As a part of its new feature, the food delivery and restaurant aggregator 'Zomato' now allows its application users to mark food orders as a "COVID-19 emergency".
The emergency feature allows Zomato to prioritize these orders and assign them the quickest possible delivery by assigning who they call the ‘fastest rider’ based on location and route. These orders will get dedicated customer support. Both order and delivery will be contactless. Hence, the payment will have to be prepaid.
In order to use the new feature, users will have to update the Zomato app. However, only selected restaurants have signed up for these emergency food orders. Users will have the “This order is related to a COVID-19 emergency” option available on the order page, which they simply have to check.
Zomato confirmed to News18 that the emergency deliveries will not have any extra charges. Customers will pay for the meal and any delivery charges that may be applicable.
Founder of Zomato Deepinder Goyal took to Twitter to share information about this feature. He wrote, "Today, along with thousands of our restaurant partners, we just rolled out a “priority delivery for covid emergencies'' feature on the Zomato app. This feature will allow our customers to mark *This order is related to a COVID-19 emergency* option during checkout."
He further added a series of tweets explaining the feature.
Zomato has urged its users to treat this feature with utmost seriousness and use it only if needed. The feature description on the app reads, “Treat this as an ambulance and please don’t misuse it.”
