While not classified as frontliners in the middle of the Covid-19 catastrophe, food delivery service companies like foodpanda are performing a critical role in this time of emergency.
No less than Mayor Sara Z. Duterte was quoted telling Dabawenyos not to worry as Foodpanda is exempted from restrictions on movements like curfew and lockdown.
Foodpanda has recently expanded its reach and started delivering food in Toril District with over 30 restaurants in the platform on March 23 this year to cater more Dabawenyos while the city is under mandatory community quarantine.
Previously, Foodpanda delivered food as far as Puan in the south and Panacan in the northern area.
Reynaldo Rubio, PR manager of Foodpanda, in an email interview said on a regular day, the service is open 24/7 in the regional key cities in Cebu and Davao. Other provinces along with Metro Manila from 6 a.m. up to 3 a.m. the next day.
However, given the situation of the breakout of Covid-19, Rubio said they adjusted their operating hours (depending on the city) following the mandated enhanced quarantine by the central government.
In Davao City, Foodpanda has hundreds of riders serving daily and will be launching the bicycle riders soon as well.
Rubio said they have more than a thousand riders nationwide, with 10 percent of it being the bicycle riders.
“Becoming a foodpanda rider is very easy. To apply to Foodpanda from facebook, website, email or just come to our office. We require our delivery couriers to have all necessary legal requirements to drive a motorbike and no historical charges,” he said.
Rubio cannot disclose some numbers such as sales because Foodpanda is a publicly listed company.
Foodpanda started in June 2014 with the aim of bringing food lovers around the Philippines with their favorite meals from curated local restaurants. Since its creation in the Philippines, the on-demand delivery service has grown to more than 2,500 restaurant brands alone in more than 30 cities across the Philippines.
“Foodpanda is the sole delivery platform that focuses on food alone and this sets us apart from other delivery platforms already. Our backend process of delivery from restaurant to customers also sets us apart – wherein our riders just pick up the orders when they arrive at the restaurant, no waiting in queues,” Rubio said.
Foodpanda started off with a very small team in Singapore in 2012, then launched its operations in the Philippines in June 2014. Delivery Hero is the parent company of Foodpanda and acquired it in 2017 from Rocket Internet. Delivery Hero is a leading global online food ordering and delivery marketplace with number one market positions in terms of restaurants, active users and orders in more countries than any of its competitors across 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. It also operates its own delivery service in more than 200 high-density urban areas around the world. The company is headquartered in Berlin and has over 21,000 employees.
Rubio said Foodpanda is also active across Asia Pacific regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Bangladesh. It belongs to the group of Delivery Hero, which is the worldwide leader of food delivery industry – with the goal to create an amazing takeaway experience.
“Given that food is our passion, we, at Foodpanda, focus on acquiring the best restaurants to provide variety and to have something for each customer to encourage them to order through Foodpanda. We are continuously leveraging on deals and discounts promotions from our restaurants to bring the best to our customers,” he said.
Rubio said Foodpanda is not only committed to providing an assortment of food choices, on-time food delivery but also all about protecting the environment.
“We’re aware that food waste is one of the causes of climate change that’s why we’re all about providing sustainable choices to our consumers,” he said.
Last year, the company launched the “Go Green Campaign” including the opt-in/out cutlery initiative (an option to not have single-use plastic utensils to go with the order) and bike delivery service.
Rubio said the campaign helped the company eliminate more than 50,000 pairs of cutlery that save the restaurant take away cost while saving the environment.
“Walkers as part of the delivery fleet might also happen soon. We also deliver love to our friends in need which is called Global Soup Kitchen. An example is the Tagaytay eruption and Tacloban calamity wherein our riders decided to skip work for a few hours and disrupt their plans to help and give away goodies and deliver food from our restaurant partners and bring love and smile to the families affected,” he said.
