Flipkart and cab services company Meru have joined hands to venture into the daily essentials and groceries delivery space and would be catering to consumers across India's capital city of Delhi and neighbouring localities, and the IT hubs of Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
In order to ensure hygiene and enhance consumer confidence, Flipkart says it has installed “Ozone Air Purifier” at its dispatch hubs from where Meru drivers will have to sanitise their cabs before every delivery.
In line with the government guidelines, Flipkart will train the fleet of Meru drivers partners to help them understand and adhere to safe and timely delivery of grocery items, according to a press statement. Meru, too, claimed to train its partners to follow preventive measures such as use of alcohol-based sanitisers and wearing face masks for every delivery trip.
“This partnership with Meru is a result of our teams exploring new, innovative ways to drive value for our ecosystem of sellers, brands, partners, and customers to ensure the safe and swift availability of grocery and essential goods. We have a very secure and safe supply chain where we follow SOPs [standard operating procedures] diligently,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, in the statement.
Driving with a purpose
The mutual beneficial partnership comes at a time when either companies are unable to function normally due to the complete nationwide lockdown. Flipkart can only deliver essentials and groceries but with no fixed delivery partner, while the cab company lacks permit to drive regular cabs on roads.
Taking a cue from a similar partnership between BigBasket and Uber to delivery groceries and essentials in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Noida earlier this month, this partnership aims to help both companies to tide over these trying times.
“This service will also offer our driver-partners an additional earning opportunity during this challenging time,” said Neeraj Gupta, Founder and CEO at Meru Mobility Tech, in the joint statement.
