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At Zomato’s first annual general meeting (AGM) since going public on Tuesday (August 30), the foodtech giant’s CEO Deepinder Goyal said that the startup will display phone numbers on the bags of delivery executives to allow users to report them if found speeding.

Addressing concerns of shareholders, Deepinder said that Zomato does not incentivise riding dangerously, and if anybody is speeding, it is of their own accord. 

“Delivery partner safety has always been a priority and no compromises have been or will be made here. We do not incentivise riders to be on time. We don’t even share the estimated time with the delivery partner,” Goyal added.

At the AGM, 41 shareholders were registered as speakers, of which 10 quizzed Zomato executives on a range of issues. 

The startup assured the stakeholders that it is on the path to profitability and is targeting adjusted EBITDA break-even between the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) and the Q2 of FY24. 

“The good news is that the business has never been more solid than what it is today, fundamentally. While we continue to grow, our losses are reducing dramatically and we expect that trajectory to continue,” CFO Akshant Goyal said. 

Zomato Chairman Kaushik Dutta said that Zomato’s business-to-business (B2B) supplies vertical Hyperpure has the potential of becoming bigger than the food delivery business. 

Zomato’s Tussle With Delivery Executives

While Zomato keeps touting its ‘welfare’ programmes for drivers, its delivery executives have hit the streets in the past one year for a slew of reasons. In April this year, the drivers associated with the foodtech giant protested in Bengaluru against a new system that set specific time slots for drivers to log in.

Citing displeasure with the new system, many drivers claimed that the company had reserved peak hour time-slots for their preferred drivers.

Earlier this month, Zomato’s delivery agents in Thiruvananthapuram also sat on an indefinite strike against arbitrary changes in their incentive payments. The drivers later withdrew the strike after the company heeded to their demands.

In March this year, Zomato workers also protested against the foodtech giant in Chennai for increasing the working hours, low wages, and other forms of alleged exploitation. Later, reports also trickled in of Zomato delivery partners holding a protest in Guwahati demanding hike in incentives.

Despite Zomato’s claims that it does not incentivise speeding by drivers, many drivers drive rashly to fulfil a higher number of orders to earn extra incentives. 

Earlier this year, the Chennai Police registered 978 cases of traffic violations by delivery executives of various startups, including Zomato, in a single day.