Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Thursday announced ‘The Shelter Project’, which will include ‘Rest Points’ for delivery partners. Announcing that the company has already started building public infrastructure to offer delivery agents a place to ‘rest, recharge, and take a moment for themselves’, Goyal in a blog post added that Gurgaon – its headquarters – already has two functional Rest Points.
Noting the challenges faced by all delivery executives in navigating traffic snarls and unpredictable weather, the blog post mentioned that the initiative aims to foster a better environment to improve their ‘physical and mental health’ and ‘support the gig economy.’ High-speed internet, first aid, phone charging facility, washrooms and drinking water are the amenities that come with the rest points, which are open to delivery agents from other companies too.
Calling delivery partners as the ‘heart and soul’ of their business, the blog post detailed Zomato’s plans to set up more shelter places in the ‘most dense clusters’ of its food delivery service.
In the tweet announcing the venture, Goyal also shared a supposed picture of a Rest Point, which featured delivery agents from Zomato and Swiggy taking a break, eating, and some charging their mobile phones. “We are thankful to see that these Rest Points have been warmly welcomed by not just Zomato delivery partners but delivery partners of multiple last-mile delivery players,” Goyal added.
On Tuesday, Goyal issued a statement titled ‘Attrition Problem At Zomato’ over what he said was ‘a lot of chatter about the culture at Zomato after a series of exits over the last few months.’
“There are more than 200 people at Zomato who have spent more than 7 years at the company,” he wrote. Many of these employees, he said, have been around since 2011-12 and some are in their second and even third stint with the company. “We are proud of the high performance, culture driven organisation that we are creating, and will continue to look for high quality talent which wants to commit to a growth mindset, and extra-terrestrial performance,” concluded Goyal.