any further stress. Goyal also stated that there will be no penalties for late delivery.

Goyal informed stakeholders in a series of tweets that the 10-minute meal delivery will only be available for particular food products and client regions. He stated that Zomato hopes to deliver meals to consumers in 3-6 minutes, with delivery partners cycling at 20 km/h. According to Goyal, a 10-minute delivery is just as safe for its delivery partners as a 30-minute one.

The 10-minute grocery delivery service is already available in India, but this is the first time a firm promises to deliver meals in that time frame. Swiggy Instamart and Blinkit are two of the country’s most popular rapid grocery delivery systems.

“After becoming a frequent customer of Blinkit (one of Zomato’s investments in the quick commerce space), I started feeling that the 30-minute average delivery time by Zomato is too slow, and will soon have to become obsolete,” Goyal explained. Someone else will make it obsolete if we don’t.”

“Innovating and leading from the front is the only way to survive (and therefore thrive) in the tech industry. And here we are with our 10-minute food delivery offering Zomato Instant,” he also added.