The All Pakistan Restaurant Association (APRA) has temporarily suspended its services with the mobile food delivery service due to the ‘unethical practices’ of food pandas. Boycott Foodpanda Pakistan Campaign extends to all major cities.
The boycott includes about 200 restaurants and has been going on since September 15.
The boycott was in response to a request from the APRA to increase the online commission from the delivery service from 18% to 35%.
In a letter of complaint sent to Food Panda Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muhammad Naeem Siddiqui, the Chairman APRA conveyed the concerns of the members and pointed out that Food Panda has repeatedly called for increasing the commission. The pressure is being exerted while the agreement is not being implemented and important demands are being made.
Boycott Foodpanda Pakistan Campaign
The letter said that if these unfair practices continue, APRA will stop working with Food Panda permanently.
“We have received widespread complaints from our members about your team’s coercive behavior and unfair business practices, which have raised serious concerns about your organization,” the statement said.
According to the APRA, most of its members were being pressured to increase commissions while the industry was already struggling and it was impossible to pay 25 to 35 percent commission for such services.
He said that it is more difficult for newcomers to pay such a commission and it is necessary to ensure that the food panda can receive a commission to some extent.
Blackmailing by Delivery Service
It was further alleged that the managers blackmailed the APRA members in various ways to increase the commission from 18% to 25%, intimidated them. In addition, removing the brands of these restaurants from the portal.
According to the APRA, it is highly unethical to force a member to accept the terms and conditions of a food panda and it needs to be stopped immediately.
At the same time, APRA members complained that Food Panda asks them to work with restaurants that fall into the category of breaches of competitive business practices and could be challenged in the Competition Commission of Pakistan. Is.
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The restaurant industry has been hit hard by the global Coronavirus epidemic and now is the time to get more cooperation from stakeholders, he added.
It seems that these problems have been going on for some time.
“There were previous problems between restaurants and food pandas, but they were resolved amicably”
Farooq Mamsa, chief operating officer of Cafe Espresso
This time Food Panda has taken a tough stand and given an ultimatum. he added
Unethical practices of food pandas
According to Farooq Mamsa, Food Panda has asked restaurants to shut down their delivery services and use only Food Panda.
“When we started working with Food Panda, they would send us orders. Then, they would be delivered by our staff. Later, Food Panda built its network and we adopted the hybrid model,”
Danish Feroz Kalia director of KBS
Talking to the members of the association, APRA spokesperson Waqaz Azeem said, “We are not here to exploit anyone’s rights. Also, we are not here to do anything illegal. We are here to expose these methods of exploitation.” There are obstacles to overcome.
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“I remember when the food pandas came to us in the beginning. I will always associate them with the East India Company. Because, they also started working as freeloaders and then took over the entire Mughal Empire,” he said. Had done
The spokesman said that the food panda is also operating in the same way. In the early days, we had a good partnership and we had a good relationship.
“The food panda told us to get rid of the riders. We did it. They told us to get rid of the call agents. We did it and today we cut off our hands and feet,” he added.
“Now they are asking us to cut our necks. Also at the same time the bridge they built to get our customers if they are closing the doors on our face now,”. Should we just sit back and accept it? the APRA spokesman added
“We have no way to get our customers,” he said.
The spokesman said the restaurant association needed to end this exploitation to save its business.
The APRA president warned that if the issue was not resolved in Karachi, he would shut down the service permanently across the country.
The article originally published in Dawn News Urdu.
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