foodpanda, which describes itself as Pakistan’s leading food delivery and quick-commerce platform, has launched a telematics-driven Rider Safety feature inside its rider mobile app, built with behavioural intelligence provider Sentiance. The feature gives delivery riders visibility into their own driving behaviour through personalised safety insights and coaching. Inside a dedicated Safety Center in the app, riders see a “Safe Trip Rate” and tailored recommendations meant to encourage defensive riding and lower road risk, and foodpanda says it will identify delivery partners with lower safety scores so it can offer them guidance and help them improve their habits over time.
The technology relies on Sentiance’s software development kit (SDK), which is built into the foodpanda rider app. It uses on-device edge computing to process raw smartphone motion data, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), accelerometer, and gyroscope readings, locally on the rider’s phone, and evaluates driving patterns during active shifts. foodpanda says processing on the device protects data privacy, keeps battery use low, and needs no manual input from riders while they are on the road. It also says the score is purely educational and has no automated effect on rider performance metrics, order batching, or earnings. Ahsan Malik, Director Logistics at foodpanda Pakistan, said the aim is to turn everyday smartphones into proactive safety tools and build a stronger safety culture on Pakistan’s roads without adding administrative or financial pressure on the fleet.
The same approach has been used elsewhere in the Delivery Hero group, foodpanda’s parent. Talabat, the group’s platform in the Middle East and North Africa, introduced Sentiance-based telematics for two-wheeler riders, and Sentiance says the system covered a network of 120,000 riders, with a 56 percent reduction in accident rates and 95 percent of riders engaging with in-app safety messages. Those figures come from the vendor and have not been independently verified. Delivery Hero describes its telematics as a voluntary feature that uses behaviour analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to spot unsafe driving patterns, and foodpanda’s Asia-Pacific operations already use telematics data in Singapore and Malaysia as part of a broader rider safety system.
The announcement leaves out the details that will determine whether it works in Pakistan. It does not say how many riders have access to the feature, when it went live, which cities are covered, or how many riders have chosen to use it. It also does not say whether riders can switch the tracking off, how long the data is kept, or what the company does with scores beyond sending coaching to riders with lower results. Delivery riders in Pakistan work in dense traffic, often on motorcycles, so a feedback tool could help if riders trust it and act on it. Without published data on accident rates before and after the rollout, the claim that it will improve safety remains the company’s own, and the real test will be whether foodpanda shares results and keeps its promise that the score never affects earnings.
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