Thailand
Thailand: Online delivery gets a boost as fear keeps diners homebound
Online food delivery platforms are seeing a boom in orders as customers stay home to avoid contact with the deadly coronavirus, with GrabFood enjoying a 200% increase in deliveries compared with a normal period.
Tarin Thaniyavarn, country head of Grab Thailand, said the number of rides from Grab’s transport services (GrabBike and GrabTaxi) has remained relatively stable, with rides from foreigners down slightly because of the overall decrease in tourists in the country.
But GrabFood has seen a huge increase in sales from existing users, as well as from new users of other services like GrabFresh, a grocery delivery service.
“As the leading super app in Southeast Asia and Thailand, the safety and well-being of everyone in the Grab ecosystem, whether it be drivers, merchant partners, customers or our employees, is our priority,” Mr Tarin said.
“Since the beginning of the outbreak, Grab has been collaborating with the Department of Disease Control and Public Health Ministry to monitor and put out measures to prevent the spread of the virus.”
To protect its drivers, Grab will give away 100,000 face masks and disinfectant sprays this month.
It is also offering 50% discount vouchers for the UPautocare car wash and cleaning service.
The company will subsidise medical check-up expenses for drivers at 500 baht and offer financial support of 2,000 baht to any driver who contracts the virus.
Grab is also partnering with Muang Thai Life Assurance to offer health insurance coverage for drivers concerning the infection, offering 500 baht daily compensation for up to 15 days per stay as an inpatient from Feb 28 to May 31, 2020.
“Grab has activated an emergency response team to closely monitor the situation 24/7, as well as to establish and adapt ready standard operating procedures in accordance with local authorities’ guidelines to ensure immediate action to prevent and contain any potential outbreak among driver-partners, passengers and employees,” Mr Tarin said.
At Foodpanda, sales had been up significantly since the start of the year because of poor air quality from PM2.5 dust, then saw a series of spikes as the coronavirus outbreak began to hit Thailand and fear drove many of its customers to eat more meals inside.
“The situation has become even hotter over the last week, with customers starting to submit demands via our order notes or Facebook chat that riders should wear masks and gloves,” said Kit Kittirattana, head of logistics at the food delivery app.
“We announced a policy that all riders must wear masks and keep the food ‘untouched’ until they deliver to the customer, as our usual protocol.”
Mr Kit said Foodpanda is experiencing the same mask shortages and price gouging as the rest of the country, with some distributors marking up masks to 7-10 times the normal price.
“We tried to contact many manufacturers, all names on the list that the government provides, but all replied that they were out of stock,” he said.
“We used 20,000 surgical masks two weeks ago, and the next lot will arrive by almost the end of March.”
Get Thailand, the ride-hailing and food delivery app backed by Indonesian unicorn Gojek, said business has continued as usual, but the company is implementing additional health and safety measures, including handing out masks to its drivers.
“There has been no disruption to services on the Get platform, so consumers can be assured they can continue to rely on us for their daily needs,” said Pinya Nittayakasetwat, chief executive of Get.
“In times like this, our food delivery business serves to remove even more pain points for consumers, allowing them to conveniently order in instead of having to venture out for food.”
Having entered the market in February 2019, Get now boasts 2.2 million app downloads and employs about 40,000 drivers.
“We have also implemented a health and safety protocol across the board to educate our staff and driver-partners, as well as to share precautionary measures that they can take to protect themselves and those around them,” Mr Pinya said. “Drivers can pick up masks at Get’s driver-partner centre at any time. We urge everyone to join us in being socially responsible.”
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1871199/online-delivery-gets-a-boost-as-fear-keeps-diners-homebound