Olacabs launches 20 minute food delivery service in four cities in India: Here’s how it works

Cab service company Olacabs has announced the launch of Ola Cafe – a food delivery service that promises to deliver your order within 20 minutes. The service has currently been launched in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore, and will be rolled out to other cities soon.

The ‘Cafe’ feature is embedded into the Ola app, and you can place your order in there itself. There is a customized menu for lunch, snacks and dinner. The service is active from 12.00PM to 11.00PM everyday. Once you update your Ola app, you should see the Cafe option at the bottom right of your screen, if the delivery service is available in your area. Select the Cafe option, choose from the customized menu (12-3PM is lunch menu, 3-7PM is snacks menu and 7-11PM is dinner menu), and place an order.

The app will generate your bill amount, your delivery guy’s name and number, and your order ID. You can then track your order via the app, cancel the order(before it gets delivered), and pay via Ola Money or by cash as well.

As neat as this feature sounds, delivering in 20 minutes is a challenge. To keep up to its promise, Olacabs has announced that only certain areas in the above mentioned cities can avail this service. In Mumbai, residents of Powai, Bandra West, Andheri West, Lower Parel, Nariman Point, Vashi, Borivalli West, Santacruz  and Juhu can only avail this service. Similarly in Delhi, residents of Rajouri Garden, Dwarka, Greater Kailash, Janakpuri, Pitampura, Saket and Defence Colony can take advantage of Ola Cafe.

The constraint here is that Ola will only deliver the food to the current location from which you place the order. If you wish to change the delivery address, you can tell the delivery boy and give him the exact address, but then the 20 minute delivery time may be compromised.

Recently, Olacabs acquired rival TaxiForSure for $200 million to step up competition in the cab service space. In a first in the mobile digital payment world, the company also introduced an in-app Ola Money wallet for auto rickshaw bookings across Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmadabad, Delhi and Bangalore. Additionally it also announced the cashless wallet payment method for its kaali-peeli taxi rides in Mumbai that are booked through the Ola app.

IMPORT:-BGRindia