COVID-19: Zomato delivery app shows body temperature of drivers in India

In an effort to further increase the safety of those ordering take out, Zomato introduced a temperature tracking feature on its delivery app in India. The feature was released the week of April 13 and covered 50% of the application’s delivery partners with plans to quickly expand the reach of this tracking system.

The app allows restaurant partners to check the body temperature of delivery drivers in real time and only permits them to provide an order for delivery if the driver’s temperature is within the normal range. Normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit and 36.6 degrees Celcius. Customers are likewise able to see the body temperature of the driver assigned to their order through the app.

“Checking delivery partner’s temperature adds another layer of precautions, and we are glad that our restaurant partners have been embracing this feature widely. We hope to expand it to a larger base of restaurants by next week," said Mohit Sardana, the company’s COO in a statement.

Already Zomato restaurant partners are using an infrared thermometer to measure the body temperature of both on-site staff and that of delivery drivers. These thermometers are used in conjunction with the sanitation stations that partners of the delivery app have set up in recent weeks. The company says that these sanitation stations are compliant with the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization, and Zomato provides its customers with a list of those restaurants following these requirements.

Zomato began offering both these COVID-19 adaptations along with its new no-contact delivery policy that it rolled out in India in March. No-contact delivery provides consumers that have prepaid their orders to have deliveries left at either an entrance gate or the front door in order to maximize social distancing and prevent contact with strangers.

This Indian food delivery app is not the first to provide body temperature tracking for delivery drivers. Swiggy, another delivery app in India, is similarly taking the temperature of its delivery staff and showing it in real time on its app. In China, delivery services and restaurants have been sharing temperature details with their customers for the last several weeks.