Commenting on the current status of model of food delivery, Kamal Kant Pant, Principal & Secretary, Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Nutrition, Pusa, New Delhi suggests that the industry must resort to self regulation immediately.

The prospect of ordering food from a hotel’s in room dining menu to be delivered to your room in minutes appeared like the ultimate luxury to many of us kids growing up some 30-40 years back. We never used to let go of the opportunity, whenever it arose to reassure us that the magic always worked.  Although the prospects of eating in private and in one’s bedroom is not high in the agenda of most westerners, but it is extensively exploited by us, the Indians, at every opportunity- at home or even abroad. To make this experience more frequent, like a blessing in our lives, there was the advent of the pizza delivery business, by some international brands over two decades back. With 30 minutes delivery guarantee, it became a resounding success, affording us the convenience of hotel type service day in and day out. This was enormously affordable as you did not have to pay for the hotel room to order the food from the in-room dining; it was available from the comfort of your home or hostel, wherever you lived.  

The opportunity to aggregate the food delivery operations like the restaurants, eateries, home chefs etc., in the lines of the taxi, hotel and retail services operators was seized by some start- up entrepreneurs and you had multiple brands bridging the gap between your favourite food and the comfort of your house.    But looking back, one feels that food delivery business was like a tiger which roamed the hotels’ corridors, unleashed into the streets of the cities and towns.   The going was good to begin with. It was like the honeymoon period  for one and all. The consumers had choices galore - you got your butter chicken, dal makhani, chicken and paneer tikka, biryani and pulao, etc., only a phone call or mouse click away. The food delivery app aggregators offered handsome discounts and promotional offers to consumers, the operators got the volumes they only dreamt of until now, logistics partners saw a new business vertical falling in their lap by default,   but, the party did not last too long,  very soon every stake holder came to terms with the reality. The food delivery app had their brands recognised, the delivery companies had their delivery model perfected, the consumers did not have it better ever before,  but the spin offs were not impressive for any business channel partner. The bottom line of business started capturing everyone’s attention and the tug of war to grab their pound of flesh started amongst them. The app aggregators had to cater to their investors and so did the logistics partners. The model was such that the consumers wanted special prizes or would not order, the aggregators pressurized the kitchens to dole out more for sustaining their sales promotions drives, the riders started working for multiple apps to make   quick bucks, in turn delaying deliveries and compromising food quality.  The result was gradual depletion in the quantity of food and service which the consumers started receiving weaning them away from this mode of business and going back to old models like I have been forced to do after repeated bad experiences. The situation has come to the point where the apps wish to promote one outlet over the other for better margins and the operators openly recommend to their loyal customers that they ordered with them directly rather than through the apps for ensuring that the desired quantity is made available to them. There have been numerous incidents reported of the delivery persons unauthorized eating the ordered food partially en route or being rude and even assaulting the people who are using their services. 

This is the time of reality check.  Going back to where we started from, the quality of food and delivery has to be ensured by the system like it is done in a micro system of a hotel, if this macro business model of food delivery applications has to survive. The industry has to self regulate itself, and do it without losing any time.  Ready to eat food for human consumption cannot be treated like any other merchandize owing to the hygiene issues which are central to it.   The model of food delivery is far from being perfect yet, there is a lot more investment which needs to go into the business, especially in the training of the personnel involved, particularly the front line delivery persons. Perhaps a licence like the one in vogue for the tour guides, taxi /auto drivers etc, is thought about and a mechanism developed for its administration so that this becomes a sustainable model. If not, then there could be the risk of the consumers loosing the convenience of having affordable food delivered to their doorsteps and businesses losing the benefits of a multimillion dollar industry  and in the bargain getting the discredit  for killing the proverbial goose which lays the golden eggs.