UAE: Food delivery company's CEO becomes rider for a day; learns problems riders face daily

The CEO of delivery company Talabat spent a morning doing deliveries last week. To his surprise, he found that his phone overheated two minutes after he put it on the phone holder of the bike, and then had no clue where to go!

However, Tomaso Rodriguez, who recently got his UAE motorbike license, got a lot of help from fellow riders - who had no clue that he was the boss.

The CEO decided to experience the work the riders do, and he found it challenging but satisfying.

“I can say that it wasn't easy, but it was definitely rewarding to witness what those heroes do to make people's lives easier,” he said in an interview with Khaleej Times. “Most importantly it allowed me to better understand the pain points and work with my teams on how to address these and further improve rider experience. Because there are things that you will never learn from numbers, KPIs and dashboards - you need to experience them yourself.”

According to Tomaso, the most challenging part of the exercise was the heat. “Riding is not much of a problem because the wind is kind of refreshing, but it is challenging when waiting for orders outside,” he said. “Parking was also difficult. In some areas, buildings don’t allow riders to park in the basements, and they are not allowed to park on the streets. Overall, it was challenging to get acquainted with buildings, vendor locations, waiting areas, and parking spots.”

He received help from other riders and Talabat patrollers, who are former experienced riders employed to support current riders. “The main highlight [was] to experience this strong sense of community amongst riders - whether on the road or when collecting an order,” he said. “Since I was “new” to the job, many jumped to support and direct me, most of them not having any clue who I was. I would have been totally lost without these riders!”

Solving issues

Taking into consideration the challenges he faced, Tomaso and his team are now working to find solutions to it. “Regarding phone overheating, we are looking into UV protecting windshields for the bikes to stop this from happening and in turn ensure a safer journey for the rider as well as a good customer experience,” he said. “As for the parking matter, we are working with authorities to find a solution adhering to the policies and finding the right spot for riders to park around cities.”

The company is also increasing classroom and practical road safety training to enhance driver confidence and caution on the roads. Tomaso said he is also encouraging other employees and management in the company to spend a day doing deliveries. “It was a truly humbling experience full of take-aways,” he said, adding that he intends to repeat this exercise every quarter.

According to Tomaso, he also received generous tips from customers during his half-day of work. However, he did notice a pain point there. “I did not realise that riders get the tipping notification only after having delivered the order,” he said. “We are now working to change that so they can immediately get notified which will allow them to express their gratitude directly to the thoughtful customers.”

Ear to the ground

The drive was an opportunity for Tomaso to meet other drivers and learn more about their issues. “Riders did not recognize me at first, we did however tell them who I was when we made a pit stop to cool off at the talabat air-conditioned bus,” he said. “It was very important to me to hear more about their experience, what they would like us to change, and tips on how to make their overall journey easier.”

For Tomaso, one of the key learnings was that the riders appreciate the summer initiatives the company puts in place to ensure their safety and comfort. “During Summer, we roll out this initiative across all markets where we offer cooling gears, launch partnerships with vendors to offer riders refreshments, encourage customers to offer them a cold drink, verify they have rest areas at pick up locations and much more,” he said.

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