'All riders will wear red': Zomato rolls back green uniform for Pure Veg Fleet

Amid a mixed response to its announcement of a Pure Veg Fleet, food delivery aggregator Zomato has said all its delivery partners would continue to wear the red uniform, rolling back a plan to introduce a green uniform for those delivering vegetarian food.

Just a day ago, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal introduced the 'Pure Veg Mode' along with a 'Pure Veg Fleet' to address the concerns of vegetarians around the country and even make a few deliveries himself.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal (right) made a few deliveries in the now-junked green uniforms along with Rakesh Ranjan, the CEO of the food ordering and delivery business. (Source: @deepigoyal/X)

While sharing the green fleet, Goyal had said Zomato planned to add more specialised fleets for special customer needs. "For example, there's a special cake delivery fleet coming up with hydraulic balancers which prevent your cake from getting smudged during delivery," he wrote on X. It is not clear if those plans are still being considered as of now.

Giving an update on the latest service, Goyal wrote on X: "While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet and our fleet for vegetarians, will wear the colour red."

https://twitter.com/deepigoyal/status/1770290326810280128

Goyal said the delivery partners meant for vegetarian orders will not be "identifiable on the ground" but will show on the app.

Explaining the reason behind junking the green uniform for delivery partners, Goyal said it would ensure that red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food and blocked by RWAs or societies during special days. "Our riders’ physical safety is of paramount importance to us," he said.

He shared that some of the Zomato customers could also get into trouble with their landlords and "that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us".

"Thanks, everyone for talking about this last night. You made us understand the unintended consequences of this rollout. All the love and all the brickbats were all so useful - and helped us get to this optimal point. We are always listening, without unnecessary ego, or pride. We look forward to continue serving you," Goyal wrote.

On March 19, Goyal's announcement of a dedicated fleet for vegetarian people set off a storm of sorts on social media. Several people expressed concerns about the implications of such a decision.

"If Zomato uses different coloured boxes to deliver veg food, bigoted landlords can harass tenants if they see non-green colours. Whatever assurance of the veg fleet, if needed, must be kept inside the app only," one user wrote.

Taking a jibe at the company's decision, writer Varun Grover wrote: "Can you please ensure that the delivery partners and their families are also pure veg- otherwise they may just be serving khichdi after eating chicken for lunch with the same hands. Also what about the veg status of the farmers who have grown the rice used in pure veg khichdi?"

Another person wrote, "Which colour for pure vegan delivery ???? We don't want to mix with these impur3 veg people".

This is not the first time the company has tried to think out of the box. Zomato introduced kurtas as a new uniform option, besides the traditional T-shirts, for its women workforce on International Women's Day on March 8.