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Gurugram-based foodtech giant Zomato has announced that it will soon be launching 10-minute delivery service.

In a blog, Deepinder Goyal, Co-founder and CEO of Zomato, stated: “to fulfil our quick delivery promise, we do not put any pressure on delivery partners to deliver food faster. Nor do we penalise delivery partners for late deliveries.”

He also claimed that no other food delivery company has managed to achieve the 10-minute delivery scale yet, and Zomato — with its 10-minute delivery christened as ‘Zomato Instant’ — will become the first to do so. However, there was no confirmation on when the foodtech giant will implement the policy. 

Deepinder laid out the plan for achieving the 10-minute delivery policy in the blog. According to him, there will be finishing stations in localities that would house 20 to 30 bestseller items from various restaurants based on demand predictability and hyperlocal preferences. 

Among the reasons for introducing the 10-minute policy, Deepinder mentioned that the top reason was the unwillingness of customers to wait for long. He also added a personal viewpoint that 30-minute average delivery time was “too slow, and will soon have to become obsolete.” He stated, “In fact, sorting restaurants by fastest delivery time is one of the most used features on the Zomato app.” 

The eight highlighted principles of Zomato Instant include :

1. (Almost) as affordable as home-cooked food
2. Highest quality of fresh food
3. World-class hygiene practices
4. Minimal use of plastic packaging
5. Convenient packaging for quick/easy consumption 
6. Traceable supply chain (v2)
7. Delivery partner safety 
8. Deep collaboration with restaurant partners

Deepinder’s tweet has already evoked strong reactions for and against the policy by the community. Ramnath, an author, added that this would be different from what Uber tried in New York City a few years ago.

Despite the clarification at the beginning of the blog that the company won’t pressurise delivery partners, many were worried about whether the partners would resort to reckless driving to fulfil 10-minute delivery promise.

Only time will tell how the 10-minute delivery pan out.

(With inputs from Pooja Rajkumari)