Uber Eats in Sri Lanka recognizes its valuable delivery partners with cash prizes

Uber Eats recently celebrated and recognized its delivery partners on its platform who served the communities with  doorstep deliveries of food and groceries in Sri Lanka in the pandemic period.

Over the last year, the delivery partners of Uber Eats played a critical role by ensuring timely delivery of essentials and food items right to the doorsteps of their consumers. The deliveries helped people avoid crowding public places while ensuring safety.

At the same time, the Uber Eats platform in Sri Lanka has also seen ‘tremendous growth’ with many Sri Lankans choosing food and grocery delivery over physical in-shop visits, thereby prioritizing the safety of them and their loved ones.

Bhavna Dadlani Jayawardena, General Manager, Uber Sri Lanka, recently sat down with Ada Derana Business on the sidelines of the second edition of the Uber Eats ‘Delivery Bonanza’ to discuss the highlights of Uber Eats in Sri Lanka over the past few years.

Following are the excerpts of the discussion:

How long has Uber Eats been operating  in Sri Lanka and what’s the progress been like over the years?

We commenced operations of Uber Eats in Sri Lanka in September 2018, and we’re in our fourth year now. Since our inception in Sri Lanka, we have seen incredible growth. We have seen a number of people who have taken to the platform and really enjoy the service.

When we launched food delivery, it was a core part of our operations. Once the pandemic hit, we saw a lot of growth in the grocery vertical – pushing out food deliveries in a three-sided marketplace by connecting restaurant partners, courier partners and eaters together.

As a concept, it was quite new in the Sri Lankan market. It was quite exciting teaching people that they can download an app and press a button, for food to arrive in 30 minutes or so at their doorsteps. We had already seen incredible growth when we celebrated our first year anniversary. Thereafter, we expanded into other cities. We are now covering five cities which include Colombo, Kandy, Negombo, Kurunegala and Gampaha. Much of these expansions took place over the last three years.

 How did the Pandemic shape up  the trajectory of UberEats in Sri Lanka?

 I would say that the pandemic brought an accelerated digitisation to Sri Lankans where everyone became open to get things done remotely without putting themselves at risk. At this point, people began thinking more about Uber Eats as a service and a lot more with people requesting us to expand to their areas.

We’ve seen incredible growth even during the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, people in Sri Lanka were still at early stages of using delivery services and were getting educated about the idea of food delivery. When COVID-19 hit, everyone wanted access to Uber Eats right away, to stay safe. This propelled our growth in certain areas where people were earlier not too familiar with any food delivery apps. The response from outside of Colombo has been really amazing and that’s what actually enabled us to expand into Gampaha and Kurunegala last year.

How did Uber Eats overcome logistical challenges in the Sri Lankan market in particular regard to expansions ?

It’s a work in progress. It’s something that we are always looking to understand. Our approach has been consistent once we get started: we do a lot of trial and error to make things better for our stakeholders.

It also involves going out to new cities and spending time and resources there, as we have done in our expansions into Kandy and Kurunegala. We also have key members who are based in these cities who understand the market well.

We had a lot of scale in Colombo by the time we went into other cities, so that provided us with the ‘know-how’ to expand into these cities. Although we might not be familiar with some areas, we used what we had learnt from Colombo as a benchmark. In general, I would say quality and experience are the guiding north star for us, and we work to overcome any challenges that come our way.

Can you elaborate how Uber Eats manages to localize its operations in order to cater to the needs of the Sri Lankan consumer?

We have been given the flexibility to localize in a big way. I would say a lot of things that we have done so far, from an operational perspective, are unique to Sri Lanka. Although we possessed the know-how from other markets, when we came to Sri Lanka, it was a completely different ball-game. There have been so many differences in terms of how we train our delivery partners and restaurant partners, as well as in terms of maintaining the quality levels and educating our customer base. Therefore, it required us to get into the nitty-gritties of market nuances and design operations accordingly.

What’s the reward and incentive system Uber Eats has in place in particular to motivate your delivery partners ?

We actually have great tech in place that enables us to obtain data points on each step of the way, from drivers’ journeys to restaurant journeys, which enables us to analyze data and make sense out of it. Overall, the way we incentivize our drivers is through identifying what makes us a great service based on feedback by customers, restaurant partners, etc. We also have parameters in place such as the number of cancellations a courier might make, etc. Then, we put together everything that’s important, from an experience and quality-point of view, and reward courier partners for their top performances.

What are some other ways and means Uber Eats supports its delivery partners?

We have done quite a lot to support our couriers since the pandemic struck. From the early days,  we had a proper plan on how to protect our partner base. It started off with the safety process where we helped enhance safety of all delivery partners by equipping them with PPE kits. Later, we realized that COVID-19 brought upon unexpected challenges where some riders couldn’t get on the road, which was hindering their income flows. So, we made sure that they were compensated during this period. Overall, we have done quite a bit on safety of driver experience as well as improving their sentiment and wellbeing.

During this pandemic period, a lot of our focus has been on how we can support the country by using the power of our platform. As a result, we have taken a number of initiatives over the past two years, with the more recent initiatives being donating dry-ration packs to our courier and driver partners during the recent lockdown period, when their families were struggling to secure basic essentials.

What is Delivery Bonanza allabout? What is the objective behind the event?

Delivery Bonanza’s award night, is when we celebrate the highly engaged delivery partners on our platform who served the communities by doing doorstep deliveries of food and groceries across the country. Our delivery partners have done a tremendous service by delivering essential goods to the public over the past one-year. In recognition of their service, we gave away gifts worth of Rs. 2.5 million to driver partners across all five cities that we operate in. The ‘Delivery Bonanza’, now in its second year, is our token of appreciation for their consistent efforts. We want to celebrate their achievements which help make Uber Eats the platform of choice.

We truly believe that our delivery partners are the driving force behind Uber Eats and we are truly overwhelmed by the commitment and passion that they have displayed. During the pandemic, they went the extra mile to keep cities moving and help keep Sri Lankans safe. We hope this will inspire and empower our delivery partners to get maximum value from the Uber Eats app while achieving their life goals by continuing to engage with Uber Eats.

The post Uber Eats in Sri Lanka recognizes its valuable delivery partners with cash prizes appeared first on Adaderana Biz English | Sri Lanka Business News.