Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Acting Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Majed Al-Hoqail has approved a raft of temporary health rules and regulations for home delivery services of food and essential goods. These regulations will be applicable to restaurants, fast food outlets, super markets and grocery stores as well as to representatives of electronic applications, which are registered with the Communications and Information Technology Commission for the delivery service, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Under the regulations, it is not permissible to carry out any transactions in cash. All payments must be made using electronic methods. No delivery orders will be entertained if the time to drive to the destination takes more than 45 minutes. The regulations stipulate that mayoralties and municipalities across the Kingdom shall monitor compliance of the regulations with regard to licensing, supervision, and control of this in addition to taking punitive measures against violators. The ministry called on all those who come under these regulations to abide by the directives and orders issued by the competent authorities in relation to violations of the ban hours.

According to the regulations, the delivery representative or consumer shall inform the security authorities in the event of a suspicion of the dispatched goods, and not to allow the transport and delivery of prohibited and dangerous materials as well as delivery of the order if the time for transportation from the commercial establishment to the consumer is taking more than 45 minutes.

As far as electronic apps are concerned, the licensing authority will immediately suspend the delivery representative’s online account if he violates any of the provisions and conditions of these regulations. Both the commercial establishment and the consumer have to evaluate the performance of delivery representative so as to improve the quality of service and prevent violations and complaints.

The delivery representatives should be 18 years old or above and they must be Saudis in the case of apps with no criminal record. They should also have a valid driving license, health certificate, ID card. The representatives must wear gloves and masks during the delivery duty and ensure the cleanliness of vehicle, hygiene of drivers and their general appearance.

Checking temperature is a must for all delivery representatives on a daily basis, and preventing representative from the delivery if he had any symptoms of the virus. It must be ensured that they wash their hands regularly using sterilizers before during and after the process of receiving and delivering essential goods.

The ministry has set some requirements for the food outlets. These include sterilization of the tools used in the delivery process after each process, including the bag used for delivery and the ATM device, separate packing and packaging of different foodstuffs, providing drinks in boxes instead of cups, and complete sealing of the delivery package. The delivery representative does not enter the restaurant but instead has to wait in the car until the request is handed to him for delivery.

The requirements of delivery to the consumer also include no handshakes and distance of two meters between the representative and customer. The customer should not accept the request in the absence of the sticker on the package or it appears to have been opened.