By Noreen Jazul and Alex San Juan
Food delivery services Grab Food and Foodpanda announced that they will resume operations starting today, March 17.
Both services earlier said they will halt operations due to the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine across Luzon.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Aside from its food delivery service, Grab Philippines is also resuming its GrabExpress operations after “careful assessment of the on-ground situation and after discussions with regulator.”
Grab Philippines said “a skeletal fleet” will be operating to “match allowed restaurant schedules."
“We are committed to support food establishments that remain in continuous operations, and to support te continuous flow of goods to serve the essential needs of Filipinos,” Grab Philippines said. “Delivery-partners are advised to prioritize safety beyond all costs.”
With the resumption of its selected services, Grab Philippines vowed to continue following “strict safety measures” such as “contactless delivery, temperature checks, increased cleaning frequency of delivery-bags.”
“As we continue to ramp up service availability, we ask for your patience as deliveries could take a bit longer given the situation,” they said.
Grab’s transport services GrabCar and GrabTrike, on the other hand, remain temporarily suspended in line with the directive of the Department of Transportation to temporarily stop the operations of all public transport systems, including transport network vehicle services (TNVS), during the entire period of the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.
Apart from road transport modes, all operations of the country's railways systems such as LRT Lines 1 and 2, MRT-3 and the Philippine National Railway have also been suspended until April 13.
Foodpanda, for its part, said it will continue its services after being allowed to operate by the Department of Trade and Industry.
“In light of this recent mandate, we would like to reassure you that foodpanda continues to operate as usual with free delivery on every order,” it said.
The free food delivery service also urged its customers to switch to online payment, to keep “unnecessary human interactions to a minimum.”
“We value the safety of everyone in our community and have introduced new measures to ensure you feel secure while using our service,” they said.
“Our commitment remains with supporting all our riders, restaurant partners, and valued customers as we go through this tough time together as a nation. Rest assured we will keep you updated with any further developments.”