Careem Suspends Food Delivery Service Due to Economic Instability

Careem, the Dubai-headquartered ride-hailing company, Thursday confirmed that it has suspended its food service in Pakistan. The company told ProPakistani that the decision was made to focus on serving customers’ needs for ride-hailing and delivery. The company added that it will look to restart the service again in the future when the economic condition is more favorable. “Careem first earned customers’ trust with a world-class ride-hailing service. Mobility is essential to simplifying daily life and we know hundreds of thousands of people across Pakistan have come to rely on Careem to move around,” the company said in its statement. It added, “As economic conditions shift, we remain committed to ensuring that our customers have access to safe, adorable and reliable transportation through ride-hailing and the ability to order anything using our delivery service.” “We’ve suspended our food service in Pakistan to focus on serving our customers’ need for ride-hailing and delivery, and will look to restart the service again in future when the economic condition is more favorable.” The economic turmoil in the country has also prompted other tech companies to take drastic measures. SWVL recently announced to halt its intracity shuttle service in major cities across Pakistan just a few days after announcing a plan to downsize 32 percent of its workforce. Airlift also announced that it was reducing headcount by 31 percent across all markets and limiting the number of categories on the platform. Truck It In also followed Airlift and Swvl in a wave of major layoffs with the company laying off 30 percent of its employees.