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Top executives of food delivery app Zomato attended a Zoom call that lasted more than 20 hours to find a way out of the massive row over its announcement of a ‘purely plant-based’ fleet, CEO Deepinder Goyal said, reported NDTV. Zomato’s recent announcement of a ‘purely plant-based’ food delivery fleet in green uniforms sparked negative reactions on social media.
Dispute over Zomato’s ‘pure plant-based’ food delivery fleet
Under Zomato’s ‘pure veg’ fleet initiative, the food delivery app will collaborate with restaurants that serve only vegetarian food and the delivery partners in this service will not handle non-vegetarian food packets. Zomato also introduced a green uniform for the delivery partners of the ‘pure veg’ fleet.
However, a massive dispute broke out on social media over the move with people pointing out different problems. While some equated it with a form of “modern caste”, others warned that a different uniform for vegetarian food orders could create problems for those ordering non-vegetarian dishes in many ways.
Delivery boys in red uniforms could be completely excluded from vegetarian-dominated societies and residential complexes, or could also create tensions between vegetarian landlords and non-vegetarian tenants.
CEO Deepinder Goyal, while speaking at NDTV’s Indian of the Year Awards on Saturday, said he and his team responded quickly and scrapped the separate uniform plan.
He further said that Zomato will go ahead with the ‘pure veg’ fleet, but the option will only be displayed on the app. People can choose to avail the service in the app, but all delivery partners will continue to wear the red uniform.
What made Zomato CEO create a ‘Pure Veg’ fleet?
“We did a big survey saying ‘what will make you order more on Zomato’. And this came up,” said Deepinder Goyal as he spoke to NDTV.
In his earlier social media posts, the Zomato CEO had emphasized that the ‘pure veg’ service strictly caters to a dietary preference, irrespective of a person’s religion or caste.
“Please note that this Pure Veg Mode or the Pure Veg Fleet does not serve or alienate any religious or political preferences,” he had said.