Careem Food to pay customers Dh1 for every minute of late delivery

Four-week long campaign will not penalise delivery riders, company says

Careem Food says it has such confidence in its delivery drivers, known as captains, that it will give customers Dh1 for every minute an order is late. Photo: Careem

Customers waiting past the estimated time of delivery for Careem Food orders will now be reimbursed Dh1 for every minute late, the company behind the Dubai-based super app said.

The initiative was announced on Tuesday and will run until June 8.

Riders, known as Careem Captains, will not be blamed for late orders and their pay will not be docked, Careem said.

“Careem Captains have been instructed to maintain their usual safety measures and will not bear the responsibility of any late deliveries nor will they be penalised,” it said.

“ETA accuracy is optimised by assigning the right captains to each order based on their proximity to the restaurant and delivery address, as well as streamlining partner operations through quicker dispatch orders from restaurants.”

Careem Food was launched in Dubai in 2018 and order volume has grown by more than 200 per cent over the past two years.

It is available in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with plans to expand the service in the coming years.

“We’re confident in our ability to deliver food to our customers super fast without compromising on the quality of our orders, thanks to Careem’s market-leading logistics infrastructure,” said Alex Golden, global head of Careem Food.

“So confident that we’re promising to reimburse our customers Dh1 for every minute that their order is late for the duration of the campaign.”

The money will be deposited into the customer's Careem Pay wallet for use on any of Careem's services or withdrawn into a bank account.

During Ramadan, Careem Food's Eat 2 Fill a Plate campaign teamed up with 495 outlets in the UAE to raise more than Dh139,000 for the 1 Billion Meals endowment.

Careem now operates in more than 70 cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.