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Domino’s, Pizza Hut introduce 'Zero Contact' delivery service amid virus fears

18 Comments
By Oona McGee, SoraNews24

As coronavirus cases continue to rise around the country, fears are on the rise as well, with people making subtle changes to their lives to mitigate the risk of being infected. One of those changes includes limiting contact with strangers, which doesn’t bode well for pizza chains like Domino’s and Pizza Hut, who rely on delivery orders for a substantial portion of their revenue.

Eyeing the need to allay customer concerns and keep those delivery orders coming in, these two pizza chains have now introduced a special “contactless” delivery option in Japan that cuts out the need to breathe the same air as the delivery driver when they ring your doorbell.

Pizza Hut has dubbed the contactless option “Oki Pizza” (“Placed Pizza“). According to the company, customers have been requesting a delivery service that lets you avoid having to directly interact with the driver, and the recent spread of coronavirus prompted them to put the service into action.

Starting nationwide from March 12, Pizza Hut delivery drivers have been placing the pizza beside the customer’s front door after confirming through the intercom that the customer is home.

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The contactless service is only available to those who have selected the “Oki Pizza” option (bottom right) and prepaid with a cashless payment option online via the website or app.

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Domino’s is calling their contactless service “Zero Contact Drop-Off“, and they go a step further than Pizza Hut to confirm the order is received. Delivery drivers will place an empty box in a pre-designated spot such as by your front door, in order to avoid placing your pizza directly on the ground. Your pizza will be set upon the empty box in a plastic bag, and the driver will then ring the doorbell or buzz the intercom to inform you fo the delivery.

The driver will then step away to a distance of at least two meters from your front door or the designated delivery spot, and watch as you pick up your order. After visual confirmation of receipt of delivery has been made, the driver will then retrieve the empty box.

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Domino’s has also detailed a list of preventative measures being taken by staff to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which include temperature checks at the start of each shift, washing hands, gargling, disinfecting hands and fingers thoroughly, and disinfecting the customer area and restrooms with alcohol every two hours. Drivers are also being instructed to disinfect their hands before and after each delivery, and wear masks whenever possible.

It’s important to note that customers who want to avoid direct contact with Pizza Hut and Domino’s delivery drivers will need to select the contactless option when making the order online. Customers who don’t check the contactless delivery option will have the delivery driver passing the pizza over to them as usual.

With a lot of pizza delivery drivers being part-time staff with less workplace security than full-time staff, the contactless option isn’t just a service to help protect customers, as it also helps to protect staff as well.

Sources: PR Times 

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Domino’s Pizza Japan offers discount to customers in masks for limited time

-- In the mood for love and pizza? Domino’s will deliver your pie with romantic kabe-don wall pound

-- Japanese revolving sushi restaurant chain stops revolving during coronavirus outbreak

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

18 Comments
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Ugh! This is the new low for Japan. This takes the cake........I mean the pizza......from the ground.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

DAMN! Why are people CHOOSING to be ignorant! Are you swapping spit with the delivery person?

People PLEASE stop the BS!

No, it is just an extra hassle. I'm working upstairs at home recently and constantly have to go down and outside to get the package. I simply want them to place the package like Amazon does. "Unsafe" America has been doing this for decades.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This only works in the customer washes their hands properly after handing the box or until staff get sick and deliveries have to stop, which will happen.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Great. Less and less human contact is what Japanese seem to like anyway.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

but you still need to touch the plastic bag to open it. and the box. so unless you wash your hands after these two things, the virus could still be there.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The virus is NOT spread through contact with "objects" like a delivered pizza

@Yubaru

I beg to differ. Let me explain:

The Coronavirus can survive for many hours (some reports say up to 9 DAYS) on a surface.

The pizza delivery person (who unknowingly has Coronavirus) puts your freshly made pizza into a box and carries it to their bike. They then drive the 4 mins it takes to your mansion. Then, taking the pizza box, they knock on your door. You answer the door and hand them the money. They hand you the change. They give you the box and you take it up stairs and sit it down on the table. You then open the it, take the pizza out, and eat it. Upon finishing it, you place the box into the rubbish bin.

Questions:

how many times did the pizza delivery person touch pizza?

How many times did they touch the box?

About many times did you touch the both of them?

In the above, there was also at least one other potential source of contamination.

Its definitely possible to get it.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I think if you’re this worried about contracting the virus from the delivery person you should probably just not order the pizza. As others have pointed out, you’re just as likely to come into contact with the virus from the package being delivered as the person delivering it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I for one, am becoming more conscious over cleanliness and yes, I could also become a bit cross towards some Cashiers at the way they handle the products I'm purchasing... for example - a can of beer... why would the Cashier take it upon himself to rub (yes! rub) the top of the surface of the beer can, in front of me ???)... Naturally when home I wiped the cans with an alcohol swab, but until recently, this type of behaviour to me, would have gone unnoticed - I was more concerned over the matter since he was coughing away (behind his mask) whilst he did so...

From now, I've decided that the risk of drinking anything from a Can is too great, so will curtail such activity. Better for my Health in more ways than one.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Looking more closely at this method - it's sort of ok, but if the Delivery Person has the virus, then the package too has the virus on its surroundings... so when the recipient picks up the package, as shown in the picture, they're just as likely to contract the virus as were they being handed the package by the Delivery Person - furthermore... when they take the package to their kitchen table and lay it down, guess what... the virus now contaminates the Kitchen table too !!!

Some actions are going to the extreme without being carefully thought through, by both sides.

And anyway, how do you know that the Person putting the Pizza into the box didn't have the virus, and coughed over it ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

When I first read this, I misread it as "Zero Contract", which is the totally insane system used in the UK that has led to many people being placed upon the poverty line through no fault of their own, but by unscrupulous Corporations which wish to take advantage of Slave Labour law lapses within the UK.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The virus is NOT spread through contact with "objects" like a delivered pizza! All you and everyone else is doing is fearmongering!

Incorrect. The virus can live on inanimate surfaces such as poles, bars, and handstraps on trains; clothing; and even furniture. (A woman apparently caught C-19 from that a-hole who went bar hopping after being diagnosed, by simply sitting on the same sofa that he had used at one of the bars.) It's no different than the flu or common cold in that regard.

So, it behooves those who accept deliveries to wash hands after handling the packaging, before touching the food or their faces.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/coronavirus-dominos-uber-eats-menulog-announce-no-contact-delivery/news-story/c24de9e7037560b1343c4cf8a147d908

It is happening here down under, too.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I find it a bit silly... any delivery I have received so far (outside DOMINO) was made to me in person. And you do not need to touch the delivering party nor to kiss him in the mouth or breath onto him (you can use your pen to sign, instead of using that handed by the delivery guy, if that worries you - beside, the hanko is your own...). In any case you can always wash your hands after that. It certainly will not kill you. There are so many passages in the pizza process that taking a pizza directly from a guy who (according to DOMINO policy) washed his hands and drove with a mask at any delivery, won't certainly give you anything to worry. If got no credit, then, and have to pay cash, wattch'you gonna do? Starve? ;-)

3 ( +4 / -1 )

f only Japan Post, kuroneko and company would do "oki-hai" (place the package outside house instead of handing it to me). Amazon's delivery services do it but the others want me to interact with them and hanko every little package.

DAMN! Why are people CHOOSING to be ignorant! Are you swapping spit with the delivery person?

People PLEASE stop the BS!

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

The driver couldn't have it? Or the one who made the pizza?

The virus is NOT spread through contact with "objects" like a delivered pizza! All you and everyone else is doing is fearmongering!

Oh and BTW anyone who "made:" the pizza, even if they tested positive, would have the virus KILLED while the pizza was being cooked in their oven!

Stop the BS PLEASE!

0 ( +7 / -7 )

if only Japan Post, kuroneko and company would do "oki-hai" (place the package outside house instead of handing it to me). Amazon's delivery services do it but the others want me to interact with them and hanko every little package.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@lesenfant In China they thought of that

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-changing-food-consumption-in-china-2020-2?op=1

With each Meituan contactless delivery order, customers receive physical cards stating the temperatures of all people involved in the cooking and delivery process, as well as whether the couriers have disinfected their equipment that day.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The driver couldn't have it? Or the one who made the pizza?

0 ( +5 / -5 )

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