South Africa’s food delivery service, Mr D Food announced today that the service will open to restaurant food deliveries from Friday 1 May.
On 29 April 2020, the relaxation of regulations relating to restaurants during the national lockdown was announced.
Mr D Food said in a statement on Thursday that it was ready to deliver from restaurants across the country.
This means customers can stay home, stay safe and still support much-loved local hot spots.
Ensuring driver and customer safety is Mr D Food’s foremost priority.
Contactless delivery has now been implemented, with drivers instructed not to make physical contact with customers and to maintain a safe distance. Bags will be placed on a surface indicated by the customer, the driver will then back away and allow the customer to safely pick out the order themselves.
Cash payments have been deactivated and customers can use one of the other secure electronic payment methods available in-app: credit or debit card, instant EFT or eBucks.
Enhanced hygiene practices have also been implemented. Drivers’ bags are frequently cleaned, and all drivers have access to hand sanitiser with clear instructions to sanitise their hands before and after each delivery or collection.
All drivers are now temperature tested daily at each of the driver hubs. Protective masks have been rolled out for all drivers. Mr D Food has also communicated with restaurant partners that they follow the relevant World Health Organisation guidelines for their businesses.
“We will also be implementing initiatives to support the restaurant industry as they reopen. As a first step, we are introducing a commission relief scheme which reduces the commission rates for the vast majority of our restaurants’ partners,” Mr D Food CEO, Devin Sinclair, says.
“We have also allocated marketing funds to drive promotional initiatives to generate orders and revenue for neighbourhood restaurants.
“Lastly, we will be launching a new feature in the Mr D Food app that will allow customers to support their favourite restaurants, by making a COVID-19 contribution directly to the restaurant when placing a delivery order.
“We believe that by working together with the industry we can help give restaurants a chance to begin to recover from the financial effects of the lockdown.”
